[CS Graduate Matrix]

Department Expectations of Prospective M.S. Students

The process of applying for our master's program is a complicated procedure described in here; we are collecting below some of the criteria we are looking for when evaluating your application. They are no guarantee of acceptance or rejection, but should serve as a guideline; each case will be judged individually. Exceptional students might be admitted conditionally even if more of the prerequisites below are violated, but that requires approval of the graduate admissions committee. Also students not satisfying our admission prerequisites can enroll as non-degree student to get the the courses necessary for admission.

We are expecting of our master's students that they have completed a bachelor's or comparable degree similar to our own program. If a few courses are missing, they may be made up, in which case you get only a conditional matriculation. But we do expect a solid mathematics background (similar to calculus 1-3, linear algebra and discrete mathematics), and a solid background in programming, where you should be able to program in several programming languages and programming environments, and pick up further languages and systems as needed. Usually we also expect several science courses in your undergraduate studies.

No more than five courses should be assigned as make-up work in conditional matriculation. Typical subjects of courses assigned for make-up work are algorithms, computer organization, databases, networks, operating systems, programming languages, software engineering, or theory.

If your grades are measured in the american system, we expect a GPA better than 2.75 (on the 1-4 scale); if you graduated under a different system, we will try to get a comparable judgement.

Since the master's program is relatively short, we discourage transfer of graduate courses from other institutions. This requires approval of a graduate advisor, who will check the appropriateness of the course based on the documentation submitted by the student, and is limited to at most two courses.

We cannot offer our master's students any financial support. However, the department has a very limited number of lab assistant positions, and the individual professors may occasionally hire students out of grants. These positions are offered on a competitive basis, and their availability depends on the financial situation of the department, and the amount is not enough to live on. So a prospective student needs to be prepared to cover the entire cost of education and living without relying on financial support by the department.