Exit Exam and Breadth Requirement

As of Fall 2005, all M.S. students must take an exit exam, the Major Field Test (MFT) in Computer Science, a product of Educational Testing Services (ETS) of Princeton, NJ. In order to graduate, the student must score at least 145 (the exam is out of 200). This exam will be offered once in fall semester and once in spring semester. (Note that there is no summer offering.) The student should take this exam in his/her penultimate semester, which allows time to retake the exam if necessary.

As of Fall 2005, the M.S. program also has a breadth component. The courses in the department are divided into three areas (Applications, Systems and Theory), and every student must take at least one course in each area. The course breakdown is as follows:

• Applications: 61x, 64x, 66x, 67x

• Systems: 60x, 62x, 63x and all 500 level courses

• Theory: 650, 652, 653, and 680

As of Fall 2005, the M.S. program has a requirement that 24 credit hours must be taken at the 600 level.