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SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENTS

• Complete a total of 30 points (Courses must be at the 4000 level or above)
• Maintain at least a 2.7 overall GPA. (No more than 1 D is permitted).
• Complete the Columbia Engineering Professional Development & Leadership (PDL) requirement
• Satisfy breadth requirements
• Take at least 6 points of technical courses at the 6000 level
• At most, up to 3 points of your degree can be Non-CS/Non-track If they are deemed relevant to your track and sufficiently technical in nature. Please submit the course syllabus to your CS Faculty Advisor for review, and then forward the approval confirmation email to ms-advising@cs.columbia.edu

1. BREADTH REQUIREMENT

Visit the breadth requirement page for more information.

2. REQUIRED TRACK COURSES (9 credits)

Students must take 9 credits of COMS E6902 Thesis. The points are typically spread over multiple semesters, e.g., 3 points each for 3 semesters or 4.5 points each for 2 semesters. No more than 9 points of E6902 may be taken. Sign up for the section number of E6902 associated with your thesis advisor.

3. ELECTIVE TRACK COURSES

Students are required to complete 9 elective credits of graduate courses (4000-level or above) selected from Computer Science and/or related areas together with your faculty thesis advisor. These would normally be strongly related to your thesis topic.

Up to 3 of these points may be in COMS E6901 Projects in Computer Science.

4. GENERAL ELECTIVES

Students must complete the remaining credits of General Elective Courses at the 4000 level or above. At least three of these points must be chosen from either the Track Electives listed above or from the CS department at the 4000 level or higher.

Students may also request to use at most 3 points of Non-CS/Non-Track coursework if approved by the process listed below.

5. THESIS DEFENSE

A thesis proposal is presented to your thesis committee at least three months before your defense. Your thesis committee should have three members. Two of them must be internal, but one can be an outsider. Please bring the thesis defense form to your defense. Once completed, please submit the form to CS Advising via email: ms-advising@cs.columbia.edu.

The thesis cannot be imported from another institution.

A publication-quality thesis document is also published as a CS department technical report. Once completed, please upload your thesis into MICE.

Please note:

• Students on F-1/J-1 status pursuing the thesis track are still expected to graduate within 3 semesters 

• The Degree Progress Checklist should be used to keep track of your requirements. If you have questions for your Track Advisor or CS Advising, you should have an updated Checklist prepared

• Due to a significant overlap in course material, MS students not in the Machine Learning track can only take 1 of the following courses – COMS 4771, COMS 4721, ELEN 4903, IEOR 4525, STAT 4240, STAT 4400/4241/5241 – as part of their degree requirements

• The elective track courses cannot be imported from another institution.

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PROGRAM PLANNING

Please visit the Directory of Classes to get the updated course listings. Please also note that not all courses are offered every semester or even every year. A few courses are offered only once every two or three years or even less frequently.

Please note that some Data Science Institute courses, such as COMS/CSEE W4121 (Computer Systems for Data Science), do not count towards the CS MS degree. If you have any questions, please contact your advisor or CS Advising.

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Updated: 09/30/2024