5-Year (4+1) BS-MS Degree (Computer Science and Information Technology - MCST)

Program Description

The Department of Computer Science offers a special program for high quality Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) Computer Science and Information Technology undergraduate students who desire to pursue graduate study. By taking certain Computer Science & Information Technology (MCST) graduate courses in their senior year in lieu of the corresponding undergraduate courses the student can obtain the B.S. degree in Computer Science (CS) or the B.S. in Information Technology (IT) and then, with an additional year of graduate study, obtain the M.S. degree in Computer Science and Information Technology. Successful completion of this program cuts a year off of the standard two-year time required to obtain an M.S. degree in Computer Science and Information Technology from WSSU.  By spending an extra year in school, you earn two degrees and may significantly increase your starting salary!

Eligibility

To be eligible for this program, the potential student should, by the end of the first semester of his/her junior year:

• Have earned credit for (including courses received through placement or transfer) at least 75 hours of coursework applicable to the undergraduate CS or IT degree;
• Have achieved a GPA of at least 3.2 overall Computer Science courses; and
• Have met with the M.S. Program Coordinator to receive advising and approval for applying to the early-entry program.

Timeline

• First semester of junior year – meet with the M.S. Program Coordinator before mid-semester to receive advising about the early-entry program; Identify and meet with a research mentor to make initial plans for the  MCST capstone thesis research or project;
• Second semester of junior year – complete and submit early-entry application for graduate study in M.S. in Computer Science and Information Technology to Graduate Admissions;
• Recommendation for the second semester of junior year- apply for a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) grant and/or academic year undergraduate research grant for the senior year;
• Notification of acceptance will be made before the start of the senior year;
• Senior year – enroll in MCST substitute courses;
• End of senior year – successfully complete requirements for B.S. degree in CS or IT, at least 9 hours of undergraduate course work can be substituted with corresponding graduate courses (and these graduate courses can also be applied to the MCST degree program).

Approved Course Substitutions

Graduate Degree/Option Requirements

The MS in Computer Science and Information Technology requires 30 to 33 credit hours. A minor is not required. Students must maintain an overall grade point average of 3.0 (a “B” average). No more than two grades of “C” may be earned in the program.

Students pursuing an MS in Computer Science and Information Technology must choose one of the following concentrations, along with the corresponding culminating activity (project, thesis, or exam) for that concentration:

Course of Study

Computer Science_Course of Study

Information Technology_ Course of Study

MCST_Electives

• CST 5101 - Computer Science Graduate Orientation
• CST 5130 - Special Topics
• CST 5301 - Parallel Computing
• CST 5302 - Organization of Programming Language
• CST 5303 - Software Design and Development
• CST 5304 - Database Systems Design
• CST 5305 - Advanced Computer Graphics
• CST 5306 - System Simulation and Modeling
• CST 5307 - Introduction to Automata, Formal Languages and Computability
• CST 5308 - Systems Design and Development
• CST 5309 - Computer Communication Networks
• CST 5316 - Foundations of Data Analytics
• CST 5323 - Systems Concepts
• CST 5324 - Information Technology Ethics, Policy, & Privacy
• CST 5326 - Human-Computer Interaction
• CST 5329 - Internet Protocols
• CST 5330 - Distributed and Parallel Computing
• CST 5331 - Software Testing and Quality Assurance
• CST 5332 - Computational Methods for Biotechnology Systems
• CST 5333 - Scientific Visualization and Image Processing
• CST 5334 - Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems
• CST 5335 - Cryptography
• CST 5340 - Hardware and Media Security
• CST 5350 - Intelligent Information Organization & Retrieval
• CST 6000 - Master’s Examination
• CST 6130 - IT Project
• CST 6303 - Artificial Intelligence Methods
• CST 6304 - Principles of Information Technology
• CST 6307 - Data Mining
• CST 6308 - Network Design, Performance and Evaluation
• CST 6309 - Network Security
• CST 6310 - Neural Networks
• CST 6311 - GIS Technologies
• CST 6314 - Big Data Analytics
• CST 6320 - Data Visualization
• CST 7130 - Project/Thesis Extension

Computer Science or Information Technology_Required courses

Pick courses from one of the above concentration