Master of Science

The Master of Science degree provides a solid foundation in computer science and research to elevate your career.

This degree requires students to complete 30 credits of coursework, 21 of which must derive from graded courses, as well as a thesis. Students in good standing typically complete this option in two years.

An M.S. coursework-only option (a master's along the way) is available to Ph.D. students who seek to earn a Master of Science degree while working on their Ph.D.

Our Master of Engineering degree program offers a coursework-only master's degree and project-based learning option. Compare the two master's degrees here.

To fulfill requirements for the M.S. with thesis option, students must satisfy the breadth requirement, adhere to an appropriate credit distribution, enroll in the graduate seminar, comply with the ethics and diversity requirements, and complete an oral and written final exam (also known as a master's thesis).

Breadth requirements

To encourage masters graduates to exhibit sufficient breadth of computer science areas, M.S. students must take courses at the 5000 and 6000 levels that span four different areas. The available courses and areas are listed here.

Graduate requirements

The Virginia Tech Graduate School requires that all graduate students satisfy a scholarly ethics requirement. Other requirements include:

• Participate in an orientation session offered the week before classes start in the Fall and Spring semesters.
• Complete the following two courses offered by the Research Division through CITI training course: Responsible Conduct of Research and Conflict of Interest Training.
• Take CS 5944 Graduate Seminar two times.
• Students will be required to submit evidence of completion of these milestones in their annual student activity report.

Credit distribution requirements

A student satisfying the M.S. with thesis credit requirement typically uses seven graded courses to supply 21 credits with the remaining nine credits accrued from CS 5994 Research and Thesis. Student can choose to use eight courses to supply 24 credits with the remaining six credits from CS 5994 Research and Thesis. All courses must be in computer science, except that one course outside the department may be used if it appears on the cognate course list.

Additional credit hours may be taken in any category, but do not count toward degree requirements. Substitutions for degree requirements are allowed only under rare or exceptional circumstances. Requests for substitutions must be made to the GD.

Observe that all courses must be at the 5000 level or above with possibly at most two 4000-level courses included. 4000-level courses must be from the list of CS 4000 level courses approved for graduate credit, or else from the approved cognate course liet. Credits from CS 5894 Final Examination, CS 5904 Project and Report, CS 5944 Graduate Seminar, CS 5974 Independent Study, and CS 7994 Research and Dissertation cannot be used to satisfy any MS Thesis credit requirements. Finally, at least one 6000 level course is required.

Advisor and committee

All graduate students have access to a faculty advisor who can help with both academic advising (i.e., issues related to getting a degree) and career advising. PhD students, and MS students under the thesis option, should select a faculty member to act as their research and course advisor as early as possible in their academic career and definitely by the time their plan of study is due. The advisor must hold a Virginia Tech faculty position with either a tenured/tenure track, emeritus, collegiate faculty, or courtesy appointment in the Department of Computer Science, and hold a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree.

In place of a single advisor, PhD or M.S. students can instead choose an advisor and a co-advisor. In this case, at least one of these two must hold a Virginia Tech faculty position with either a tenured/tenure track, emeritus, collegiate faculty, or courtesy appointment in the Department of Computer Science, and hold a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree. The advisor chairs the student’s advisory committee.

The composition of an M.S. thesis advisory committee must be designed taking into account the following considerations:

• The committee must have at least three members (including the advisor or co-advisors).
• At least two members of the committee must hold a PhD or equivalent terminal degree. Any member without a PhD or equivalent terminal degree must have recognized expertise in their field and have research experience.
• At least two members must hold tenured/tenure track, collegiate faculty, professor of practice (approved to serve on MS committees), or emeritus positions in the Department of Computer Science.
• A person from outside the university can serve as an advisory committee member with the permission of the chair of the advisory committee. Potential committee members external to VT (i.e., not a VT faculty member/employee) will need to be approved by the CS Department and VT Graduate School in order to serve on your committee. Please ask the potential external member if they’ve ever served on a committee at VT before.
  • If the answer is yes, please inform your graduate coordinator to double check their status with VT.
  • If the answer is no, secure a copy of the potential external member’s current CV (websites are acceptable) and forward that information to your graduate coordinator.
  • Your graduate coordinator will then use that information to get the potential external member approved to serve on your committee.

The GD serves as the de-facto interim advisor for M.S. students who have not yet selected a research advisor or who need additional academic advising. The GD can provide signatures and other official approvals as required.

Typical Schedule

The table below shows a typical distribution of courses and other responsibilities over the 2 years that is typical for a student to complete an M.S. Note that this assumes the student starts in the Fall. Also of note is that some of the order of courses shown is a recommendation, not a requirement. For example, whether you take the courses for breadth early in a program of study or later up to you.