The BS + MS 5 Year Program is designed for USF Computer Science and Engineering undergraduate students who are interested in obtaining a master’s degree while finishing their bachelor’s degree. The main advantage is that students can take up to six graduate classroom credits and count them towards their BS and MS degrees. Another advantage is that the GRE requirement is waived.

In order to apply, students must have completed a minimum of 90 undergraduate hours with a minimum 3.25 GPA.  To graduate, students must complete the total number of  hours specified below:

         MSCS Program: 144 (= 120 (BS) + 30 (MS) – 6 (Common Hours))

         MSCP Program: 152 (= 128 (BS) + 30 (MS) – 6 (Common Hours))

If admitted to the program, the student’s status will change from undergraduate to graduate, so if the student is receiving financial aid they should contact their financial aid advisor to determine when it would be best for them to apply.

A complete application packet should have:

• 5 Year Application, typed, including the Legal Disclosure Form and Residency Form

• 3 Letters of Recommendation, (the CSE Faculty Recommendation form may be used for CSE Faculty ONLY – all others must be on letterhead with original signature)

• Statement of Purpose

Six graduate classroom credits are counted towards the BS and MS degrees. Any CSE graduate-level (5000 and 6000-level) classroom elective can be used as your 6 shared credit hours.  They can replace any 6 of your undergraduate elective credit hours.  To see our regular graduate course offerings for Fall and Spring, you can look at Oasis or our website.

If you decide to withdraw from the Five-Year Program after completing your undergraduate requirements and receive only your Bachelors degree, that is fine; however, you must submit a voluntary withdrawal form found on the Graduate School web site, www.grad.usf.edu

If you decide later to come back to finish your MS, you must re-apply at that time through Graduate Admissions.  There will be no shared credits with the BS degree - in other words, if you used six graduate credits towards your BS degree, you could not use those same six credits towards your graduate degree. 

If you enroll in the program and decide that you would like to pursue the Ph.D. degree, you must submit a new application to the University.  Directions and requirements can be found at http://www.cse.usf.edu/graduate/admissions/.  You may register for the Qualifying examination for the Ph.D. program ONLY if you have applied and been accepted into the Ph.D. program. (The Ph.D. Qualifying examination is taken at the end of the 1^st year for Ph.D. students as the exams focus on the core courses, Theory of Algorithms, Computer Architecture and Operating Systems.)   

Forms:

Application Forms

CSE Faculty Recommendation Form

Guideline to writing a Statement of Purpose

Frequently Asked Questions