Advisement

Computer Science and Computer Information Technology students enrolled in 60 or more units and in good academic standing can contact your faculty adviser for an advisement appointment. 

Computer Science and Computer Information Technology students enrolled in 60 or more units and in good academic standing can contact your faculty adviser for an advisement appointment. Please refer to the tab at the top of the page to find your adviser’s contact information.

Computer Science and Computer Information Technology students enrolled in 59 units or less and in good academic standing can make an appointment with the CECS Student Services Center. Appointments can be made by visiting JD 1501, calling 818-677-2191, or by emailing CECS Student Services Center for advisement prior to registration.

First Time Freshmen:

• Entering freshmen students need to make an appointment with The Hub. Appointments can be made by visiting EU 150 or calling 818-677-2900 for required advisement prior to registration. 

2nd and 3rd Semester Freshmen:

• Continuing freshmen students need to make an appointment with the CECS Student Services Center. Appointments can be made by visiting JD 1501, calling 818-677-2191, or by emailing CECS Student Services Center for advisement prior to registration.

First time Transfer Students

First time Transfer Students transferring from another college or university should make an appointment with the CECS Student Services Center. Appointments can be made by visiting JD 1501, calling 818-677-2191, or by emailing CECS Student Services Center for required advisement prior to registration.

Continuing Transfer Students

Continuing Transfer Students can contact their faculty adviser. Please refer to the tab at the top of the page to find your adviser’s contact information. 

Graduate students should contact the Computer Science Department Graduate Coordinator for all advising questions. 

 Mandatory Advisement

Students on academic probation need to make an appointment with the CECS Student Services Center. Appointments can be made by visiting JD 1501, calling 818-677-2191, or by emailing CECS Student Services Center required advisement prior to registration. 

Computer Science and Computer Information Technology who have been disqualified can make an appointment with the Director of the CECS Student Services Center. Appointments can be made by visiting JD 1501, calling 818-677-2191, or by emailing cecs.ssc@csun.edu for advisement prior to registration.

Mandatory Advisement

Students participating in the MEP/EOP programs need to make an appointment with the CECS Student Services Center by visiting JD 1501 or calling 818-677-2191 or by emailing for required advisement prior to registration.

If you wish to visit with a computer science professor regarding career advisement, the selection of concentrated studies electives or to start the process referred to as a graduation evaluation, please consult the following table. Students who wish to schedule an appointment should contact their advisor by email; to help expedite the appointment process, students should include their telephone number and their reasons for wishing to see their advisor in the email message. 

Note: Students may elect to stay with a previously assigned advisor or select a different faculty advisor, if that advisor agrees. 

1. Become classified.
2. Select a Computer Science Department faculty member who will agree to serve as your graduate advisor/committee chair.

   An important part of your graduate work is selecting a graduate advisor, who will serve as your committee chair. Your advisor may request that you prepare a thesis proposal, take certain classes, complete a specific project, and/or follow certain guidelines when completing your thesis work. Choose an advisor, who will agree to serve as your committee chair, by speaking with members of the faculty whose research interests best match yours.

   Students often find a committee chair after having completed the core classes and having begun taking some electives.  This gives you the opportunity to choose some of your electives so they are relevant to your thesis topic.

3. With the help of your committee chair, select your committee members.

   Committees must be composed of at least three people, including your committee chair. Aside from the committee chair, another Computer Science faculty member must serve as a committee member. The third member may be from any department, including Computer Science. Normally this member is from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, but may be from any department at CSUN or from off-campus. If you select an off-campus individual to be your third committee member you must first obtain the Department's approval.

   Discuss with each committee member what they expect in your thesis and the procedures to follow in seeking their approval.

4. Complete the Planning Form through the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) system.

   All committee members, including your committee chair, must agree to serve on your committee by approving your planning form on the ETD system. Also, the Department Chair must approve the committee on ETD. Once this is complete you will have officially formed a committee.

5. Enroll in and successfully complete COMP 696C.

   To enroll in COMP 696C, an R-form must be completed and approved. To receive credit for COMP 696C, a committee must have been formed and all the work required by your committee chair must be complete.

6. Apply for degree and diploma.

   Apply for graduation the semester before you plan to graduate.

7. In a following semester enroll in and successfully complete COMP 698C.

   To enroll in COMP 698C, an R-form must also be completed and approved.

8. Prepare and submit your thesis.

   Thesis drafts will be reviewed by your committee chair numerous times throughout your final semester. As a minimum, submit a thesis draft to your committee chair for final review by the beginning of the ninth week of classes of the semester you intend to graduate. Submit the final review draft of the thesis to all members of the committee by the end of the twelfth week of the semester in which you wish to graduate.

   Follow the steps and deadlines outlined by the ETD system for submitting a draft thesis for formatting review and the final draft of your thesis. The Graduate Office will contact you if formatting changes need to be made to your thesis.

9. Defend your thesis.

   To schedule your defense consult with you committee members and find a good day and time. Prepare and submit a defense announcement form to the Department office, at least one week before the scheduled date of defense. The defense must be scheduled prior to the final thesis draft submission deadline.

A statement of purpose is not required as part of the graduate application. If submitted, however, it will be considered. All application materials should be sent to the CSUN Office of Admissions.

Federal financial aid can cover up to 125% of the units required for a degree program. In the case of our 30 unit MS in Computer Science and MS in Software Engineering degree programs, federal financial aid is permitted for up to 37 units.

A student accepted by the Computer Science Department with Program Prerequisites Pending (PPP) status must satisfy prerequisites before enrolling COMP 696C and COMP 698C.

As a graduate student, enrollment in prerequisite courses is restricted. Therefore, to enroll in 100-, 200-, or 300-level courses contact the Department office for a permission number. For enrollment in 400-, 500-, and 600- level courses that may be full, contact the course instructor and/or the Computer Science Department.

With prior permission of the Department you may, for the purpose of improving your grade, repeat up to 6 units of credit in a program of study in which a grade of B- or below, or a grade of U, was achieved. (Graduate Studies has also been allowing undergraduate prerequisites to be repeated, but repeating a prerequisite class counts towards the 6 unit limit.) In such cases, only the most recent grade will count. A specific course can be repeated only once. Note, if you are in good academic standing, you will not be given permission to repeat a course with a passing grade. You must submit the Course Repeat Form for Graduate Students before you repeat the course.

Subject to Department and University approvals and the regulations described in the CSUN catalog, you can transfer up to 9 units of graduate work. This includes classes taken through "open university."  A major criterion for approval is that the course you wish to transfer was available for graduate credit at the university where the course was taken.

To be granted permission to enroll in A/R 601 (formerly XEDU 980), your committee chair must provide written approval for you to take A/R 601 in place of taking COMP 696C again. Additionally, a draft of the thesis must have been submitted for formatting review in a previous semester. If more than small changes are necessary to the thesis draft or if prior permission to enroll in A/R 601 has already been granted in a previous semester, then the A/R 601 enrollment will be denied.

The basic limitation is that any units earned more than 7 years before the date you plan to graduate will not count. The 7 year period starts at the time of receiving the grade and continues until the filing for graduation. It also applies to transferred graduate level courses (CSUN or transferred), but not to any prerequisite classes.

When working on your thesis you may receive an RP grade. You have at most two years to remove any RP grades, which effectively gives you a maximum of two and a half years to complete your thesis.

No. You can be on academic leave for two semesters without any formality. However, if you do not register for a class for three consecutive semesters you will be dropped from the University mailing list and the Masters program. You will then have to reapply for admission to the University and the Masters program through the CSUN Admissions & Records Office. Your admission to the University will be determined by the rules and regulations that are in force at the time of this reapplication. Note that you will have to retake all expired graduate classes over the seven year limitation.

The University policy is that GRE scores are active for 5 years. Older scores can not be used for MS applications.

You can contact the Department for advisement.