Advisement

The faculty advisor available during Summer 2025 is Cecile Bendavid. You can reach out to her via her email to schedule a Zoom meeting:

cecile.bendavid@csun.edu

Due to the large volume of emails the faculty receives, please allow them adequate time to respond to your request for an 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. 

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. 

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.

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.

Subject to Department and University approvals and the regulations described in the CSUN catalog, you can transfer up to 9 units of graduate work where a grade of B or better was earned. This includes classes taken through CSUN's 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. Equivalent graduate courses must be in the MS program for the course transfers to be considered.

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.

With full-time enrollment, classified students can complete their MS degree in three semesters.

Any units earned more than 7 years before the date you plan to graduate will not count towards the degree program. 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 the program prerequisite courses.

When working on your thesis you may receive an RP grade. You have at most two years to complete the thesis work to remove any RP grades.

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.

To be granted permission to enroll in A/R 601, 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.

Currently, the Computer Science Department does not offer TA position. RA positions are occasionally available but are limited in number, and generally only available to current students.

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

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.

You can contact the Department for advisement.