MS Computer Science/MBA Combined Degree Program

The combined MSCS/MBA program would be a 64 credit program including 28 credits taken in the Department of Computer Science and 36 credits taken in the College of Business. This degree is designed to provide MSCS students with a broad business education, which will increase their value to the firms where they will apply their information technology skills. The combined degree will position these students to assume leadership roles in these firms.

In the combined degree, students will gain not only technical knowledge provided in the MSCS program but the ability to put that technical knowledge to use in business applications. Graduates of the combined program will be highly sought after by businesses. The vast majority of the graduates of MSCS already pursue careers in business, and with an MBA, they will be even more valuable to these businesses.

This combined program has identified courses with subject matter that is essential to both degree programs. As a result, we are giving graduates of this combined degree a broader education than students would obtain by taking only one of these programs.

Requirements:

Students qualifying for the MS Computer Science/MBA joint degree will be allowed to enter the program directly following their bachelors degree without having previously obtained a masters degree.

Under other circumstances, the College of Business usually requires students to have an advanced degree or 5 years of business experience to enter their 48 credit MBA program.

Admissions Process:

Admission decisions for the combined degree program will be made separately by each program's admissions committee. An applicant may originate the application in either department or may already be admitted to one or the other program. The candidate would have to be approved by both admissions committees to gain admission to the combined program.

Completion of Program:

Completion of the MSCS/MBA requires 64 credits, comprised of required foundation courses, advanced technical courses and either a project or thesis (6 or 9 credits) and a 6 credit internship or research paper. The MBA program would allow four of the following courses in Computer Science to substitute for four electives in the MBA Information System Management concentration (CSE 509: Computer System Security, CSE 515: Introduction to Transaction Processing, CSE 532: Theory of Database Systems, CSE 529: AMS 533: Simulation and Modeling, CSE 534: Fundamentals of Computer Networks, CSE 611: Transaction Processing, CSE 616: Digital Multimedia Systems, CSE 622: Advanced Database Systems, CSE 634: Data Mining Concepts and Techniques) Computer Science would accept MBA 574 Project Management as an advanced technical elective course in its MS program.