Curriculum

Students entering before Spring 2014 may choose instead to follow the previous requirements located here, though the new version is generally more flexible.

Prerequisites

Graduate students in the Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Information Technology Masters programs are expected to complete the equivalent of foundational first and second year courses in Computer Science prior to enrolling in graduate courses (with the exception of COMP 417: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing). If you have been admitted to the program, the Graduate Program Director may ask you to take one or both of the following during your first semester of studies.

• COMP 388: Foundations of Computer Science 1 (equivalent of COMP 163 and COMP 170)
• COMP 388: Foundations of Computer Science 2 (equivalent of COMP 264 and COMP 271)

These new courses allow you to gain prerequisite background in a more accelerated format than previously required of our students and both are offered during evening hours (and eventually online). Please note that as these are prerequisite courses numbered below 400, they do not count toward your graduate degree completion. The Graduate Program Director will inform you whether you need to take these courses.

Please contact the Graduate Program Director with any questions at gpd@cs.luc.edu. 

See also Programming Prerequisites to get an idea of what sort of material you should know before taking graduate courses in our department.

The program requires a total of 30 credit hours (generally ten 3-credit courses).

Required Courses:

• COMP 413: Intermediate Object-Oriented Development
• COMP 417: Social, Ethical and Legal Issues in Computing

Required Electives:

MSSE students must take at least one course from the following Group 1 list (most of these courses require COMP 413 as a prerequisite):

Group 1

• COMP 424: Client-Side Web Design
• COMP 433: Web Services Programming
• COMP 434: Enterprise Software Development
• COMP 437: Concurrent Programming
• COMP 439: Distributed Systems
• COMP 442: Server-Side Software Development
• COMP 460: Algorithms (exception to 413 prereq)
• COMP 471: Programming Languages
• COMP 473: Object-Oriented Programming
• COMP 474: Software Engineering (exception to 413 prereq)

MSSE students must also take two additional courses from either the list above or the following Group 2 list:

Group 2

• COMP 410: Operating Systems
• COMP 420: Software Systems Analysis
• COMP 436: Markup Languages
• COMP 437: Concurrent Programming
• COMP 441: Human-Computer Interface Design
• COMP 453: Database Programming
• COMP 464: High-Performance Computing

If a student enters the program with an academic record of success in a course similar to Comp 413, or if the student can demonstrate programming experience with the concepts of Comp 413, then the Graduate Program Director may substitute for the Comp 413 requirement a course in Group 1 or 2 that has Comp 413 as a prerequisite.

The Computer Science department may declare that other courses (eg new courses and individual COMP 488: Topics in CS offerings) may count as members of either Group 1 or Group 2.

15 Credits of General Electives

This is generally 5 three-credit courses. The courses do not need to be in any special group: All 400 level Computer Science courses and 400+ level CSIS courses (cross listed with the Business School) are allowed. Electives may include up to 6 credits of COMP 490: Independent Project and/or COMP 499: Internship.

Be sure to look at the Schedules page to find links for what specific courses are offered in any one semester or quarter.