Carnegie Mellon University

MS in SE (Master of Science, Standard program)

*All students who will matriculate into the ECE MS program in Fall 2020 or later, please see the program options & requirements here.

The MS in SE is a three-semester program comprised of 97 units of graduate coursework (600-level and above) available at the Silicon Valley campus. The Standard program has the following requirements:

  1. 24 units of these must be CIT courses
  2. 12 units of your overall electives may be a general technical elective course 

Up to 27 units of research project coursework can be used to satisfy program requirements. All students apply for research projects through the Student Project Tracker site.

Up to 12 units of undergraduate coursework (300-level or higher) can qualify to be substituted toward the 96 units of core or elective requirements. Qualifying coursework must be offered by the same department as either an approved core or elective course.

The SE standard program requires 60 units (for the course option) and 48 units (for the project option) of core coursework that may not be waived or substituted.

Students are required to take 18-652 Foundations of Software Engineering in their first semester. To complete the remaining required units of core coursework, please choose from the core offerings below:

  • Required: 18-652 Foundations of Software Engineering (12 units)
  • 18-653 Software Architecture & Design (12 units)
  • 18-654 Software Verification & Testing (12 units)
  • 18-656 Functional Programming in Practice (12 units)
  • 18-657 Decision Analysis and Engineering Economics for Software Engineers (12 units)
  • 18-658 Software Requirements & Interaction Design (12 units)
  • 18-659 Software Engineering Methods (12 units)
  • 18-664 Software Refactoring (12 units)
  • 18-668 Data Science for Software Engineering (12 units)
  • 18-671 Foundations of Database Design (12 units)

24 units (for the course option only) must be graduate coursework (600-level or above) within CIT from the following departments:

  • ECE (18)
  • Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT) (39)
  • Biomedical Engineering (42)
  • Chemical Engineering (06)
  • Civil & Environmental Engineering (12)
  • Engineering & Public Policy (19)
  • Information Network Institute (14)
  • Integrated Innovation Institute (49)
  • Materials Science & Engineering (27)
  • Mechanical Engineering (24)
  • CMU–Africa (04)

EXCEPTIONS—The following CIT courses may not be counted toward CIT elective coursework. They may be counted toward general technical elective coursework:

  • Engineering & Public Policy (19): 19-602, 19-655
  • Integrated Innovation Institute (49): 49-750, 49-751, 49-761, 49-762, 49-763, 49-764, 49-765, 49-766, 49-767, 49-770, 49-771, 49-772, 49-773, 49-774, 49-775, 49-780, 49-781, 49-782, 49-788, 49-790, 49-791, 49-792, 49-793
  • Mechanical Engineering (24): 24-792

CMU–Africa (04): 04-601, 04-602, 04-605, 04-900, 04-980

 

This is entirely optional. It is not required to take a General Technical Elective to graduate. However, if you would like to, please note that only 12 units of coursework (600 level or above) from the following programs (shown under their parent college) or individually approved courses will be counted towards your degree:

Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences

  • Statistics (36)
  • Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (86)
  • Heinz School of Information Systems (95)
  • Heinz College-Wide Courses (94)

Mellon College of Science (MCS)

  • Biological Sciences (03)
  • Chemistry (09)
  • Mathematical Sciences (21)
  • Physics (33)

School of Computer Science (SCS)

  • Computational Biology (02)
  • Computer Science (15)
  • Entertainment Technology Center (53)
  • Institute for Software Research (08)
  • Robotics Institute (16)
  • Human–Computer Interaction Institute (05)
  • Language Technologies Institute (11)
  • Machine Learning (10)
  • Software Engineering (17)

Tepper School of Business (TEP)

  • Tepper School of Business (45)

Additional courses outside of these programs that are approved to be counted toward general technical elective coursework:

  • 46-926, 46-929
  • 47-830, 47-834
  • 51-882
  • 57-947
  • 80-713
  • 84-688
  • 90-756, 90-808
  • 93-711

1 unit of Introduction to Graduate Studies (18-989) must be taken.

This course must be completed in your first semester. 

Students may count up to 27 project units (18980) toward degree requirements. 12 project units can count toward core requirements and up to 15 project units can count toward CIT elective requirements.

ECE master’s students in the standard program will take 97 units for their degree, 85 units of which must be from within the College of Engineering (61 from within ECE, 24 from within CIT; see above). This rule applies to all students matriculating Fall 2020 or later and to all IMB students who sign their intent form after the start of the Fall 2020 semester. IMB students will be beholden to the program requirements in place when they sign their intent form and officially agree to enter the program.

*Please note: Additional units can be taken beyond the required 97 units described above in order to diversify your course schedule, however, they will not be counted towards the program requirements. Students who wish to take more than the recommended 36 units per semester (after their first semester) should make an appointment with their academic advisor to review your planned schedule.

Students who are pursuing the MS Standard degree cannot register for their final semester if they have already completed 120 units of coursework. These units include courses taken for audit, pass/no pass, and withdrawal. Please refer to CIT's policy on MS degree units for additional information.