Majors, Degrees and Programs

There are two separate mechanisms for undergraduate computer science students and computer engineering students to apply credits from their B.S. degree toward an M.S. degree in computer science at MSU: the Shared B.S./M.S. program and dual enrollment. In reality, they are essentially the same program with very minor difference. In particular, all Shared B.S./M.S. students automatically also use the shared enrollment mechanism. The dual enrollment option can be used by any student with any GPA whereas the Shared B.S./M.S. program requires a student to complete their B.S. program with a 3.5 GPA. Moving forward, we will not make a distinction between these two mechanisms and will just use the shared enrollment mechanism.

Shared enrollment offers high achieving undergraduate students a chance to complete both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in five years. More specifically, up to 9 credits of the required 30 credits for a Master's degree can be waived. In order to waive 9 credits, you must include at least one graduate level course in your Bachelor's program plan.

Key element: Students should complete the Request for Shared Enrollment form their junior or senior year (before they take their first shared course). They then apply for admission the semester AFTER they have graduated with their bachelor’s degree. (For example, if you graduate with your bachelor’s degree in Spring 2025, you would apply for the graduate program in Summer 2025 or Fall 2025).

Tuition: Technically, your tuition may change to graduate level tuition once you have completed 120 credits. In practice, this has not happened right at the moment when you have completed 120 credits. Rather, it has happened after you have completed your B.S. requirements.

1. When to apply: You should apply in your junior or senior year. You would be admitted to the M.S. program in the same semester as the first course you take that includes credits that will be applied toward your M.S. degree. You must apply for admission to the M.S. program prior to that semester. For example, if you take CSE 410 in Fall Semester 2018 and use that course to waive 3 credits from the 30 required M.S. credits, then your M.S. program will begin no later than Fall 2018 and you should apply for admission to the M.S. program no later than Spring 2018.
2. Requirements: There no longer is an explicit GPA requirement, but you should have a GPA of at least 3.5 to have a good chance of being admitted. Exceptions can be made if there is a strong faculty advocate who supports your request for shared enrollment despite having a lower GPA.
3. Application Procedure:
   1. Fill out this Google form indicating that you intend to apply for shared enrollment form. This will send an email to you, the graduate director, and the graduate program coordinator indicating your intent to apply for shared enrollment.
   2. Find an initial Master's advisor (the Graduate Director can often serve in this role).
   3. Apply to the M.S. program in computer science after completing the official graduate school application. See here for more information about this application process. We typically do not require GRE test scores, but you should still consider taking the GRE, particularly if you are considering applying to other graduate programs.
   4. As part of the above application process, using the Graduate Student Portal, upload the print version of the Request for Shared Enrollment Status Form. Contact Office of Registrar for additional assistance with the form. When you upload the form, it will ask for a type of document; use type certificate. These shared credits will officially only be in your B.S. program, and the credits will be waived from the required 30 credits for your M.S. program. This can include at most 6 credits from 4xx level courses, so at least one course must be 8xx or 9xx if you use all 9 credits. The waived credits do count towards satisfying the M.S. breadth requirement when applicable.

If your request for shared enrollment is granted, you are under no obligation to complete the M.S. degree. You can complete your B.S. degree as if you had never requested shared enrollment.