This certificate targets students who are working on or possess an undergraduate degree in a technical (science or engineering) field but lack a formal credential in the computer science field. The certificate also targets students who have shown an aptitude for graduate study but do not have the academic prerequisites required for admittance into a graduate MS computer science program.

The undergraduate certificate in computer science may be pursued on a full-time basis except when limited by prerequisite constraints.

Admissions

Students must have two semesters of calculus, programming experience at the level of CS 112 Introduction to Computer Programming (Mason Core) and CS 211 Object-Oriented Programming, and a bachelor’s degree with a 3.00 GPA or higher

Policies

For policies governing all undergraduate programs, see AP.5 Undergraduate Policies.

Banner Code: EC-CERB-CS

Certificate Requirements

Total credits: 28

This certificate may be pursued on a full-time basis only.

Basic Computer Science

CS 262Introduction to Low-Level Programming3
CS 310Data Structures3
CS 330Formal Methods and Models3
CS 367Computer Systems and Programming4
CS 471Operating Systems3
Total Credits16

Mathematics

MATH 125Discrete Mathematics I (Mason Core)3
Total Credits3

Additional Coursework

Complete the following:
CS 483Analysis of Algorithms3
AND two of the following6
CS 321
Software Engineering
CS 440
Language Processors and Programming Environments
CS 450
Database Concepts
CS 451
Computer Graphics
CS 455
Computer Communications and Networking
CS 465
Computer Systems Architecture
CS 468
Secure Programming and Systems
CS 480
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
CS 484
Data Mining
Total Credits9