Program Description

The program is an interdisciplinary graduate program with options in Software Engineering, Business Computing, and Industrial Computing. The program is tailored to serve both computing professionals working in business/industry sites who seek an advanced degree to improve their job skill, and the computer teachers/lab managers in the secondary schools, community colleges and technical schools. Courses in the program will be offered during evenings and on weekends. This provides an educational opportunity for students who are unable to attend daytime classes. Currently, there is no evening program in applied computing in this region.

The Master of Science in Applied Computing degree program consists of a minimum of 36 graduate hours. A minimum of 50% of graduate hours must be at the 800 level. The core requirements, which all the program candidates must take, consist of 18 credit hours of Computer Science courses. Each specialization option requires 12 credit hours concentrating on one of the options of Software Engineering, Business Computing, or Industrial Computing. The remaining six credit hours can be selected from any of the courses not required in the core or the chosen option. The academic record and work experience of each applicant will be evaluated to determine whether additional prerequisite course work is required. Students may transfer credits for courses taken at another institution. Courses requested to be transferred will be reviewed by the departmental graduate committee for approval following the University guidelines for graduate credit transfer.

Job opportunities for program graduates

The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects job opportunities in Computing to grow “faster than average” to “much faster than average” through the year 2006 (See http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos110.htm, http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos042.htm.) This report also emphasizes that due to the changing nature of computers, nearly constant study is necessary to remain current in the field. One section on computer science states: "Since employers look for the most qualified applicants possessing a high level of technical expertise, individuals with an advanced degree in computer science, management information systems (MIS), computer engineering, or an MBA with a concentration in information systems should enjoy very favorable employment prospects."

Related links are Program requirements and Course descriptions

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