Master of Computer Science
Section 1
Overview
The Master of Computer Science Program prepares students for immediate entry into the technology workforce as well as supports students for enhanced job opportunities and mobility. The program emphasizes computer science that applies to a wide variety of applications and industries where students learn or reinforce key computer science concepts through classroom and project-based learning, and through individual and collaborative assignments.
The program spans four academic quarters –fall, winter, spring, and fall in addition to a summer component that includes either an internship or additional coursework.
A key feature of the program is the capstone design courses, which are taken simultaneously and include design, development, and professional writing components.
What Sets Us Apart?
- A dedicated Career Counseling team!
- Consistent professional development resources, workshops, and one-on-one personalized career coaching
- 16 month program, Beginning of Fall quarter to end of Fall quarter
- UCI world-renown Faculty from the Department of Computer Science
- A professional writing and communication course that other competing programs do not offer
- All of our courses are lab and project-focused for hands on experience
- UC Irvine has the only independent Computer Science School within the UC system
Quick Facts
|
Program Type |
Professional Master's Program |
|
Normative Time to Degree |
5 quarters |
|
Capstone Type |
Capstone Courses |
Accordion Section
Admissions Requirements
For specific information regarding admissions requirements and the application process, please refer to the Graduate Division website.
Applicants should have the following prerequisites completed before submitting an application for admission:
- A year of programming preferably in Python, C++, or Java; or equivalent or better of professional experience
- Adequate knowledge of and proficiency in C/C++
- Familiarity with discrete mathematics topics such as those covered in ICS 6B and ICS 6D
- Familiarity with linear algebra topics such as those covered in Math 3A or ICS 6N
- Completion of an introductory statistics course
Applicants must provide the following:
Unofficial transcripts from each college or university attended. For application review purposes only, scan and upload copies of transcripts for all institutions attended since high school. In the online application, you will be prompted to upload your scanned documents. Please upload both the front and back sides of the transcript. Uploaded transcripts should be recent and include the following: your name, dates of attendance, grades/marks received, credits and grading legend. Official transcripts will be requested if and when you are admitted and decide to attend UCI. Do not send official transcripts until this time.
Three letters of recommendation from three people who can evaluate your academic and professional achievement, describe your strengths and weaknesses, and comment on your character, integrity and motivation.
- Letters which speak to your ability to perform in a post graduate academic program are especially useful.
- These letters should be from professors, supervisors, or others (no family) who can attest to your work ethic, analytical thinking, communication skills, leadership potential, motivation, and commitment.
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- For the Applicant: Complete the Letter of Recommendation section on the online application. This will allow you to enter in your recommenders’ names and e-mail addresses. An automated e-mail invitation will be sent to each of your recommenders. It is strongly recommended that you waive or decline to waive your rights of access to your letters of recommendation. After you have completed and submitted your application, you may continue to manage and monitor the status of their submission by logging into your online application and viewing the status page.
- For the Recommender: Your student will provide your contact information on their application which will generate an automated e-mail inviting you to log in and complete a recommendation form. Please follow the steps on the form and submit your recommendation for their application. The form will support document uploads or you may copy and paste the text of your letter.
Personal statement demonstrating your writing ability and clarity of thought which includes:
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- A personal history describing your previous professional and academic achievements (For domestic students only)
- Formal statement of purpose, detailing current goals, and specifically how and why the MCS program will help you achieve them.
GRE is required of ALL applicants.
- Arrange to have your official test scores sent from the testing agency to UC Irvine. The institution code is 4859.
- Photocopies or scans will not be accepted.
- GRE scores are valid for five years, after which time the exam must be retaken.
TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is required of all international students
- The minimum TOEFL score is 80. For more information, please see Graduate Division’s English Proficiency site.
- You can be waived from the TOEFL requirement if you earn a four-year Bachelor’s degree or a two-year Master’s degree from a US institution with no transfer credit. Waivers are granted by the department after receipt of your transcripts and you must have a completed application. For information on TOEFL waivers, please see the FAQ on this page.
- As an alternative to the TOEFL, you may submit official scores from the Academic Modules of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).
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- You must submit a Test Report Form (TRF) to: Graduate Division, Admissions, 20 Aldrich Hall, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3180
4. An overall minimum score of 7 for admission, with a score of no less than 6 on any individual module
QUESTIONS? email us at: mcs@ics.uci.edu
Financial Support
Fellowships
Fellowships up to 50% of tuition are available to domestic students with financial need. Please fill out the FAFSA online to be considered. Additionally, fellowships up to 75% of tuition are available to domestic students who strengthen our commitment to diversity and under-representation in Computer Science.
Financial Aid
For information on obtaining aid, please review the Financial aid website:
http://www.ofas.uci.edu/content/GraduateEntering.aspx
Can I apply for the Reader (Grader)/TA/RA positions?
No, students in professional programs are not eligible for these positions.
Tuition & Fees
| Fall 2018 | Winter 2019 | Spring 2019 | Summer 2019 | Annual | |
| Program Fee * | 10,927.29 | 10,927.29 | 10,927.29 | 10,927.29 | 43,709.16 |
| Assoc. Grad Students Fee † | 9.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 | 36.00 |
| Student Center Fee † | 137.88 | 137.88 | 137.87 | 137.87 | 551.50 |
| Bren Events Center Fee † | 23.00 | 23.00 | 23.00 | 23.00 | 92.00 |
| Recreation Center Fee † | 88.00 | 88.00 | 88.00 | 88.00 | 352.00 |
| eTech Fee ‡ | 60.00 | 60.00 | 60.00 | 0.00 | 180.00 |
| Student Health Insurance | 1,348.00 | 1,347.00 | 1,347.00 | 0.00 | 4,042.00 |
| Total Fees Paid | $12,533.17 | $12,532.17 | $12,532.16 | $11,185.16 | $48,782.66 |
MCS cohort entering Fall 2018, with extra Fall 2019 term (5 Quarters) §
| Fall 2018 | Winter 2019 | Spring 2019 | Summer 2019 | Annual | Fall 2019 | |
| Program Fee * | 8,741.84 | 8,741.83 | 8,741.83 | 8,741.83 | 34,967.33 | 8,741.83 |
| Assoc. Grad Students Fee † | 9.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 | 36.00 | 9.00 |
| Student Center Fee † | 137.88 | 137.88 | 137.87 | 137.87 | 551.50 | 139.34 |
| Bren Events Center Fee † | 23.00 | 23.00 | 23.00 | 23.00 | 92.00 | 23.00 |
| Recreation Center Fee † | 88.00 | 88.00 | 88.00 | 88.00 | 352.00 | 88.00 |
| eTech Fee ‡ | 60.00 | 60.00 | 60.00 | 0.00 | 180.00 | 60.00 |
| Student Health Insurance | 1,348.00 | 1,347.00 | 1,347.00 | 0.00 | 4,042.00 | 1,549.00 |
| Total Fees Paid | $10,347.72 | $10,346.71 | $10,346.70 | $8,999.70 | $40,040.83 | $10,550.17 |
MCS cohort entering Fall 2017, with extra Fall 2018 term (5 Quarters)
| Fall 2018 | Annual | |
| Program Fee * | 8,600.00 | 8,600.00 |
| eTech Fee ‡ | 60.00 | 60.00 |
| Total Fees Paid | $8,600.00 | $8,600.00 |
Posted 10 August 2018 at https://www.reg.uci.edu/fees/2018-2019/compsci.html.
The tuition, fees, and charges posted to your billing statement or account are estimates based on currently approved amounts. These figures may not be final. Actual tuition, fees, and charges are subject to change by the Regents of the University of California and could be affected by increases or reductions in State funding, or other developments. Accordingly, final approved levels (and thus your final balance due) may differ from the amounts shown.
* MCS students pay a cohort program fee. The quarterly program fee does not increase annually except in cases of rounding.
† Campus-based fees include the Assoc. Grad Students Fee, Student Center Fee, Bren Events Center Fee, and Recreation Center Fee. For 2018-19, total campus-based fees for the Fall, Spring, and Winter quarters equal $773.63; Summer quarter campus-based fees are estimated. Quarterly campus-based fees are $257.88 for Fall 2018 and Winter 2019, and $257.87 for Spring 2019.
‡ The non-refundable eTech Fee is required of all students and is used to support the maintenance and improvement of existing education technology, and new services and capabilities. The eTech fee is listed separately as the charged amount varies based on the amount of undergraduate units the student is enrolled in and is assessed later in the term than the other fees listed. The fee is $4 per unit of undergraduate lecture course, up to a maximum amount of $60 (or 15 units) per quarter. It will be assessed after the third week of instruction. The $60 eTech Fee included on this chart reflects the maximum possible fee.
§ All future unapproved fee levels are estimates; actual fees may differ. Fall 2019 quarterly campus-based fee increases, including inflationary increases and possible new campus-based fees created via student referenda, are currently unknown.
Core Faculty
Anton Burtsev
Assistant Adjunct Professor
Operating Systems
aburtsev@uci.edu
Michael Dillencourt
Professor
Algorithms and Complexity, Networks and Distributed Systems
dillenco@ics.uci.edu
Magda El Zarki
Professor
Multimedia Computing, Networks and Distributed Systems
elzarki@uci.edu
Michael T. Goodrich
Chancellor’s Professor
Algorithms and Complexity, Computer Graphics and Visualization
goodrich@ics.uci.edu
Wayne Hayes
Associate Professor
Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology, Scientific and Numerical Computing
wayne@ics.uci.edu
Daniel S. Hirschberg
Professor, Irvine Senate Parliamentarian
Algorithms and Complexity
dan@ics.uci.edu
Ray Klefstad
Professor of Teaching
Embedded Systems, Networks and Distributed Systems, Programming Languages and Systems
klefstad@uci.edu
Richard Lathrop
Professor
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology
rickl@ics.uci.edu
Chen Li
Professor
Databases and Text Processing
chenli@ics.uci.edu
Aditi Majumder
Professor
Computer Graphics and Visualization
majumder@ics.uci.edu
Eric Mjolsness
Professor
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology, Computer Vision
emj@uci.edu
Amelia C. Regan
Professor
Algorithms and Complexity, Networks and Distributed Systems
aregan@uci.edu