Declaring a Major in Computer Science

Declaring the B.A. Major in Computer Science

The B.A. curriculum is described in terms of tracks. A track is an approved set of at least three related advanced courses. Tracks allow students to focus their interests and to take advantage of the many other disciplines at UR (music, biology, political science, optics, brain and cognitive sciences, etc.) for which computing is a powerful enabler. In order to earn a B.A., a student must complete:

  • One approved track;
  • All of the prerequisite courses for the track; and
  • Additional courses as necessary in order to reach a total of 12 major courses.

The set of 12 major courses includes all Computer Science courses taken by the student, subject to a limit of 2 independent study courses, and including up to 2 courses from other disciplines that appear in the student's chosen track or track prerequisites. All of the track courses and courses counting toward the 12 major courses must be taken for a grade and not on a pass/fail basis. All 12 will count toward their Computer Science GPA. No more than two of the 12 courses for the B.A. can be completed at other institutions. If transfer courses are taken while in residence, they must be pre-approved by the undergraduate program director.
There are no course requirements before entry into the program, but two CSC courses above the level of 130 must be completed with a grade of C or better in order to enjoy the full privileges of a CSC major (non-expiring accounts, lab space, free printing, etc.).

Please make an appointment to meet with the Undergraduate Liaison, Marty Guenther, in Computer Studies Building (CSB) 735 to declare your major. Appointments will be available Monday-Thursday at 10:00am and 10:30am as well as 2:00pm and 2:30pm. A schedule will be outside her office to sign up for your time.
 

Declaring the B.S. Major in Computer Science

Students wishing to declare a B.S. in Computer Science should have completed  two CSC courses in the BS pre-major sequence as listed in the Undergraduate Curriculum with a GPA of at least 2.0 and no grade lower than a C-:

CSC 171
CSC 172
MTH150
MTH 161-162 or MTH 141-143 or MTH 171-174

1. Please make an appointment to meet with the Undergraduate Liaison, Marty Guenther, in Computer Studies Building (CSB) 735 to declare your major. Appointments will be available Monday-Thursday at 10:00am and 10:30am as well as 2:00pm and 2:30pm. A schedule will be outside her office to sign up for your time.

2. Please complete the B.S. on-line schedule planner prior to coming for your appointment. While completing this planner, you will need to decide the following:

  • What advanced courses do I want to take to complete my degree?  This will include CSC 200 and MTH 165, and 3 advanced CS courses.
  • Have you completed your primary writing class?
  • Will you do a senior project your final semester, or will you take an additional course in CSC instead?
  • How will you meet your two upper level writing experiences?
  • What clusters will you complete?  You need two clusters as a CSC major, one in Humanities and one in Social Science. These should already be in progress, but do not have to be completed yet.

In most cases, students will change their course plans during their studies, and will need to meet with the Undergraduate Liaison prior to graduation. Course selections made at this time are not written in stone. You have the option of changing your advanced CSC electives at any time. We will adjust your file in your final semester to include courses actually taken.

3. The planner will enforce all prerequisites. Make sure you have completed the prerequisite in your plan before you attempt to take an advanced course. If you have AP credit or transfer credit for a pre-major requirement, check the AP credit box, and the planner will consider the requirement met.  (We will have to verify the credit has been granted for the course before the requirement will be considered officially satisfied.)  Please check "MTH 161-162" in the semesters you took any of the three acceptable math sequences listed above. The current course planner is scheduled to be replaced, so if you have any trouble with it, fill it out to the best of your ability and we can adjust it when you meet with the Undergraduate Coordinator.

If you are a transfer student, or if you took courses in an unusual order, the schedule planner may not work for you. Contact the Undergraduate Liaison directly to plan your schedule.

4. Don’t forget to submit the on-line planner form on the bottom of the planner page. This data will be sent to the Undergraduate Liaison, who will retrieve it at your appointment.  Please report problems with the planner to marty@cs.rochester.edu