Bachelor of Computer Science

Course Requirements

The following course schedule provides a suggested framework for students pursuing the BCS degree. Any exemptions a student can bring from high school would increase the flexibility of this schedule. Students planning for the shift to 2 & 4-hour courses starting in Fall, 2023 should note that:

• CS 212, 214, 232, and 262 will all become 4-hour courses (rather than 3-hour courses).
• Math 251 and 252 will become 2-hour courses scheduled in Fall 1 & 2 (rather than 3-hour courses).
• The new requirement for upper-level electives will become 10 hours (rather than four courses).
• Some advanced electives will be split and/or have modified hours. Also, some will be renumbered:
  • CS 338 & CS 339 - System Administration: Infrastructure & Cloud Services (formerly CS 338)
  • CS 354 - Database Management Systems (formerly CS 342)
  • CS 372 - Computer Graphics (formerly CS 352)
  • CS 375 & CS 376 - Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (formerly CS 344)
• The required oral rhetoric course, CAS 100, will become 4 hours (rather than 3). However, IDIS 102 (Oral Rhetoric for Engineers), a 2-hour course, could be an option pending approval from the Engineering Department.
• The lab science requirement will remain at six hours, but there will now be some 2-hour options (e.g., PHYS 130) pending the plans of the natural science departments.
• Note that the ABET accreditation for the BCS requires students to have >=40 hours in CS, including ENGR 220 and CS 384, 396, 398.

Schedule Notes:

1. CS 108 is common here, but CS 106 or 104 can work as well.
2. The core categories for the Mathematical Sciences & the Natural Sciences are covered by the BCS cognate requirements provided that the BCS student chooses their science electives carefully.
3. This schedule assumes that BCS students opt out of World Languages II but fail to exempt out of World Languages I. Students can choose to opt out of a different Knowledge & Understanding category.
4. BCS students must take either oral rhetoric (COMM 101) or oral rhetoric for Engineers (IDIS 102) for one of the Arts & Rhetoric category courses.
5. BCS students must either take tagged courses in the core or add tagged elective courses.
6. This assumes that students cannot find a ABET-compatible natural science course that is only 2 credit hours. Finding one would reduce hours in this schedule.
7. This can be any K & U course, not including Math and Science.
8. Student needs 124 total hours to graduate.

Students who started before 2021 and are using the old core curriculum should pursue this older suggested schedule, this older BCS reduced core curriculum, and this older, 3-credit sample schedule.