Students should aim to take 8 graduate courses within their first two years. Students who began the program in the Fall 2022 or later must follow the current Coursework Completion Worksheet, which stipulates that more than half of all courses (at least 5 out of 8) must be taught in the Department of Computer Science. Of those courses, 4 out of the 5 core course areas must be satisfied. The course areas include Theory, Applications, Systems, Software, and Reasoning. The remaining courses may be faculty advisor-approved electives inside or outside of the Computer Science Department. When their coursework requirements are complete, students must submit the appropriate coursework completion worksheet, signed by their advisor, to the department’s Academic Program Staff.
Some students prefer to get this requirement out of the way in their first year. However, 4 graduate courses per semester leaves little time for research and teaching. Your decision will depend on your funding situation, your personal preference, and your advisor’s recommendation.
As a full-time residential PhD student, you should register for at least 20 credits each semester through the self-service Student Information System (SIS) portal. Your advisor must approve your course registration and every semester you must enroll in 15–20 credits of your advisor’s section of “PhD Research” (EN.601.809); this is in addition to any other courses you’re taking and applies even if you’ve completed all of your coursework requirements. The Registrar caps the credit limit for PhD students to 25 credits each semester. You’ll want to adjust the variable credit amount of your PhD Research section depending on your full courseload. If you need to adjust PhD Research credits after initial enrollment or adjust course enrollment after the self-service SIS open enrollment closes, you must submit a SEAM online case to request an update. Prior to submitting your request, you’ll need to email your advisor (or the instructor) and department academic staff to obtain enrollment approval, then upload the communication thread as a PDF into your SEAM case. If continuing in your RA-ship during the summer term, you must register for 6 credits of “PhD Research” (EN.601.809).
Every semester, all students must attend a fair number of Computer Science Seminars. SIS enrollment in the Computer Science Seminar (601.801-802) course is required for first- and second-year PhD students only.
Responsible Conduct of Research Course
Before you begin your second year, you must take the in-person mini-course, AS.360.625 Responsible Conduct of Research. This is under 10 hours and is offered during the summer, fall, intersession, and spring sessions. Failure to comply with this requirement by the end of your first year of enrollment may result in your inability to conduct research and receive the associated stipend/salary.
Academic Ethics
This mandatory module and quiz is embedded in the WSE online orientation and is part of every graduate student’s degree requirements. You will see the course EN.500.603 added to your SIS enrollment. Do not drop this course!
Frequently Asked Questions
Eligible CS courses are generally numbered xxx.600 and above. The rarely used Independent Study (601.805-806) may be taken for graduate credit and a letter grade under a faculty member’s supervision. Courses do not count unless they are taken for a grade; thus, you cannot count pass/fail seminars or the required department seminar series (601.801-802). Also, courses are ordinarily 3 credits; a 1-credit course counts as only one-third of a course and 3 such courses can serve to count for 1 full course.
Effective Fall 2017, only courses that are 600-level and above are eligible to be put toward the CS coursework requirements, except for documented and approved exceptions. This is a WSE-wide initiative and will not impact courses taken prior to the Fall 2017 semester.
Any graduate course offered by a full-time JHU program is eligible, with advisor approval. Your advisor must agree that the course is relevant to your degree—either to computer science generally or to your specific program of study and research. Graduate level courses in most departments are numbered 600 and above.
Students who wish to register for a course in a division outside of WSE (such as through the Engineering for Professionals program or in the School of Medicine), must complete the Interdivisional Registration (IDR) form. Visit the Interdivisional Registration website for more information and a link to the IDR form. Once completed and signed by your advisor, the form can be submitted via SEAM’s online portal. Please note that submitting an IDR request does not guarantee enrollment in an interdivisional course.
The official designation list is available on the CS website. For CS courses, designations are also listed in the Academic Catalogue.
You need at least a C- for a course to count, and your average grade for the 8 courses must be at least a B+. What you learn will also help you in your GBO Exam, your research, and your future career. But ultimately, the world will judge you on your research, not your grades.
Yes, if the courses have not been counted toward an undergraduate degree or taken as an undergraduate in another institution. They must be of comparable rigor and appropriate for the requirements in question, as attested by a syllabus, problem sets, or other course materials. You may apply up to 2 appropriate non-JHU courses toward the course requirements with solely your advisor’s approval. You may apply more than 2 appropriate non-JHU courses toward the PhD requirements with the approval of Director of Graduate Studies Scott Smith; this may include up to 4 appropriate courses from WSE’s Engineering for Professionals programs. To proceed with obtaining Professor Smith’s approval, please complete a Transfer Request Form and send it, along with a PDF of your transcript, to scott@cs.jhu.edu, copying your advisor. You may wish to reference the PhD Coursework Worksheet and CS course area list prior to submitting your request. You can review WSE’s policy on transferring and double-counting courses here.
This is often possible as the coursework requirements for the CS MSE and CS PhD are nearly identical. In particular, the PhD coursework requirement plus one PhD qualifying project will often satisfy the MSE degree requirements since one PhD project will count as an MSE project. Note, however, that no external transfer courses will be permitted to count toward the MSE if they were already applied to some other completed degree. So if you transferred in courses from a previous master’s degree, you will likely not be getting an MSE along the way unless you decide to take additional courses as part of your PhD. Questions about picking up your MSE degree should be directed to MSE Academic Program Manager Revelie Williams. You can review WSE’s policy on double-counting courses here.