Bachelors to Graduate

Combined Bachelors/Masters Degree Program

The School of Computing offers a combined Bachelors/MS education plan which allows students to apply up to nine hours of graduate (6000- and 8000-level) courses towards both a Bachelors degree and an MS degree. Students participating in this program must have at least 90 semester hours (junior standing) and a minimum GPA of 3.4. If accepted, once the student receives the Bachelors degree, they will be switched to the MS program automatically without needing a graduate school application, GRE scores, etc. Prior to receiving the Bachelors, the student will need to submit a form for each semester in which they wish to take a graduate level course. For questions about the program or on how to apply for the program, please make an appointment with Prof. Carrie Russell here - Book time with Carrie L Russell.

Things to consider:

• Students must complete 150 unique total credit hours, apart from any double-application, to receive both a Bachelors and an MS from the same institution. (This is an accreditation rule. Most students will have no problem with this requirement since they will have AP and/or transfer credits classified as excess electives.)
• There is a limit of nine credit hours that can apply to both degrees in the combined Bachelors/MS program in computer science. (Some graduate programs at Clemson allow twelve, but the faculty in the School of Computing approved a smaller limit of nine.)
• There is a limit of four 6000-level courses that can apply to the coursework-only MS degree, and there is a limit of three 6000-level courses that can apply to the thesis-option MS degree. Please see the MS program requirements at www.clemson.edu/cecas/departments/computing/academics/graduates/programsofstudy/msincs.html.
• Many, but not all, of our 4000-level CPSC courses have a cross-listed 4000-level counterpart. If you wish to have the 6000-level version apply as per the policies of the Bachelors to Masters program, you can 1) register for the 4000-level version of the course, 2) meet with Prof. Russell to have the GS6 form signed, 3) meet with your primary academic advisor to have the GS6 form signed, and 4) make sure the Graduate School receives your paperwork. The Graduate School will then move you from the 4000-level of the course into the cross-listed 6000-level.
• Undergraduate scholarships cannot be used to support the students after their status changes to being an MS student, even if they finish their Bachelors early and have “unused” semesters left on the scholarship. Also, the students should check with the Financial Aid office to see if they need to have a full-time load of undergraduate courses in addition to any graduate courses in order to meet the requirements of their scholarship.
• The students can consider switching to a PhD program while enrolled as an MS student. They do not have to complete the MS before switching to one of the BDSI, CPSC, or HCC PhD programs.
• There are assistantships available to help fund graduate studies for PhD and MS students, but the funding is competitive and not guaranteed.

Combined BS Computer Science/MS Biomedical Data Science & Informatics

The School of Computing also offers a BS Computer Science to MS Biomedical Data Science & Informatics course plan. For more information, please visit computing.clemson.edu/bdsi or contact Adam Rollins at rollin7@clemson.edu.