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SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENTS

• Complete a total of 30 points (Courses must be at the 4000 level or above)
• Maintain at least a 2.7 overall GPA. (No more than 1 D is permitted).
• Complete the Columbia Engineering Professional Development & Leadership (PDL) requirement
• Satisfy breadth requirements
• Take at least 6 points of technical courses at the 6000 level
• At most, up to 3 points of your degree can be Non-CS/Non-track If they are deemed relevant to your track and sufficiently technical in nature. Please submit the course syllabus to your CS Faculty Advisor for review, and then forward the approval confirmation email to ms-advising@cs.columbia.edu

1. Breadth Courses

Visit the breadth requirement page for more information.

2. Required Track Courses

Students are required to complete the following 5 courses: COMS W4118 (OS), COMS W4156 (Adv. Software Engineering), COMS W4181 (Computer Security I), COMS W4182 (Computer Security II), and either COMS W4261 (Introduction to Cryptography) or COMS E6185 (Intrusion Detection). Students who have taken equivalent courses in the past and received grades of at least a B may apply for waivers and take other CS courses instead.

For students starting the program in Fall 2018 and later:

Course ID	Title
COMS W4118	Operating Systems
COMS W4156	Adv. Software Engineering
COMS W4181	Computer Security I
COMS W4182	Computer Security II
Either COMS W4261 or COMS E6185	Introduction to Cryptography or Intrusion Detection

For students who started the program prior to Fall 2018:

Course ID	Title
COMS W4118	Operating Systems
COMS W4156	Adv. Software Engineering
COMS W4180	Network Security
COMS W4187	Security Architecture and Engineering
Either COMS W4261 or COMS E6185	Introduction to Cryptography or Intrusion Detection

3. Track Electives

Students are required to complete 2 courses out of the following list; at least one course must be 6000-level. Please note that courses with * are offered in alternate years.

Course ID	Title
COMS W4115	Programming Languages and Translators
COMS/CSEE W4119	Computer Networks
COMS W4186	Malware Analysis & Reverse Engineering
COMS W4261	Introduction to Cryptography
COMS W4995	Visit the topics courses page to see which COMS 4995 courses apply to this track.
COMS E6118	Operating Systems, II
COMS E6181	Advanced Internet Services
COMS E6183	Security
COMS E6184*	Privacy & Anonymity
COMS E6185	Intrusion and Anomaly Detection Systems
COMS E6261*	Advanced Cryptography
COMS E6424	Hardware Security
CSEE E6863	Formal Verification of Hardware and Software Systems
COMS E6901	Projects in Computer Science (Advisor approval required)
COMS E6998	Visit the topics courses page to see which COMS 6998 courses apply to this track.
CSEE W4824	Computer Architecture
ELEN E4703	Wireless Communications
ELEN E6761	Computer Communication Networks
ELEN E6886	Topics in Multimedia Security
ELEN E6950	Wireless & Mobile Nets, I
ELEN E6951	Wireless & Mobile Nets, II

4. General Electives

Students must complete the remaining credits with General Elective Courses at the 4000 level or above. Three credits must be from a graduate CS course and can be chosen from either the Track Electives listed above or from the CS department at the 4000 level or higher. Students may also request to use at most 3 points of Non-CS/Non-Track coursework if approved by the process listed below.

• At most, up to 3 points of your degree can be Non-CS/Non-track If they are deemed relevant to your track and sufficiently technical in nature. Please submit the course syllabus to your CS Faculty Advisor for review, and then forward the approval confirmation email to ms-advising@cs.columbia.edu

**Due to a significant overlap in course material, MS students not in the Machine Learning track can only take 1 of the following courses – COMS 4771, COMS 4721, ELEN 4903, IEOR 4525, STAT 4240, STAT 4400/4241/5241 – as part of their degree requirements.

Please note:

• For the Security track, you must have six points at the 6000 level; at least three of these 6000-level points must be selected from the list of Elective Track Courses.

• Students who waive track requirements by using previous courses must still complete 30 graduate credits. This can be done by expanding their elective selection to include courses listed as required track courses and elective track courses; or by taking other graduate courses

• The Degree Progress Checklist should be used to keep track of your requirements. If you have questions for your Track Advisor or CS Advising, you should have an updated Checklist prepared

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TRACK PLANNING

Please visit the Directory of Classes to get the updated course listings. Please also note that not all courses are offered every semester or even every year. A few courses are offered only once every two or three years or even less frequently.

Please note that some Data Science Institute courses, such as COMS/CSEE W4121 (Computer Systems for Data Science), do not count towards the CS MS degree. If you have any questions, please contact your advisor or CS Advising.

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Updated: 09/04/2024