HELP 2009-2010 University Catalog Information Technology, BS/Telecommunications, Accelerated MS Print-Friendly Page

School: The Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering 

Department: Applied Information Technology 

Students in the BS in Information Technology Program may elect to enter the Accelerated MS in Telecommunications (MS in TCOM) Program while they are undergraduate students. The accelerated program is designed for qualified undergraduate students in the information technology program who would like to proceed directly into the MS in TCOM Program, completing the two degrees with 144 credits. Students must satisfy requirements for the undergraduate degree (120 credits) and the MS degree (30 credits), with 6 credits of overlap permitted. The MS in TCOM is on an accelerated track, with 6 credits taken as an undergraduate and 24 credits as a graduate student. The 6 undergraduate credits must be selected from those given in the listing that follows and will be substituted for BS degree concentration electives, subject to prior approval by an advisor. Note: Students in the accelerated program must take ECE 301 as one of their BS in information technology concentration electives.

Applicants must be Mason undergraduate students in the BS in Information Technology Program. Students may apply for the accelerated program during the semester after which they will have completed 90 or more credits applicable toward the BS degree. Students must have an overall GPA of at least 3.25 to apply for the program. Students who have not yet finished 90 credits may be accepted provisionally subject to  satisfactory completion of 90 credits. Criteria for admission into the accelerated program are identical to criteria for admission into the MS in TCOM Program, except that students do not need to have completed an undergraduate degree prior to admission.

Accepted students must maintain a minimum 3.25 GPA in the undergraduate segment of the accelerated program and a 3.00 GPA in the graduate segment. That is, after  students have been accepted into the accelerated program, they must maintain a 3.25 GPA until they have satisfied requirements for the undergraduate degree. They must then maintain a minimum 3.00 GPA in the graduate segment of the accelerated program. Should their GPA fall below 3.00 while a graduate student, they will be dropped from the accelerated program to the regular program, and those graduate TCOM courses taken and applied to the BS in information technology will no longer be admissible for the MS in TCOM. If students are dropped from the accelerated program and have taken and applied TCOM core courses toward the BS degree, then they need not repeat those courses for the regular MS in TCOM Program if they obtained a grade of B or higher in those courses. But they will need to take elective courses in their place to satisfy the 30-credit requirement for the regular MS in TCOM.

Similarly, if students are dropped from the accelerated program and have taken and applied non core TCOM courses toward the BS degree, then they do not need to repeat those courses for the regular MS in TCOM Program if they obtained a grade of C or higher for those courses. Elective courses will be required to replace TCOM courses already taken and dropped from the program. Note: Up to two C grades may be carried in the regular TCOM program in non mandatory core courses. A minimum GPA of 3.00 is required to graduate with an MS in TCOM.

Students must complete all requirements for the BS degree. Students in the accelerated program must apply to have the BS degree conferred the semester before they expect to complete the BS requirements. The MS in TCOM is granted on completion of all requirements for the accelerated degree.

TCOM courses that may be taken as an undergraduate student as part of the Accelerated BS in Information Technology/MS in TCOM Program are noted in the listing below. Note: All of the prerequisite courses indicated below must be passed with a grade of B or higher.