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2010-2011 University Catalog
Computational Social Science, MS (pending SCHEV approval)
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Banner Code: KR-MS-CSS
The program described below has been approved by the Board of Visitors and sent to the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia for consideration as a new degree program. The university cannot accept applications or enroll students in this program until SCHEV approval has been granted.
The CSS MS program will prepare students to be members of project teams working at government agencies, think tanks, and contractors, contributing to background research and to project design, execution, and communication. CSS MS graduates following the thesis option will also be prepared to enter research-oriented PhD programs in both computational and social science.
Upon completion of the program, students will: understand the complex systems foundations of CSS; gain exposure to the most current and significant ongoing work in CSS; understand the structure and design of CSS models; be able to design and execute basic CSS models; and understand the technical foundations and current work in at least two CSS subfields (such as but not limited to social network analysis, computational economics, finance, or game theory, the emergence of social complexity, and spatial agent-based modeling).
Admission Requirements
The Fall semester is the normal time of entry into the program, with February 15th of each year as the deadline for receiving applications. Prior background should include a Bachelor’s degree in either one of the social sciences, in computer science, engineering, or in a relevant discipline, as well as undergraduate courses in these and related areas. Bachelor’s degrees in other areas are also eligible, but the student may be required to take additional courses in social science, mathematics or computer science as prerequisites to admission.
Application materials should be submitted to the CSS Academic Programs Office and must include the following:
1) Completed application form;
2) Official transcripts for all undergraduate (minimum overall 3.0 GPA) and previous graduate courses, minimally including pre-calculus and one course in statistics;
3) An updated curriculum vitae;
4) Three letters of recommendation by faculty members or individuals with direct knowledge of the student’s academic or professional capabilities;
5) A statement of purpose (maximum 2000 words) outlining the student’s interest in and preparation for the program;
6) The names of two faculty members who may be suitable as advisors;
7) Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores taken within the past five years prior to the date of application submission;
8) Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) as per GMU policies.
No specific set of qualifications guarantees admission to the program.
CSS Academic Programs Office
Rm 382 Research I Bldg
4400 University Drive, MS 6B2
Fairfax, VA 22030
Students should also review the university-wide graduate admissions standards and procedures discussed in the Admission section of this catalog. |
Degree Requirements
The master’s degree in Computational Social Science requires a total of 36 credits and includes a choice of three degree completion options. The 36 credits are distributed among the following categories of courses: required core courses (18 credits); research course(s) (3 credits); electives (9-15 credits depending on the degree completion option pursued); and one of three degree completion options: a comprehensive exam (no credit), a project (3 credits), or a thesis (6 credits). Core Courses (18 credits):
9 credit hours of required CSS Courses
to provide understanding of the conceptual, technical, and practical foundations of computational social science: 9 credit hours of departmental electives from the following list
to provide understanding of the technical foundations and current work in at least two CSS subfields: Research Course (3 credits) chosen from the following:
Three credits will be chosen from the following courses to provide students with exposure to the most current ongoing research in the field and to allow them to further develop their computational research expertise: Electives (9-15 credits):
The number of general elective credits required depends on the degree completion option selected by the student. For students choosing the comprehensive exam option, 15 elective credits are required; for those choosing the project option, 12 credits; and for those completing a thesis option, 9 elective credits are required.
The purpose of the electives is to allow students to acquire a substantive specialization and acquire additional training in social and computational science. An elective course may be any Mason master’s-level course in computational social science, social science, computer science, statistics, and other quantitative methods such as data visualization, information technology, and geographic information science. These courses should be selected in conjunction with, and approved by, the student’s advisor and the Director of CSS Graduate Studies. If the student does not have prior coursework in multivariate statistical analysis, at least one such course relevant for the student’s chosen specialization should be included in these credits.
Note that in some instances the specialization may also have a strong methodological component, as is the case for GIS-supported agent-based social simulation modeling and other CSS specializations with strong methodological content. Degree Completion Options (0-6 credits):
Students choose one degree completion option. Comprehensive exam (no credit)
Students following the comprehensive exam option must complete a total of 15 elective credits (see above). These students will then take a standardized, written comprehensive exam at the end of the final academic year of their program. The exam will be designed and graded by a comprehensive exam committee of at least three faculty members, including the coordinator of the CSS MS program and two additional faculty members appointed to the examination committee. The exam will include questions based on the content of the three CSS core courses and a choice of field questions based on the departmental electives completed by the students taking the exam in that year. Exams will be graded fail, conditional pass (conditions can include a requirement for a written or oral follow-up to examiners’ comments), pass, and high pass. Two attempts to pass the exam are allowed. Project (3 credits)
Students choosing the project option must complete a total of 12 elective courses (see above), form a three-person faculty committee to review their project, and complete 3 credits of CSS 798 (Research Project). A CSS project is an original technical exercise, such as design and execution of an original experiment using an existing model, a model-to-model comparison, empirical analysis of data generated by a computational model, or implementation and documentation of a simple model in a package such as Netlogo or MASON. The project should be documented through a technical report, which is approved by the student’s three-person committee. The student will also be required to hold a public presentation of their project (such as through the CSS brown bag seminar series or an external conference). Projects will be graded fail, conditional pass (conditions can include a requirement for repeat presentation or written or oral follow up to ), pass, and high pass. Two attempts to pass are allowed. Thesis (6 credits)
Students choosing the thesis option must form a three-person thesis committee, complete 6 credits of CSS 799 (Master’s Thesis), and complete and defend a thesis. The thesis should involve independent, original research suitable for submission to a peer-reviewed conference or journal. Theses will be graded fail, conditional pass (conditions can include a requirement for a written or oral follow-up to examiner’s comments), pass, and high pass. Two attempts to defend the thesis are allowed. |
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