ECE Dept. & University Academic Requirements | Electrical and Computer Engineering

To earn your ECE M.S. Degree, you must successfully complete the following:

  1. Pass 52 units (Plan I) or 48 units (Plan II) as indicated by your degree planner and capstone requirement route.
  2. Pass the UCSD capstone requirement:
    • M.S. students must either pass a written thesis and oral defense (Plan I)
    • OR a course hosted M.S. Comprehensive Examination (Plan II)

       

  3. Be in good academic standing which means that students will need to have a GPA that is a 3.0 or higher within 6 quarters of starting the M.S. Program
    • Students CANNOT repeat a course unless they earned a D, F, U, or W grade. If you would like to repeat a course, please submit the online form. More information about how to repeat a course can be found here. 

    • ONLY 100+ courses will count towards your overall GPA

    • Minimum of 12 units (Plan 1) or 16 units (Plan II) must be 201+ ECE courses that must count towards your degree. 

    • All courses counted towards the degree must be taken for a letter grade with exception of research units. 

      • Grades that are a C- or higher, can be used towards the degree requirements. 

    • In order to meet the pre-req for a class, a B- grade or higher needs to be earned in order to move onto the next course.

      • If a B- grade is not achieved, please submit an EASy request so that it can be routed to the professor. 
  4. Meet the UCSD Academic Senate Residency Requirement
    • The minimum residency requirement is three quarters. Academic Residency is established by satisfactorily completing six units per quarter, some of which must be at the graduate level.  In each of the three-quarters of residency, the student must be enrolled in at least one unit of any 200-level course, including research. 
      • Note: the one unit of 200-level does not necessarily need to count towards the degree. But it should at least be related to the program (ECE, CSE, MAE, BENG, CENG, NANO, SE, MATS, MATH, PHYS, COGS, and SIO). 
      • If you would like to waive the residency requirement, please contact your M.S. Advisor once you have started your M.S. program.

For more details on the M.S. Program requirements 

  • please read all of the information on this M.S. page
  • review and complete the M.S. degree planner
  • read the information on the UCSD Academic Senate website

Still have questions?

Please contact your M.S. Advisor.