Graduate Program

Plan of Study

The Plan of Study is a list of all the courses you plan to take or have taken to fulfill the requirements for the degree. The Department, the Office of Graduate Education, and the Registrar's Office refer to your Plan of Study when they check whether you are fulfilling the degree requirements. When it comes time for you to graduate, the Registrar's Office will compare your Plan of Study with your transcript, to be certain that you took the courses you were supposed to.

The form is available online at http://www.rpi.edu/dept/grad/docs/pos02.PDF. Alternatively, you can get a hard copy version from Terry Hayden in Lally 208.

If you are pursuing both an M.S. and a Ph.D., you should file separate Plans of Study for each degree.

Your Plan of Study should indicate that you will be fulfilling the following requirements:

For a Masters's Degree:

CSCI-6050 Computability and Complexity
CSCI-6140 Computer Operating Systems
CSCI-6990 Master's Thesis (at least 6 credits)
two courses in Systems
one course each in Theory and Applications
a total of 30 credits
at least 18 credits at the 6000 level
at least 15 credits with a CSCI prefix
at least two terms and 24 credits must be at the Troy campus

When listing the required courses, place a check in the "Required" column. When listing the courses taken toward the breadth requirement, please list which group they apply to in the "Required" column.

For a PhD:

a total of exactly 90 credits (if you have a prior MS, 60 credits will be taken at RPI and 30 will be listed as being from your prior M.S.)
45-60 credits of coursework (15-30 with a prior M.S.)
at least 2/3 of your credits for courses must be 6000 level
no more than 21 credits at the 4000 level
at least 45 credits taken at RPI (not transfer credits)

Extra credits

The Plan of Study lists all the credits that fulfill the requirements for the degree. You may end up taking more credits than are required. If so, you won't list everything you took on the Plan of Study.

Ph.D. students often need to take extra research credits in order to maintain full-time status. When you complete your thesis, you and your advisor will need to indicate the number of thesis credits to be awarded on the Record of Thesis Examination form. The number recorded there needs to match the number of research credits on your Plan of Study. That is the number of credits for which the grade will change from "IP" to "S" when you finish your thesis and defense.

For MS students, your credits might not add up exactly to 30. If your total credits add up to something like 35, then you probably need to remove a course from your Plan of Study. However, if your credits add up to 31, if you removed a course, you'd fall below 30, so it's okay for you stay at 31.

Completing the form

After discussing your plan of study with your advisor, you should fill out the form. It may be handwritten, but it should be neat and easy to read.

On the Plan of Study, you should list all the credits you will count toward your degree (not necessarily all credits you have taken). You should list the course number with subject prefix (e.g. CSCI) and course title.

The form must be signed by you, your advisor, and Terry Hayden.

You may photocopy the form and distribute as indicated on the bottom of the form (original to Registrar, photocopies to the Office of Graduate Education and to Terry Hayden). Or, if you prefer, you may give the original to Terry and she will see that it is photocopied and distributed, including a copy for you.

If the courses you end up taking are different from those listed on the Plan of Study, you must file a revised Plan of Study form. If the only change is the date of graduation, but the courses you take stay the same, you do not need to file a new Plan of Study.

Return to main Graduate Program page