The student seeking admission should have a Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution of higher education with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 out of 4.0. For success in the program the student should have the equivalent of at least one year of college mathematics which is normally calculus. A few of the graduate courses have, in addition to the calculus, topics such as linear algebra, statistics, and discrete mathematics as prerequisites.

Students are expected to have a better than average knowledge of algorithm construction and implementation of algorithms in an object-oriented language. These requirements are met by the following undergraduate courses at UD:

CPS150, CPS151, and CPS350

A student admitted with conditions must demonstrate proficiency in each of these, either by completing the course with a minimum grade of B- or by performing sufficiently on the MCS program placement exam.

In addition, an understanding of basic computer organization and machine-level programming is expected. Students lacking exposure to these topics are expected to complete CPS250.

Graduate credit from other accredited institutions of graduate learning will be reviewed by the graduate committees. Transfer of such credit may be accepted up to a maximum of six semester hours.