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Computer Science Graduate Program

Registration in Research Credits

A variety of courses are called “department approval required” for registration courses, all related to research credits. This means you cannot sign yourself up for them, but need a staff member in the Graduate Office to enroll you.

To do so, send an email with the following information:

  1. Your name and student ID.
  2. Course number in which you wish to be registered, and section number if you know it.
  3. Faculty member name who will supervise the credits and assign a grade on completion.
  4. Number of credits for which you wish to be registered (many of these have variable credits).

to csc-gradoffice@ncsu.edu and cc: the faculty member (always) and the DGP (for CSC630 and CSC830 only, see below). The faculty member and DGP can then simply “Reply All” (ensuring the Graduate Office staff receives this response) to the mail with the one-word message “Approved”. You will then be registered.

The courses that are commonly requested this way, for masters students, are:

  1. CSC630 (Master’s Independent Study) – maximum of 3 credits counted towards graduation, and non-thesis students must provide a one-page description to the DGP for approval.
  2. CSC695 (Master’s Thesis Research) or CSC696 (Summer Master’s Thesis Research) – maximum of 6 credits will be counted towards graduation.

The courses that are commonly requested this way, for PhD students, are:

  1. CSC830 (Doctoral Independent Study) – students must provide a one-page description to the DGP for approval.
    The purpose of CSC830 is to explore research under the direction of a prospective advisor. Taking CSC830 under the direction of the same faculty member in consecutive semesters is not recommended. Students are encouraged to register for CSC890 as a followup to CSC830.
  2. CSC890 (Doctoral Preliminary Exam) – taken before passing the Written Prelim Exam (max of 6 credits counted towards graduation).
    On rare occasions, a student who completes 6 credits of CSC890 before passing the Written Prelim Exam must register for CSC893 in subsequent semesters.
  3. CSC893 (Doctoral Supervised Research) – generally taken after passing the Written Prelim Exam and before passing the Oral Prelim Exam
  4. CSC895 (Doctoral Dissertation Research) and CSC896 (Summer Dissertation Research) – taken after passing the Oral Prelim Exam.