MS CMPE Degree Requirements

To obtain the MS CMPE degree from SJSU, a student must meet the following requirements:

The student must be in a classified MS-CMPE status, as described in Admission Conditions.

The student must complete coursework in the following three categories:

1. Program core courses (courses that all MS-CMPE students are required to take): CMPE 200, CMPE 220, CMPE 240 (3 units each, total of 9 units).
2. Specialization Courses (total of 9 units within the student’s declared specialization):

c. Technical elective courses (total of 6 units):

    An elective course can be any graduate-level CMPE course (3 units each) except the following: CMPE 270, CMPE 271, CMPE 298, CMPE 298i, CMPE 295A, CMPE 295B, CMPE 299A, and CMPE 299B. With the MS-CMPE Graduate Advisor’s approval and clear justification for the alternative course(s), a student can take up to two elective courses from other departments. Note that before registering for a non-CMPE course, the student must submit the Take Non-CMPE Department or Program Course Request Form to the CMPE Department. Without the Graduate Advisor’s approval prior to registering for the course, non-CMPE courses will not be credited toward the student’s degree program.

Student must satisfactorily complete one of the following:

Students must fulfill SJSU’s Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) by satisfactorily completing CMPE 294 (or ENG 200W). For those entering the program in S20 or later, satisfaction of an undergraduate GWAR will no longer be considered acceptable as a waiver justification for the graduate-level GWAR. Those with publications (e.g., well written previous master’s thesis or single authored refereed journal article or patent in English) or have taken a technical writing course comparable to CMPE 294 at another university may submit the Waive Technical Writing Requirement request for a GWAR waiver. Decisions on such requests will be made by SJSU’s Graduate Studies office, not by the CMPE Department, but the materials must be prepared, packaged, and delivered to the CMPE Graduate Advisor for conveyance to Graduate Studies.  

Before graduation, students must complete and submit the following documents:

1. The Petition for Advancement to Graduate Candidacy (i.e., the Candidacy Form). The candidacy form and supporting materials should be submitted to the Canvas site associated with either CMPE 295A or 299A. If not completed during the class, it can be submitted directly to the MS-CMPE Graduate Advisor. Along with completed candidacy form, you must submit your SJSU graduate transcripts, admission letter listing admission conditions (if conditionally accepted), evidence of completing conditions (aforementioned transcripts and emails from department indicating passage of conditional course waiver tests), the university-generated My Course History, transfer course permissions (if any), permissions to take courses in other departments (if any), and any other documentation needed to evaluate the accuracy of your submitted candidacy form.
2. The Application for Award of Master’s Degree Form (i.e., the Graduation Application, access to which is now online through the student’s MySJSU account).
3. Thesis or project report. For project-option students, submission is done via the CMPE 295B class Canvas site. For thesis-option students, the thesis, once approved by the student’s master’s thesis committee, should be submitted to SJSU’s College of Graduate Studies. Please visit the college website for instructions on thesis preparation and submission.

Graduate students must maintain a 3.0 or higher GPA for all upper-division and graduate courses taken at SJSU (cumulative SJSU GPA) as well as the courses listed on his or her candidacy form (candidacy or degree GPA).