Fast-Track (4+1) Graduate Program

Program description, goals, and benefits

The Technology FastTrack program at DSU provides a unique opportunity for high achieving undergraduate students to obtain both a Bachelors and a Master’s degree in five years. This is accomplished by allowing these students to take selected graduate courses during their senior year. These courses will also count towards their undergraduate course requirements thereby fast-tracking their completion of a graduate program. The structure of the program provides distinct advantages to our undergraduate students and can provide a valuable recruiting tool for both the undergraduate and graduate programs. In effect, students will be able to:

Leverage their presence on campus to complete some of the requirements of the graduate program during the last semesters of their undergraduate degree, thus reducing completion time by at least one semester. In effect, obtaining a BS and a MS degree in five years.
Save on tuition cost by taking up to 9 credits of graduate course work that will count towards undergraduate and graduate program requirements.

Specific Undergraduate and Graduate Programs for Fast Track Requirements

The fast track programs are specifically for the Masters of Science in Information Assurance and the Masters of Science in Information Systems graduate programs in the College of Business and Information Systems.

Undergraduate students in the Information Systems (INFS), Computer and Network Security (CONS), Network and Systems Administration (NSA), or the Computer Science (CSC) programs would select the MSIA or MSIS program.

Admission requirements

Students with a major in INFS, CONS, NSA, or CSC may be admitted to the Fast Track program upon completion of their junior year. Accordingly, they can apply to the program in the last semester of their junior year. To be considered, the student will have to meet the following requirements:

Have senior status by the time they commence their joint undergraduate/graduate program.
Have a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher after grades have been posted from their junior year.
Have declared the Center of Excellence in Computer Information Systems minor.

Application requirements

A 4+1 application can be picked up in the College of Business & Information Systems Office, the Office of Graduate Studies & Research, or on the graduate website. A completed application package is required once a student has earned his/her BS degree. See program information for specific application requirements.

Sample Programs of Study

1) IS with MSIS Program of Study

Students will be allowed to take up to 3 graduate courses from either Plan A or Plan B during their senior year.

Plan A

Substitute three specific INFS core courses for three specific CIS courses (a total of nine credits):

Take: INFS 720 Systems Analysis & Design Using Case-based tools
To Replace: CIS 332 - Structured Systems Analysis and Design
Take: INFS 724 Project and Change Management
To Replace: CIS 427 - Information Systems Planning and Management
Take: INFS 760 Enterprise Modeling, and Data Management
To Replace: CIS 484 - Database Management Systems

Plan B

Substitute three specific INFS core courses from the list to replace three CIS Electives (a total of nine credits)

Recommended selections:

INFS 720 - Systems Analysis & Design Using Case-based tools
INFS 724 - Project and Change Management
INFS 730 - Programming for E Commerce
INFS 750 - IT Infrastructure, Technology and Network Mgmt
INFS 760 - Enterprise Modeling, and Data Management
INFS 780 - Information Technology Strategy and Policy

2) CONS/NSA/CSC with MSIA Program of Study

Students will be allowed to take up to 3 graduate courses during their senior year. Substitute three specific INFA core courses to replace three electives (a total of nine credits). Students who complete the CONS major or minor as an undergraduate will not be required to take INFA 532 and INFA 534 in the MSIA program.