MS Degree Planning

Degree Progress & Planning

ISE expects on-campus master’s degree students to complete the degree requirements in two years. The non-thesis option can be completed in 12-18 months.

To formally plan your courses, as well as audit your progress, you can run a degree audit from the Graduate College Student Portal. This system allows you to view courses already taken and how these courses are counting toward your degree. It is a good idea to check this audit often. Courses taken outside of ISE will likely need to be petitioned to count toward requirements – see the section below for information regarding internal petitions. You can also add planned courses to your audit to see how they will fit into your overall degree plan.

As you move toward graduation, this audit will become more and more useful. 

Internal Petitions

Please keep in mind that for non-ISE courses to count toward your degree, you must make your request through an ISE Internal Petition. It is important you complete this petition before you take the coursework you want to count toward your degree.

Courses (Master & By Discipline)

You can download the ISE Graduate Course Spreadsheet to view courses by research discipline, term offering, etc. Please keep in mind that this spreadsheet is not a substitute for Course Explorer information and you should check each semester for actual offerings.

The Grainger College of Engineering also maintains a list of courses and syllabi that you can check out as well.

Thesis Submission

Master's TDA Form

The Master's TDA form is generated through the Graduate College Student Portal. We recommend that you submit this request at least one week before you plan to deposit your thesis with the Graduate College. Please note that once your department approves of your master's TDA it takes around 30 minutes for the form to be generated, so it is important to plan ahead.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR MASTER'S STUDENTS

1. Login to the Graduate College Student Portal.

2. Select "Master's TDA Form" in the "Forms and Resources" section.

3. Click "Start Master's Thesis Approval Request."

4. In the box that pops up, select "Master's Student Thesis Approval Request Form" in the drop-down list. Then, click the grey button to start your request.

5. Select how many committee members you have. (Note: Many master's students just have one adviser/committee member!)

6. The first individual you enter must be a member of the Graduate Faculty. Please search the Graduate Faculty Database in order to fill in the name on the form. The Graduate College requires at least one Graduate Faculty member review all master's theses.

7. If you have additional committee members, you can enter their names in the following blanks.

8. Click "Submit." Your TDA request will be sent to your department for approval.