Breadth
Before approving the Program of Study, the student's Program of Study committee will determine whether the student has proposed to develop sufficient breadth in the choice of required coursework. Some faculty may consider this as breadth within computer science while others may define it more braodly to include other disciplines.
Regardless of area, most faculty in the Department of Computer Science strongly believe that all graduate students should at least be exposed to one graduate level theory course and systems course. The most widely recommended theory course is either CS 473 or 573. Systems course recommendations may vary depending on the student's research area and interests. These expectations hold even if the student has taken advanced systems and theory courses before coming to UIUC.