NewMS-FirstSemesterAdvising

New MS Student Registration Guidelines - First Semester (Fall Term) General Advising

We are excited you are joining our team this August!  This site is designed to give you guidance on registering for fall  courses.  If you have an RA appointment or have connected with a faculty member that could be your potential thesis advisor, please seek additional advice from them through email or a SYKPE session.  All incoming MS students will have the fall and spring terms to secure their thesis advisor.  Until your thesis advisor is secured, the CS Graduate Academic Office will serve as your advisor.  

Please review the  MS Planning Document  to help guide you on the program requirements. 

We recommend that you register as soon as possible.   With increased enrollments in the CS department and on campus, CS courses tend to fill up quickly so we request that you register as soon as possible. 

Steps to Complete for Course Registration

1. To start the registration process, you must first setup your NetID and password.  The instructions for this were given to you in your "official offer letter" from the Graduate College.  If you missed the link, please go to http://www.grad.illinois.edu/quick-guide.  
2. Go to http://www.registrar.illinois.edu/registration/register.html to sign up for classes.  To review the courses that will be offered in computer science, please visit the Fall 2016 CS Course Schedule.  

Number of Minimum Credit Hours to Register for Fall 2016 Term

• RA or TA Assistantship Appointment - 8 credit hours
• Full Fellowship - 12 credit hours
• Combined RA or TA Assistantship Appointment + Full (tuition-waiver generating) Fellowship - 8 credit hours
• Combined RA or TA Assistantship Appointment + Partial Fellowship - 8 credit hours

Selecting Courses 

For your first semester, we recommend that you select courses that interest you and start to complete the "Breadth Requirement".  (see MS Planning Document - link above)  In addition, we recommend that you choose a CS 598 Special Topics course with a professor that you might want to secure as your thesis advisor.  Graduate students are free to register for any 400 or 500-level course.  If there is a pre-requisite for a course, it is your responsibility to ensure you have the prior knowledge required for the course.  In addition, 400-level courses are introductory graduate level courses and can be taken for either 3 or 4 credits.  If you select the 4 credit hour 400-level course, the faculty will usually have you do a project or paper for the extra credit hour.  All 500-level courses are taken for 4 credit hours.