Regulations and Procedures
This section covers specific policies of the Computer Science Department and refers to some of the most important governing policies and procedure of the Graduate School, http://www.luc.edu/gradschool/academics_policies.shtml, but this Computer Science Handbook does not attempt to duplicate the statement of all Graduate School policies.
Deadlines
The Graduate School takes deadlines very seriously. All Graduate School key academic and administrative deadlines and starting dates are listed at http://www.luc.edu/gradschool/key_dates.shtml.
Course Loads
A full-time student will usually carry three courses in the Fall and Spring semesters. Students can also choose to be part-time. This is an academic policy.
Be sure to see if you have separate constraints due to a loan program for domestic students or due to federal visa policy for international students.
We do not encourage students to take more than 3 courses a term, and you should contact the Graduate Program Director if you need to take more than 3 courses in a term for any reason. It is explicitly prohibited to enroll in more than 3 courses to hold a space in a course. Many of our courses fill up quickly, so you should only register for courses that you truly plan to complete. No one is allowed to take more than 12 credit hours in Fall or Spring.
This means most students finish the program in 16 months: Three Fall/Spring semesters for 9 of the courses, and the intervening Summer for one course. Some students take an extra Summer course, leaving a reduced load for the last semester, when it may be particularly convenient to devote time to a job or job search.
Registration
Both new and continuing students must complete the process of registration before every semester in which they are either enrolling in classes. Also, there is a special course conferring full-time registration for MS Computer Science students opting to complete a thesis and who are only writing a thesis that semester. For details on choosing courses see Course Selection and Advising below.
Students must maintain continuous registration throughout their years in the program unless they explicitly apply for and are approved for a leave of absence.
You must also announce your decision to come back from a Leave of Absence with an email to the Associate Dean of the Graduate School. Only after the Graduate School accepts your letter announcing your plan to return, will you be allowed to register for classes.
Forgetting this can cause lots of hassle and delay in registration for the semester when you do wish to resume.
After registration opens you can register yourself through LOCUS for most courses with just your student ID number.
New students should get course advising first from the department, and all others are welcomed to get advice from their advisor listed in LOCUS.
You cannot register yourself for Comp 490 or 499 as both require the permission of the Graduate Program Director or instructor of record. See Independent Study and Internships.
In any course where there is a note about consent or permission required, you must make a direct emailed request to the department, clearly stating the course and section (if more than one is offered) and semester, and the number of credits if that is variable. If you are asking for a course that requires the permission of the instructor, please add your direct request to an approving email that you forward from the instructor.
The department then gives consent and does your registration administratively. Within a few days, you should confirm in LOCUS that your request was correctly entered.
It is in your best interest to register early, to get into sections you want. Registration blocks can get in your way. Common examples are an immunization block, a Dean of Students data block, a conditional admission block, or a bursar block. Students have been given late fees or had a lot of trouble due to delays from such blocks.
One misleading feature in LOCUS is that all MS students have a Dean’s time limit block, but it does not activate until you have been an MS student for five years - do not worry about that one.
You are strongly encouraged to check in Locus weeks before registration opens to see if a block appears, and get it addressed so it will not delay your registration.
In LOCUS, you can see the kind of block that is present by clicking on the red blocked symbol (a slash mark through a circle). Do check.
The only block that the Graduate Program Director has the power to address is a probation block, and that requires you to contact the Graduate Program Director and have a talk. Asking for department help for other blocks is only going to waste everyone’s time.
Instead, deal with the office that added and controls the block: the wellness center, Dean of Students, GPEM, bursar, etc.
Blocks can also suddenly appear later, so check again a few days before registration opens.
Also, you may want to swap courses while it is still allowed in the first week of classes.
Shortly before classes start, also check for a block.
Course Selection
Even before you get access to our registration system, you can still look for courses you are interested in.
Sometime before registration opens there should be a link under http://www.luc.edu/cs/schedules/ labeled with the name of the upcoming semester with a detailed list of courses to be offered.
Before that, or looking further ahead, you can look at the long-term schedule, showing what courses are planned for what semesters: https://academics.cs.luc.edu/schedules/longtermschedule.html.
This is particularly useful if you find too many courses that interest you for a given semester: look at the long-term schedule to see which of those courses you could defer until it is offered again.
Detailed descriptions of most of these courses are in https://academics.cs.luc.edu/courses/graduate-courses.html.
Comp 400B is the prerequisite for most graduate courses, but Comp 413, Intermediate Object-Oriented Programming is a prerequisite for the most advanced software courses.
Many students, with even a strong undergraduate Computer Science background, have not had the subject matter described in https://academics.cs.luc.edu/courses/comp413.html.
If you are in either the MS in SE or CS program, and have not had much of this material, it is a good course to start with (offered every Fall and Spring, and likely Summer), since it is required of both programs and you want to be able to later get into the courses that have it as a prerequisite.
IT students who want to mix in more software-centric electives should also consider Comp 413.
Note, SE and CS students with prior experience with the Comp 413 material can replace the Comp 413-course requirement: after consulting with your advisor, substitute one of the courses which have Comp 413 as a prerequisite.
Warning
Caution to Computer Science Program Students
Comp 460 is required, and it is not offered every semester.
You may not be able to defer it!
Make sure you have arranged a place in your plans that fit with the semesters that it is offered and following your prerequisite preparation in algorithms.
Advising
Newly admitted students should first consult with the Graduate Program Director before registering for courses. A discussion with the Graduate Program Director is particularly important if there is any question of a student’s prerequisite preparation.
Before the next registration period, you should be provided an individual faculty advisor for the rest of your studies.
This advisor should be listed in Locus. Later registration choices should be taken up with your advisor.
Online Courses
While the majority of our courses are face to face in a regularly scheduled class sessions (likely with some online interaction), other courses can be done totally online.
The learning objectives and outcomes of online courses are the same as for face-to-face classes, but obviously with a somewhat different delivery.
There are many models that an instructor can choose for online:
Parts can include recorded video presentations, synchronous whole-class sessions, synchronous small-group sessions, 1-1 with the instructor online, threaded discussions, wiki contributions, totally asynchronous involvement as long as you are active each day, etc.
There should be notes in the course list beside an online course. Unfortunately, if you look directly in Locus, you do not see it with the course title, but need to click on the section link.
If you want more details about the format, contact the instructor.
The long-term schedule includes an indication of what courses to expect to be online.
At least part-time completion of an online MS IT degree is possible, though it will restrict elective options, and only some tracks can be completed full-time.
If you are only taking courses online, you would do well to be in the program with code ITEO-MS (IT Entirely Online).
This will give you an advantage in signing up for online courses before other students.
Note
F-1 visa students in the semesters that you are supposed to be full-time, you may have only one online course, and at least one course must not be online.
If you are not required to be in school in a semester (commonly Summer), there are no restrictions.
Please confer with the Office of International Programs for details and confirmation.
Independent Study
If you are doing an independent project for Comp 490, you need to find a faculty member to supervise your project and have the faculty supervisor email the department secretary to register you. This does not generally make sense in your first semester but is possible in exceptional circumstances.
It helps if you and the faculty member are familiar with each other.
Talk to your instructors outside of class, and take advantage of community seminars and events to meet and get to know faculty!
It is particularly helpful when you want to do something that the professor already wants to be done.
At the other end of the spectrum, a student might just propose something that sounds interesting to a potential faculty supervisor who knows the student is self-motivated.
Or a project could end up somewhere in between: something the professor is interested in, with a particular twist that appeals to the student.
The typical approach is for the student to meet with the faculty member and then confirm the details of the agreement in an email to the faculty supervisor, being sure to include the exact semester and credit hours that you have agreed on. The supervisor then forwards the email with his or her approval to the graduate secretary, so she can register you. Your agreement does not go to the Graduate Program Director, unless you will end up with a total of more credits of 490+499 than the normal 6 credit limit.
These courses are for 1-6 credits. See the section below on variable hour courses. We rarely allow students to take more than 6 total credits in their overall program for the sum of Independent Study and Internships but do allow further high-level independent study in exceptional circumstances.
In most cases, we recommend that you and your independent study advisor fill out a request for course title form, which is available at http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/gradschool/pdfs/Request%20for%20Course%20Title.pdf The Graduate Program Director must sign this form.
This is very useful when someone else is reading your transcript: Plain “Independent Study” on your transcript is totally uninformative!
Internships (COMP 499)
First, you need to find a job for the period of the Internship.
There are online, searchable listings through the university career center, http://www.luc.edu/career. (The Computer Science department also maintains an informal jobs list at http://jobs.cs.luc.edu.) When you find a job, contact the Graduate Program Director and get your job description approved. Internships are for 1-6 credits.
Download the MOU Form, read it, print, fill out both pages, and return. Please read this carefully before asking questions of the Graduate Program Director.
It contains a description of the details of your academic requirements for the course.
You will also need your job supervisor’s signature.
Get the finished form to the Graduate Program Director, so we can register you for the course for the proper number of credits.
Please do not ask us to register you if you are not simultaneously submitting the completed MoU.
The form can be emailed to the department staff. If you are doing Curricular Practical Training (CPT), turn in the CPT form at the same time. There are three related but different terms: job, internship, and CPT. You can have a job and not have it be an internship for academic credit or you can have a job that goes on longer than an academic internship. Also if you are doing an academic internship, your job employer does not need to classify your position as “internship”. If you are doing an academic internship, the MOU indicates only two small requirements for your employer during your time in the academic internship: The bulk of your duties must be related to doing Computer Science in the real world and the supervisor will write a few lines email at the end of the time of the academic internship indicating your successful completion of all the hours required for the academic internship.
Curricular Practical Training (For F-1 students)
You should consult with the Office of International Student and Scholar Services(ISSS) for the full legal details of CPT.
Here are a few of the important points.
If you get a job on campus, like the a considerable number of students who have worked for Loyola’s Information Services, you do not need to be doing CPT and no CPT restrictions apply.
If you want to work off-campus for pay, then you need to be doing CPT, and there are several requirements.
First of all, you need to have been a full-time F-1 student anywhere in the The United States for two semesters.
To start CPT you must get an application submitted in one of two routes. In both cases with the CPT application, you should provide a written job offer (which can be an email) from the prospective employer. The completed CPT application must be delivered to the International Office, and they will issue the work permit. The form to start CPT can be found here.
The CPT can be tied to an academic course in either of two ways. You get a Graduate Program Director signature on the CPT application differently in the two cases. Be sure to fill out the form except for the Graduate Program Director signature and date before looking for a signature! Do not leave the Graduate Program Director to guess which of the two options you want:
You can take the Comp 499 course specifically for internships, with the regular tuition charge per credit. Get the form with your MOU and job offer to the Graduate Program Director, and the Graduate Program Director will get the application completed and forwarded to the ISSS with the job offer.
For no extra tuition, you can generally tie it to a course you are already planning to take. There is a section of the CPT application for this. You can pair the internship with a course in the same semester, or pair a Fall course and an internship in the previous Summer. If you do the no-extra-tuition option, you can work but you will get no further credit toward graduation. You may need to send the CPT form and job offer to the `ISSS <https://www.luc.edu/isss/>`_ yourself.
Students generally email the CPT form to the Graduate Program Director, making sure the option chosen above is clearly indicated.
F-1 Summer Full-time Status
F-1 visa students who do not start in the Summer, do not need to study at all in the Summer as long as they are full-time in each Fall and Spring until they finish. For them, Summer courses are optional.
(In the semester that you finish up, you are automatically full-time, even if you have only 1-2 courses left, though the Graduate Program Director does need to confirm with the ISSS when your 1-2 courses allow you to finish.)
F-1 students starting in Summer do need to be classified as full-time. However there may no be enough graduate courses offered in the summer for these F-1 students.
Also students who start in Spring may find it convenient to be full-time in Summer to allow CPT to start a semester earlier than otherwise.
To have Summer count automatically as full time for an F-1 student, you can take 9 credits in total among all the different Summer sessions.
This is hard to do for two reasons: It is a lot of work to cram 3 courses into 12 weeks and we offer a limited number of courses in Summer, so it may be hard to fit your interests with 3 courses.
These restrictions allow for a possible opening: With permission from the Graduate Program Director and ISSS , you can get a waiver so you are allowed to take fewer courses (generally 2) and still, be counted as full-time. You can ask the Graduate Program Director to approve this reduction in the Summer because of the issues listed above.
Be sure to check with the ISSS for the exact current details and correct forms to ask the Graduate Program Director to sign.
Variable Credit Courses
Comp 490 and 499 are for 1-6 credits. Up to 6 credits total can be counted toward graduation, counting all the times you register for these two courses. (In practice that usually means 3 or 6 credits since all other courses are 3 credits.) You do not need to take a multiple of three credits at a time. What matters is the total, when it is time to graduate.
Graduation
Degrees are conferred in May, August, and December. You must apply for graduation way in advance of graduation or the official conferral of your degree will be postponed. The Graduate Program Director will not be able to appeal this for you. Note that there are only graduation ceremonies in May.
Graduation Deadlines
December 1 for Spring, February 1 for Summer graduation, August 1 for Fall graduation.
See the discussion of ceremonies below if you want to participate in a graduation ceremony and you graduate in Summer or Fall.
Graduation Ceremonies are only in May
If you have only one course left for Summer, you can ask to participate in the previous May graduation.
This one course can be 490/499 for more than 3 credits.
To do this you must apply for Summer graduation by the deadline listed above and promptly email the Graduate Program Director, asking for approval to walk in the May ceremony.
If you graduate in the Summer or Fall, you can choose to return to participate in the following May graduation ceremony (unless you already participated in the previous May graduation, as discussed above).
Leave of Absence
Once you start graduate school, the default assumption is that you will be enrolled each Fall and Spring until you sign up for graduation and graduate. If you need to interrupt your studies before that, the Graduate School requires that you apply for a leave of absence through the gsps system, under student forms in https://gsps.luc.edu/.
After being approved for a leave, you will need to notify the Associate Dean of the Graduate School of your intent to enroll before you can register for classes and resume study.
If you neglect to request a Leave, the return process is longer and less sure:
You need to fill out the Reinstatement form, http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/gradschool/pdfs/Reinstatement%20Request.pdf, and return it to the Graduate Program Director (preferably as an emailed electronic scan).
Note
Besides the reinstatement form itself being filled out you need to return a document with two other parts:
The reason for your absence. (The form says the reason for reinstatement but it means the reason for absence.)
Timeline to graduation: When you plan to be back and when you plan to finish.
Dropping a Course and Avoiding Extra Bills
You should always be able to withdraw yourself from the course in LOCUS, no matter how you got registered for a course: by yourself in LOCUS, by a request to the department staff, or off of a waiting list. If you are sure you want to withdraw from a course, do not waste time emailing the department for help, just do it yourself. The date that the withdrawal is entered into LOCUS affects whether you get a W on your transcript and whether tuition is still due. Different rates apply.
Be sure to look at the Academic Calendar for the given semester. Once you are registered, merely not attending class does NOT extend these dates.
Withdrawal with no trace: Generally by the end of the first week of full Fall and Spring semesters. Generally only through the first Tuesday of the semester for the Summer session.
- Withdrawal with only a W on the transcript, and no tuition due: Generally during the second week of the Fall and Spring semesters. Sometime during the first week in Summer sessions. Be sure to check the Academic Calendar at http://www.luc.edu/academics/schedules/.
A W has no academic consequences. It is just a historical record of you changing your mind.
Withdrawal later during classes: W on the transcript and a partial or complete tuition penalty. Do not get yourself into this situation just by not paying attention!
Changing your chosen MS Program
It is easy to switch between our MS degree programs in the department.
Through the gsps system under student forms in https://gsps.luc.edu/, find Change in Degree-Seeking.
You will need to include a statement about why you want to change the program.
Do think carefully.
The Dean is less likely to approve a request to return to your original program!
You are likely to need to select a program by Locus code, which are not all really informative:
ITEC: Information technology (allowing face-to-face)
ITEO: Information technology entirely online
SWEN: Software Engineering
COMP: Computer Science
These all have alternatives ending with “D”, for dual, like SWEN-MS D: these are only for Loyola BS/MS students.
Transfer Credit
The Graduate Program Director must initiate an approval of course transfer after the first month of classes but also before the end of your first semester. Email the Graduate Program Director as a reminder*, after the first month of classes and after we also have your transcript (and course by course evaluation for international credits).
Do not delay! Your official transcripts need to show B or better in relevant courses.
For conditionally admitted students, Loyola must already have the relevant official transcript.
Although official transcripts are needed to forward the request to the Grad School for final approval, you are welcomed to show unofficial transcripts to the Graduate Program Director to see if you have appropriate courses (but still, send a reminder when the official documents are in).
Note
All courses, including graduate courses in your first 4 years since the start of college, are considered part of your undergraduate education.
Grades
The grading system used in the Graduate School is as follows:
Grade |
Grade Points |
|---|---|
A |
4.00 |
A- |
3.67 |
B+ |
3.33 |
B |
3.00 |
B- |
2.67 |
C+ |
2.33 |
C |
2.00 |
Grades of C-, D or F are unfortunately possible. They cause enormous issues for two reasons:
They do NOT count as credits toward the MS degree However, they ARE counted in the GPA - an enormous drag on the cumulative GPA!
Grade |
Explained |
|---|---|
I |
Incomplete |
W |
Withdrawal |
WF |
Withdrawal, Failure |
For further information on Loyola’s grading policy, consult the Graduate School Catalog located here: http://www.luc.edu/gradschool/academics_policies.shtml.
Graduate students in the Computer Science Department are expected to maintain an average of not less than B (3.0) during their course of study.
Those who fail to meet this requirement may be dismissed by the Graduate School.
No more than two grades of C or C+ can be counted toward the degree (while further such grades do drag down the GPA).
Incomplete Grade
Faculty may assign the grade of I to a student who has not completed the assigned work by the end of the term for some good reason.
This grade is not assigned automatically.
It is up to the student to explain the circumstances and work out a plan with the instructor before the end of the course, including a deadline, for completing the work for the course.
Under the Graduate School regulations, a student has one semester to complete the course (and Summer counts as a semester!).
If the student does not turn in the work by the deadline, the I grade will automatically become an F.
Please read the new policy on the Graduate School web page at http://www.luc.edu/gradschool/academics_policies.shtml#grades1.
Although it is not uncommon for graduate students to take an occasional Incomplete, it is of course better not to take an incomplete when possible. Making up an incomplete course often proves harder than students expect, particularly if much time has elapsed since the end of the course.
In any case, faculty members have various policies regarding Incompletes, so it is advisable to discuss the matter with your instructor as early as possible if you anticipate the need for an Incomplete.
Academic Honesty
Although academic dishonesty can take many forms, in our field it manifests primarily as plagiarism of text or source code.
The Graduate School Catalog defines plagiarism as “the appropriation for a gain of ideas, language or work of another without sufficient public acknowledgment that the material is not one’s own.”
As a graduate student, you very likely have a good understanding of the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not.
If you are ever uncertain, it is of course best to consult your instructor, the Graduate Program Director, or another faculty member.
The penalty for an instance of plagiarism is, at a minimum, failure on the assignment, which may well be tantamount to failure in the course.
A serious breach or a pattern of dishonesty can lead to expulsion from Loyola.
Although quite rare in our department, cases have occurred in the past and have resulted in dismissal.
Grievance Procedure
Students, faculty, and administrators are strongly encouraged to resolve any problems they encounter in the academic process through informal discussion. If you are unable to resolve a problem with a member of the staff or faculty, or if you wish to lodge a formal complaint, you should first meet to discuss the matter with the Graduate Program Director. If the problem cannot be satisfactorily resolved by the Graduate Program Director, it will be taken up by the Department Chair.
Unfortunately fully addressing a grievance within the department can take considerable time. The student must be patient. If a student is not satisfied with the decision within the department, then after the departmental decision, not earlier, the student may wish to initiate a grievance in writing to the Dean of the Graduate School.
Further information can be obtained from the Graduate School office.
Withdrawing
If you plan to withdraw from the university, make sure to talk with the Graduate Program Director first. You will also need to download this form, read it, fill out, and email to the Graduate Program Director. Finally, make sure you have dropped all your courses on Locus.