Computer Science (BS)

College of Engineering

Program Website

Program Description

The Department of Computer Science is part of the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and is affiliated with both the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering. Students in either college may major in computer science. Computer science majors take courses covering algorithms, artificial intelligence, data structures, programming languages, systems, theory and offer a wide variety of electives. Students in Engineering must complete a minimum of 121 total credit hours to graduate. In addition to the major requirements, all students must meet Engineering graduation requirements.

Admission

Applicants must meet all of the following criteria:

  • A grade of C (not C-) or better in all CS courses and Math courses, including all critical math courses listed below.

  • An average GPA of 2.5 or better between CS 2110 or CS 2112and CS 2800 or CS 2802.

  • An average GPA of 2.3 or better in MATH 1120 or MATH 1920  and any other completed critical math courses from the following list2MATH 2940MATH 2210MATH 4710BTRY 3080/STSCI 3080CS 4850ECON 3130ECE 3100, and ENGRD 2700.

  • Qualifying courses must be taken at Cornell for a letter grade. Courses used in the affiliation GPA computations may be repeated if the original course grade was below a C. The most recent grade will be used for all repeated courses.

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If only AP/CASE credit appears, then another critical math course must be taken at Cornell to affiliate.

Honors Program

The B.S. degree with honors is granted to engineering students who satisfy the requirements given on the "Undergraduate Study and Graduation Requirements" page with a set of coherent courses and research activities that satisfy the following requirements.

The program consists of at least 9 credits beyond the minimum required for graduation as follows:

  • at least one CS course (at least 3 credit hours) at or above the 5000-level with a grade of A– or better (no seminars)1
  • at least two 3 credit semesters of CS 4999 Independent Reading and Research2, with grades of A– or better each semester

Honors determinations are made during the senior year. Students wanting to be considered for the honors program should notify the undergraduate office in the Department of Computer Science at ugrad@cs.cornell.edu. The subject line for this message should read "HONORS TRACK". Address related questions to the same e-mail address or visit the Computer Science website for more information on eligibility.

Note: CS 5000-level course (with a faculty member) that co-meets with a CS 4000-level course are not eligible for honors.