Computer Science (BS)

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Offered by the Department of Computer Science , College of Arts and Sciences .

Admission to the Program

Formal admission to the major requires a cumulative grade point average of 2.00 (on a 4.00 scale) and departmental approval.

University Requirements

120 credit hours with minimum 2.00 cumulative GPA (Undergraduate Academic Regulation 2 )
Completion of all requirements for a major (Undergraduate Academic Regulation 9 )

AU Core Requirements

Completion of AU Core foundation requirements (Undergraduate Academic Regulation 8.2-8.6 )
Completion of AU Core Habits of Mind requirements (Undergraduate Academic Regulation 8.7 )
Completion of AU Core integrative course requirements (Undergraduate Academic Regulation 8.8-8.11 )

For additional information, see AU Core Curriculum .

Major Requirements

55 credit hours with grades of C or better

Course Requirements

Core (32 credit hours)

CSC-240 Computer Systems Organization (4)
CSC-280 Introduction to Computer Science I (4)
CSC-281 Introduction to Computer Science II (3)
CSC-420 Algorithms and Data Structures (3)
CSC-421 Design and Organization of Programming Languages (3)
CSC-434 Database Management Systems (3)
CSC-465 Operating Systems (3)
CSC-493 Computer Science Capstone Project (3) (6 credit hours required)
3 credit hours of CSC-xxx courses above 300-level approved by the student’s advisor

Related (11 credit hours)

Statistics

Complete 4 credit hours from the following:

Calculus

Complete 4 credit hours from the following:

Discrete Structures or Calculus

Complete 3-4 credit hours from the following:

Concentration (12 credit hours)

Complete 12 credit hours in a concentration, selected from the following or with approval of their academic advisor and the department students may design an individual sequence of courses. Examples of individually-designed concentrations include but are not limited to game programming, computer forensics, international services, neural sciences, physics, mathematics, economics, government computing, environmental studies, computer graphics design, bioinformatics, multimedia computing, or technical writing.

Computer Science

Note: No more than 3 credit hours of internship, independent study, or independent reading may be used to fulfill this requirement.

12 additional credit hours in CSC-XXX at or above 300-level with approval of academic advisor

Consulting

MGMT-353 Management and Organizational Behavior (3)
MGMT-465 Negotiation (3)
MGMT-484 Consulting and Project Management (3)
3 credit hours of approved coursework in consulting

Entrepreneurship

ACCT-240 Principles of Financial Accounting (3)
FIN-365 Business Finance (3)
MKTG-300 Principles of Marketing (3)
3 credit hours of approved coursework in entrepreneurship

Combined Computer Science (BS) and Computer Science (MS)

American University offers students the opportunity to earn both undergraduate and graduate degrees through its combined bachelor’s/master’s programs. For more information, see Admission to a Combined Bachelor’s / Master’s Program and Combined Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees of this catalog.

In addition to meeting the minimum university requirements for combined bachelor’s/master’s programs:

Admission is open to undergraduate computer science majors with a minimum grade point average of 3.20. Applicants must have completed the following by the end of the junior year: