Master students must complete forty-eight units of courses for graduation. For the M.S. Comprehensive Examination Plan all forty-eight units of credit must consist of regular courses (twelve courses). For the M.S. Thesis Plan, thirty-six units (nine courses) from regular courses are required, in addition to twelve units of graduate research for the master's thesis. For both M.S. plans, students are required to complete a minimum of two sequences from the focus areas.

A focus sequence is composed of three regular courses from the same focus area. The courses comprising the focus sequences are listed in the table in this section. To allow for greater flexibility in the program, the remaining credits required from courses may be earned by completing additional focus sequences, parts of focus sequences, or other appropriate courses. Students may elect to take other appropriate technical electives (with the approval of their advisor and the SE Graduate Affairs Committee). 

In addition to the 48 units, students must complete three quarters of SE 290 to meet graduation requirements, but they do not have to be taken consecutively. Students are strongly recommended to take SE 290 every quarter. Units obtained in SE 290 and SE 298 may not be applied towards course work requirements. No more than four units of SE 296 may be applied toward course work requirements and only with prior approval of the SE Graduate Affairs Committee.

For both M.S. plans, students are required to complete a minimum of two sequences from the following focus areas.

All students are assigned an academic advisor to help with formulating a course/academic plan. It's highly recommended that students interested in the thesis option to take a course by the faculty they want to work with before they ask to work on research.

The M.S. Comprehensive Plan

The M.S. Comprehensive Plan: The amount of courses for the M.S. Comprehensive Plan is 12: 3 in 1 focus area, 3 in 2nd focus area, 4 Technical Electives, and 2 Core Courses. 

Download the M.S. SE COMP Plan Fillable Form

Requirement	Comprehensive option (units)
Core Courses	Two Core Courses (8)
SE Focus Area 1	Three from Focus Area 1 (12)
SE Focus Area 2	Three from Focus Area 2 (12)
Technical Electives	Four from Technical Electives (16)
Total units	48

Core Courses: MS students will be required to complete two out of seven core course electives. The courses are SE 201A, SE 202, SE 203A, SE 241, SE 271, and SE 233 (or SE 276A)*. A core course can be counted towards a Focus Sequence or a Technical Elective. 

*Can only count either SE233 or SE276A as a core course, but not both. 

In the core courses instructor selects one problem on the midterm or final exam (could be project/long HW) to be the “comprehensive exam” problem.  A separate Pass/Fail score is assigned to this problem. (Problem may still count toward the total exam score.) Minimum passing score is 60/100.  Any two courses from “Core Electives” may be selected for the MS Comprehensive Plan. A passing score must be obtained in both courses. 

If you are using a core course for a focus area too then you need to list a 5th Technical Elective. It needs to be 12 courses total. If you use both core courses for two focus areas then 6 Technical Electives are needed. 

Technical Electives: Technical Electives can be any Science, Mathematics, or Engineering graduate course or approved SE undergraduate courses. 

The M.S. Thesis Plan

The M.S. Thesis Plan is designed for those students with an interest in research prior to entering the structural engineering profession or prior to entering a doctoral degree program. The M.S. Thesis Plan involves course work leading to the completion and defense of a master's thesis.

This program requires the student to be accepted by a SE Faculty Member (Research Advisor).  Please contact the Graduate Academic Advisor once you have written approval from a SE Faculty member stating they will be your research advisor.

The thesis defense is the final examination for students enrolled in the M.S. Thesis Plan and must be conducted after completion of all course work. Upon completion of the research project, the student writes a thesis that must be successfully defended in an oral examination and public presentation conducted by a committee composed of three faculty members. A complete copy of the student's thesis must be submitted to each committee member two weeks before the defense. The committee consists of three faculty committee members.

Download the M.S. SE Thesis Plan Fillable Form

Download the M.S. SE Thesis Exam Guide

Requirement	Thesis option (units)
Thesis Research	SE 299. Graduate Research (12)
SE Focus Area 1	Three from Focus Area 1 (12)
SE Focus Area 2	Three from Focus Area 2 (12)
Technical Electives	Three from Technical Electives (12)
Total units	48