MS/PhD Status of Special Topics Courses

1. This page lists special topics courses (i.e., 498, 798, 8x8) by semester, and for each course, indicates the following:
   • Fall 2015 and later - whether it is MS/PhD qualifying and area
   • Spring 2015 and earlier - whether it is PhD qualifying and area; whether it is MS qualifying and area; whether its exams consistute an MS comp in an area and, if so, which of its exams.
     • [Spring 2015 and earlier: MS or PhD qualifying courses must base their grades primarily on exams (and not on paper readings, presentations, etc). An MS comp must be based entirely on exams (and not projects, homeworks, term papers, etc). It can be one or more of the regular exams in the course (e.g., final, midterm + final), regular exams augmented with additional questions, a separate exam, or any combination.]
2. Instructors offering such courses should email the relevant information to the grad office well before the start of the semester.
3. Information for a semester is finalized when the semester starts.
4. If a special topics course being offered is not listed here, then it does not count as MS/PhD qualifying or toward MS comps.

This page is updated live (starting 4/12/2018). An archive of the previous page can be found here.