Exceptionally able and well-prepared students may complete a course of study leading to the simultaneous award of the B.S. and M.S. degrees after eight terms of enrollment. General eligibility requirements are described in Yale College Programs of Study.
Specific requirements for the combined degree in Computer Science are as follows:
Candidates must satisfy the Yale College requirements for the B.S. degree in Computer Science.
In fulfilling these requirements, students must complete eight graduate courses from the approved list, up to two of which may, with the permission of the director of undergraduate studies and the director of graduate studies, also be applied toward completion of the B.S. degree. At most one of these eight courses may be CPSC 692. All eight graduate courses must be completed in the final four terms of enrollment, and at least six of them must be completed in the final three terms of enrollment. Students must complete eight term course credits in the Graduate School with grades of A in at least two term courses (or in one year course) and with a B average in the remaining ones.
At the end of their fifth term of enrollment students must have earned at least nine course credits, which together with three additional course credits, would satisfy the requirements for the B.S. in Computer Science. At that time students must also have achieved at least three quarters A grades in all of their course credits that could be used to satisfy the requirements of the B.S. degree in Computer Science. For the purposes of determining eligibility, courses with marks of TR (i.e., "Transfer"), P, and W courses are removed from the equation, but a CR counts as non-A.
Spring 2020 courses with a grade of Pass count toward the nine-course requirement, but do not count toward either the numerator or denominator of the 3/4 A requirement.
For Fall 2024 and subsequent terms, the requirement that “students must also have achieved at least three quarters A grades in all of their course credits that could be used to satisfy the requirements of the B.S. degree in Computer Science” will be strictly interpreted as grades of A only (not A- ).
Below are some additional notes about what is involved.
Graduate work must not be entirely concentrated in the final two terms of study, and students must take at least six term courses outside computer science during their last four terms at Yale and at least two undergraduate courses during their last two terms.
Courses in Computer Science that are offered at both the 400 and 500 levels must typically be taken at the 500 level to count toward the M.S. Because the requirements of 400 and 500-level versions of a course are often different, you should make sure to notify the instructor if you are taking a 500-level course as an undergraduate.
Students must apply for admission to this program through the director of undergraduate studies no later than the last day of class of their fifth term in Yale College. Applications received after this deadline will be rejected. Because grades from the first five terms at Yale are used to determine eligibility for the program, applications received before the fifth term will also be rejected.
Students are now required to apply via that new simultaneous degree application: https://forms.sis.yale.edu/url/YCSimDegree. This form is also available on the Registrar’s Forms & Petitions page. When describing courses you plan to take, list specific course numbers. (You can make reasonable guesses about what is likely to be offered, and this is not a commitment, but you do need to give an actual plan of what courses you expect to take rather than just “I plan to take X many courses.”)
Faculty identified a variety of reasons, two of which are described here.
The degree was at odds with a liberal arts education. Its availability was encouraging students to spend an enormous amount time at Yale College taking only CS classes. Yale has some of the top scholars in the world across many disciplines, not just CS. You will never have access to them again in your entire life, except for these four short years. A wide-ranging education is what will best prepare you for the future, not graduate-level hyper-specialization.
The degree was not producing significantly improved job search outcomes. Students were focused on completing graduate-level classes, often whose subject matter did not even interest them, convinced that an MS was what employers wanted. We were not seeing outcomes that supported this hypothesis. Investing your energies elsewhere, such as into creating a unique, independent project, is a better bet.