Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (thesis option)

The Department offers a thesis program for the Master of Science (MS) degree in Electrical Engineering. Interested students should also consult the ECE Graduate Student Handbook and, depending on the university, the FAMU or FSU Graduate Student Handbook.

Admissions

To be considered for admission, candidates must have earned a bachelor of science degree (or equivalent) in electrical engineering, or a closely related discipline, from an Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET)-approved program, a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for all work attempted beyond 60 semester hours of undergraduate study, and a minimum score of 148 points for the quantitative section and 145 points for the verbal section of the GRE test.

International candidates must also pass the TOEFL and obtain a minimum of 80 on the internet-based exam or 550 on the paper-based exam.

Students with a bachelor's degree in a field other than electrical engineering may be required to complete a department-designated sequence of undergraduate courses with grades of B or better prior to attempting the graduate electrical engineering work.

Students interested in obtaining a teaching assistantship should submit the TA/Grader Application Form as soon as they have been admitted to the program. Students who are not native speakers of English should take the speaking section of the TOELF test (and have a score of 26 points or higher) or the SPEAK test at FSU (and have a score of 45 points or higher) in order to be eligible to apply to for a teaching assistantship. More information about teaching assistantships can be found on the TA/Grader Application Form.

Course Work Requirement

The students must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of course work to obtain the degree. The 30 credit hours should satisfy:

  1. 9 credit hours should be from the student's depth area (see Depth Areas for the list of courses in each depth area).
  2. At least 3 credit hours should consist of a course in advanced mathematics, typically a 5000 level course or above, or a departmental approved substitute.
  3. At least 6 credit hours of EEL-6971r (MS thesis).
  4. At least 12 credit hours should be from other letter grade courses.

Graduate Seminar

All full-time MS degree candidates are required to enroll in the graduate seminar, EEL 6932r, for each semester that they are enrolled in the graduate program. The details of the seminar are given under "Course Listing".

Advisor and Supervisory Committee

Students must identify their major professors by the end of the first semester of course work and are required to submit a plan of study by the time they have completed 12 credit hours of graduate studies. The plan of study must be approved by the departmental Graduate Coordinator and the student's major professor. The student's major professor also will assist the student in forming the student's supervisory committee.

The Supervisory Committee for a master's degree thesis program student consists of a minimum of 3 members of graduate faculty who hold master's directive status. At least half of the committee members must be faculty members form the ECE Department.

Thesis

All master of science thesis program students must complete a written thesis. Upon completion of the thesis, an oral defense is required, which consists of a public presentation of the student's work to the department and the student's supervisory committee. Students must register for EEL 8976, Master's Thesis Defense, during the semester the student plans to graduate. The thesis should be in the hands of the major professor and the examining committee at least ten days before the date of the oral examination.

Master's Thesis Defense Announcement

It is the student's responsibility to post the thesis defense announcement within the department and the College of Engineering at least one week prior to the defense. The announcement should include: thesis title; student's name; student's department; major professor and committee members; date; time and location of the defense.

Transfer Credits

A maximum of 6 credit hours of letter-grade graduate coursework may be transferred from another academic institution(s) to the student's current master's degree program, with the approval the ECE Departmental Graduate Committee. A grade of B or better is required on all transfer credits.