General Admission Requirements

• The applicant must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited U.S. institution or provide proof of equivalent training from a recognized academic institution outside the United States. Equivalency is determined by international evaluators in the Graduate School.
• GPA of 3.0 or higher on all undergraduate coursework and any graduate coursework previously completed
• GRE general exam combined score (V+Q) > 300, with a verbal score of at least 150, a quantitative score of at least 150, and a written score of at least 3 
  *Due to current GRE exam testing difficulties amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the graduate degree programs in our department are waiving the GRE requirement for applicants through Fall 2022 admissions.

International Student Admission Requirements

• TOEFL iBT score of at least 79, with a minimum of 16 on each of four component parts (reading, listening, speaking, writing) or,
• IELTS score of at least 6.5 or

• Duolingo English Test (englishtest.duolingo.com) with a score of 110 or above
• International applicants who are invited to join our graduate program will be asked to provide financial documents as part of the paperwork to obtain a student visa. The computer science and software engineering department does not need those documents to make an admission decision. The documents can be provided after an admission decision has been made.
• International graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) must have a minimum score of 50 on the Test of Spoken English (TSE) to be eligible to teach at Auburn. New GTAs are expected to achieve this qualification within a year of arriving at Auburn. A score of at least 23 on the speaking section of the iBT TOEFL, or a score of at least 7.0 on the speaking section of the IELTS, or a score of at least 4.4 on the iTEP speaking test is accepted as an equivalent qualification. The iTEP speaking test is regularly administered at Auburn University prior to the beginning of classes. Alternatively, the language requirement for GTAs may be met by passing the course INTL-1820, Classroom Communication Skills for International GTAs.

Prerequisite Background

Per the MS-CYBE/MS-CSSE/PhD-CSSE description on our department’s website, most applicants should have an undergraduate degree in a closely related area. Appropriate background in the following undergraduate-level areas will be required for MS-CYBE/MS-CSSE/PhD-CSSE students.

• Fluency in a high-level programming language such as C, C++, Java, or Python
• Data structures and algorithms
• Discrete mathematics
• Computer organization and architecture
• Operating systems
• Computer networks

Students without this background will be required to take the following courses before admission to the MS-CYBE/MS-CSSE/MS-PhD program.

Semester 1

• COMP 2210 Fundamentals of Computing II
• COMP 3240 Discrete Structures
• COMP 3350 Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming

Semester 2

•  COMP 3270 Introduction to Algorithms
•  COMP 3500 Operating Systems
•  COMP 4300 Computer Architecture
•  COMP 4320 Computer Networks

This prerequisite prescription is largely dependent on the individual applicant's background and job experience. 

Future graduate students, in need of pre-requisite courses, may complete courses through our on-campus or online undergraduate degree program. You may contact Mr. Clint Lovelace – Manager of Academic Programs if you have any questions regarding the best path to complete any needed pre-requisite courses.