Advising and Registration
Advising
As a newly admitted MSCS graduate student, you will meet with a Faculty Mentor during the summer to finalize your Fall course schedule. It is essential to meet with your faculty mentor each semester to select courses and obtain approval of your plan of study. Faculty mentors are assigned to students as follows:
- MS and PhD students are assigned a faculty mentor from their major area (i.e. applied, pure, statistics, computer science).
- MST Elementary and Secondary Education, and DA students should contact Mara Martinez directly at 312.996.6168 or martinez@uic.edu.
- China MS in Statistics students should contact Min Yang at myang2@uic.edu
- Non-degree graduate students are assigned to the Director of Graduate Studies (dgs-mscs@uic.edu).
Registration
Registration for continuing students, including changes to any existing registration, begins a number of months before the term and continues through the first official ten days of the Fall and Spring sessions (or the first official five days for summer session). Shortly after receiving your official admission letter from the Office of Admissions and Records newly admitted students will receive an email containing the first date in which you may access the web to register and the necessary instructions. The UIC Schedule of Classes and the registration portal is in your my.UIC.edu account.
Please note that some courses require Special Approval and will post an error message indicating that the course is closed or that you need special permission to register. You will need to request approval from one of the options below. Once the override or permission has been granted, you will be able to access my.UIC.edu again and enter your registration.
- MSCS 400 level courses all require Special Approval and are managed by the Undergraduate Studies Office. You can request an override into the course here: MSCS 400-Level Course Approval Form.
- If you receive an error message for a 500-level course, please contact the Director of Graduate Studies.
If you receive an error message that you do not understand, consult the Registration Help Line at (312)996-8600
How many credits should I register for?
Most MSCS graduate courses are 4 credit hours each. Graduate students in their first semester may want to consider taking a maximum load of 12 credit hours. New Teaching Assistants (TAs) are also encouraged to be mindful of their course load for the first term. New TAs will also be required to enroll in Math 589 - Teaching and Presentation of Mathematics. This two-credit hour course must be taken during the first semester of employment as a MSCS TA and is offered during the Fall term only.
Enrollment Requirements
The Graduate College defines full time enrollment as 9 credit hours during the academic year and 5 credit hours during the Summer. However, many circumstances require different levels of enrollment:
- Teaching and Research Assistants with a 50% appointment should register for a minimum of 8 hours.
- International students may be required to register for a greater number of hours in the Fall and Spring semesters if their appointment is less than 50% FTE.
- UIC Graduate College Fellows are required to register for a minimum of 9 hours.
- Holders of UIC Board of Trustee Tuition and Fee Waivers should register for a minimum of 9 hours in Fall/Spring semesters and 3 in the summer term.
- NSF Research and Training Grant fellows should register for a minimum of 9 hours.