Limited Admission

New Computer Science majors to NIU will notice their major listed as “Pre-Computer Science”. This is because of our status as a Limited Admissions program — the only one within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Admission into the formal Computer Science major is not only optimal for students to get first choice of enrollment into CSCI courses each semester, but necessary in order to graduate with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science. Admission is primarily evaluated by each student’s academic performance with classes at NIU, with a strong emphasis on their performance with CSCI courses here.

Another important step in this admission is attendance to an informational meeting hosted by the Department, called Pre-Major Meetings. It is expected students attend one of the many such Meetings hosted every Fall/Spring semester, during the first semester they begin at NIU. These Meetings will provide an opportunity to not only thoroughly explain the important details of our Limited Admissions program to each of our new Computer Science majors, but also captures information about each student’s academic interests within the major (e.g. their intended emphasis, choice of CSCI electives) and triggers the creation of a Plan document, which is tailored to each student that outlines what CS major required courses they should take each and every semester, all the way to when they can expect to have the CS major completed by.

Students interested in declaring the formal Computer Science major must first meet the admission criteria described below.

Admission Requirements

• Must have attended the Pre-Major Meeting (MAJOR ONLY).
• Must have completed at least 30 semester hours of college-level coursework.
• Must have attained a minimum 2.500 cumulative GPA.
• Must have attained a minimum C-grade average in CSCI coursework from NIU.
• Must have completed (or will complete in the current semester) the following coursework:
  • (MAJOR ONLY) MATH 206, MATH 211, MATH 229, and/or STAT 200.
  • (MINOR ONLY) MATH 110: College Algebra OR a higher level Math class.

Computer Science Minor Course Requirements