The CSEE Department welcomes transfer students from other accredited colleges and also individuals with degrees in other disciplines who wish to pursue undergraduate studies in computer science. The Undergraduate Catalog should be consulted for details regarding credits that may be accepted by the university for advanced standing.
The CSEE Department requires that at least 18 CMSC credits toward the B.S. degree in computer science be earned in residence at UMBC. Details regarding courses eligible for transfer may be obtained from Undegraduate Admissions, the Advisement Center, or the Office of Undergraduate Student Services in ITE 203-206.
Transfer Student FAQ
Q: I’m currently a freshman at a different college/university and I plan to transfer to UMBC as a computer science major in the next year or two. Which courses should I take now?
A: Let’s start with what you should not do. You should not plan to just take the courses to satisfy the general requirements at your current institution and then take all the technical courses at UMBC. If you do so, you should not expect to take much shorter than 4 years to complete a BS in computer science.
For computer science majors, your goal should be to prepare yourself to take CMSC 341 Data Structures at UMBC as soon as possible. This means you should complete the Computer Science I & II sequence (CSI&II) at your current institution. The general advice is that you should take both CSI and CSII at your current institution. Articulation meetings of 2-year colleges and 4-year universities in Maryland (sponsored by the University System of Maryland) have found general agreement on the topics that should be covered in CSI&II, but little agreement on which course should cover which topics. Thus, if you only take CSI at your current institution, your transfer evaluation becomes complicated. The alternative is to take both CSI&II at UMBC, but doing so would probably mean that you will need 4 years at UMBC to complete a computer science major.
Note that all computer science majors must complete the gateway, as well as complete all the prerequisites for CMSC 341 before registering for CMSC 341. The gateway requires students to have a grade of “B” or better in both CSI&II. Although, the letter grade at another institution does not count toward your GPA at UMBC, we will accept a grade of “B” or better at another institution for the gateway requirements. If you have a grade of “C” or lower for CSI&II, then you must repeat the sequence either at your current institution or at UMBC.
Another prerequisite for CMSC 341 Data Structures is CMSC 203 Discrete Structures. This is a mathematics course that teaches computer science majors about truth tables, Boolean algebra, proof by induction, etc. The discrete structures course may be taught out of the math department or the computer science department. You should take a course in discrete structures at your institution, if such a course is available.
Note that most of the programming projects for computer science courses at UMBC will use a UNIX operating system (e.g., Linux). If you have not used UNIX or one of its variants before, then you should familiarize yourself with the UNIX command-line interface, a text editor (e.g., vi, emacs). This will save you the trouble of having to learn UNIX as you are completing your first programming project at a new environment.
Other courses that will help you complete a BS in computer science in a timely fashion include: Calculus I&II, science courses and English composition. Note that as of Fall 2000, computer science majors must take a 1-year sequence in Biology, Chemistry or Physics. This sequence of courses must be designed for science and engineering majors. At UMBC, these sequences are BIOL 141+142 (BIOL 100+301 are being phased out), PHYS 121+122, and CHEM 101+102. Furthermore, the University requirements include a science laboratory course. It will be helpful if you arrive at UMBC having completed the calculus and science requirements.
On the other hand, there are some computer courses that do not help you graduate anytime sooner including: internet “fundamentals”, lower-level database courses, lower-level networking courses, programming courses other than CSI&II. These courses can contribute to your general understanding of computer science and might transfer to UMBC as an elective, but they will not count toward the BS degree requirements in computer science.