5 - 2 = 3

August 25, 2006 3:46 PM

Are you generally able to apply courses taken for a M.S. at one school for credit in another school's PhD program if you're doing a B.S. -> M.S. -> PhD? For more specifics, we're talking Computer Science, and more specifically, to apply for Stanford's PhD program (or another reputable US university).

I searched Stanford's CS degree requirements web page and it was unclear.

posted by lpctstr; to education (5 comments total)

I did this, somewhat, in a CS PhD. I got a BS, then enrolled in a PhD program somewhere else, but decided to leave after 1.5 years. I convinced the admins there to give me an MS (I had fulfilled the MS requirements.)

I started a PhD at a new place with an MS requirement (all students had to get an MS and then be reëvaluated for the PhD.) I petitioned the admins at the end of my first year with the course listing of my previous MS and a letter from my current advisor; this allowed me to skip the 2 year MS and count my first year as a PhD year.

Advice: the school had no policy about it. I had to spend a lot of time talking with the course head and admins, and get my advisor to agree. They told me a lot that "they don't do this" but after I got my advisor to talk to them, the stance was softened. I don't think you'll get a good answer (other than "no") out of the course admins until after you are accepted and you begin a funded program with an advisor. Your advisor may not want you to skip ahead their other students or miss classes that he/she expects you to take.
posted by neustile at 4:29 PM on August 25, 2006

Depends highly on the school. If your MS is from podunk U, Stanford might not be willing to credit you all the classes, but they might credit some of them. If it is from a more reputable school, you may have a better chance, but I would be surprised if they let you out of the course requirements completely.
posted by ch1x0r at 5:05 PM on August 25, 2006

Assuming the place with the MS is okay, you might reasonably expect to transfer some but not all of the credits.

You can fully expect that even if you have a masters, you will have to repeat a fair amount of coursework under your new professors and you will have to pass comps again.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:23 PM on August 25, 2006

Simple answer - email the registar or program director at Stanford. They deal with these kinds of issues all the time and will be able to give you the correct answer.
posted by chrisamiller at 6:11 PM on August 25, 2006

I don't know if it is relevant (although for some reason I think this is a university-wide policy regarding transfer credits), but in Stanford's Art History Ph.D. program, you get credit for the MA (i.e., you can't get another one, whereas those entering the program with only an BA get an MA after 2 years of coursework). However, all of your credits don't transfer -- you have to do a year of coursework to get to the same point (candidacy for the doctoral program) as the non-MA people are in 2 years.

I'm not sure that's clear -- basically those entering with MAs are projected to have a 4-year degree program and those entering without have a 5-year program. (However, average time to degree in our program when I was there was 9 years regardless).

And certainly, details differ hugely by department (interpretation of the university guidelines seems highly subjective) and CS has qualifying exams, etc., that I'm totally unfamiliar with in terms of their impact on degree progress.
posted by obliquicity at 10:10 AM on August 26, 2006