Choosing a Master's Program
Our department offers several master's degrees and subplans. This guide will help you determine which one is right for you.
Our Master's Options
Degree Costs
Funding Considerations for MS and PMP
Switching Between Degrees
Comparing Degrees and Subplans
Our Master's Options
A traditional master’s degreecan help you prepare to pursue a PhD or prepare you for a successful career in academia or in industry.In our programthis is specifically a Master of Science (MS)degree, but there is a Master of Engineering (ME) option in more detail below. A thesis is optional for students in this program; all students are admitted on the non-thesis, coursework-only track.
Our traditional master's programs have courses that are held during normal business hours. This may make it difficult to complete as an on-campus program for applicants who wish to work full-time while completing their degree.
Our MS and MEdegrees includesixfocus areas which students can specify an interest in in their application,but, if admitted, students are able to take classes among all theseareas to best learn the varied knowledge they want for their future career path. There are no subplans to the traditional MS degree. Our is the best place to see the course options.
A professional master’s degree (otherwise referred to as a Professional Master's Program; PMP)usually leads directly to work in industry. The goal of the professional master’s degree is to prepare students to be highly competitive in the professional job market. The target audience is the soon-to-be or current working professionals who want to further their education, obtain cutting-edge knowledge; further advance their communication, collaboration, presentation, organizationaland networking skills; and apply what they learn, and the graduate certificates and degrees they earn, to advance their career. The professional master’s degree admission process evaluates applicants primarily on their potential to complete a challenging degree, and not on their potential to do research or complete a PhD. There is no thesis option for these students.
Our professional master’s degrees are offered primarily under the Professional Masterof Science degree (MSEE), but alternatively under the Masterof Engineering degree. In either case, professional master's students may pursue one of four subplans:
- Embedded Systems Engineering
- High Speed Digital Design
- Next Generation Power and Energy Systems
- Power Electronics
The MS-EE on Coursera offers stackable graduate-level courses, graduate certificatesand a fully accredited master’s degree in electrical engineering. The admission is performance-based, which means you don’t need exam scores, recommendations or transcripts. Earn your graduate degree and/or certificate by completing a series of for-credit courses in a “Pathway Specialization” and pass with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better and not less than 2.0 in any individual course. This “B” average qualifies you to be admitted into the degree program. Students earn the same credentials as our on-campus students.
Please contact ecegrad@colorado.edu if you would like to discuss your ability to work outside the university while completing a master's degree so we can help you to determine the best fit for your situation.
If you're a current undergraduate student in ECEE, the Bachelor’s / Accelerated Master’s (BAM)program offers you the opportunity to receive a bachelor’s and master’s degree in a shorter period of time.
Applying
Information on how to apply for our graduate programs can be found here.
Applications for Spring semesters close on September 1 annually, applications for Fall semesters close on February 15 annually.
Degree Costs
The traditional MS degrees,Professional MS and MS-EE on Coursera degrees have different billing structures you should review before applying:
- Tuition & Fee Rate Sheets for traditional MS and PMPs
- MS-EE onCoursera - Domestic and International Students(tuition is assessed on a pay-as-you-go, per-course basis)
Please Note: There are different rates for the traditional program, the PMPs, and Coursera. These rates are also different if you are an in-state resident vs an out-of-state or international student. Please read through the fee rates closely!
Tuition is less expensive for PMP students who are out-of-state residents or international students. PMP tuition is more expensive for in-state residents.
Funding Considerations for Traditional MS and PMP
You will automatically be considered for potential aid; there is no extra paperwork to fill out to be considered. However, it is rare that we are able to provide scholarships, funding or assistantships to our master’s students. Nearlyall research assistantships (RA) go to fully fund our PhD students, and we do not use teaching assistantships (TA). Additionally, Professional Master’s students are not eligible to hold a graduate appointment like a TA or an RA and may only hold hourly student appointments that do not include tuition remission.
ECEE hires Learning Assistants (LAs, undergraduates) and Graduate Learning Assistants(GLAs, graduate students)to assist with the majority of classroom support.
- GLAs are graduate students who can work up to 20 hours per week during fall and spring terms without any tuition waiver. Please note some department roles limit GLAs to 5 or 10 hours per week.
- GLAs are available for responsibilities such as additional office hour coverage, holding course workshopsand homework review sessions for our on-campus courses. For the MS-EE on Coursera program, GLAs help solve student issues, answerstudent questionsand beta-testCoursera courses.
- All ECEE graduate-level students are eligible to apply for this role, though this does not guarantee being hired. The application information is emailed to all active students each Fall/Spring semester.
Our Graduate School has additional funding information that may be helpful to you in determining how to fund your degree. You can explore on-campus employment opportunities.
Switching Between Traditional MS and PMP
You may apply to switch your master’s degree program (traditional MS to PMP or vice-versa) once during your tenure as a student. This means you must complete one semester in your program of entry with a GPA of 3.0 or higherand have permission from your advisor and the advisor of the program you wish to switch into (faculty advisors are assigned only two or three weeks prior to semester start). You may not switch during the term you plan to graduate. Your last term officially begins after census date of the prior term. All requests to switch must be received at least one week before the next semester begins.
Compare Degrees and Focus Areas + View Courses
If you are interested in a particular field within electrical and computer engineering, please check out the grid below to see what degrees are available to you.
*Our Traditional MS does not have specific subplan requirements, but the focus areas are identified below.
Our is the best place to see the course options.
Professional MS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Engineering, Electromagnetics/RF, Photonics & Quantum Engineering,Power Electronics & Renewable Energy,Learning, Information, Network, Communicationand Data (LINCD) Sciences, Systems & Controls | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Embedded Systems Engineering (ESE) | No | No | Yes | ||
| Next Generation Power & Energy Systems | No | No | Yes | No | |
| Power Electronics | No | No | Yes | ||
| High Speed Digital Design | No | No | Yes | No |