Santa Clara University

Program

The master's degree will be granted to degree candidates who complete a program of studies approved by a faculty advisor. The degree does not require a thesis, but students may include a thesis in their program with up to 9 hours for the thesis work. The program must include no less than 45 quarter hours. In addition, a 3.0 GPA (B average) must be earned in all course work taken at Santa Clara. Residence requirements of the University are met by completing 36 quarter hours of the graduate program at Santa Clara. A maximum of 9 quarter units (6 semester units) may be transferred from other accredited institutions at the discretion of the student's advisor. All units applied toward the degree, including those transferred from other institutions, must be earned within a six-year period.

Students must develop a program of studies with an academic advisor and file the program during their first term of enrollment at Santa Clara. The program of studies must contain a minimum of 25 electrical engineering units and a minimum total of 45 units of graduate level engineering courses. The number of engineering management courses accepted is restricted to 6 units. The program must include the following:

1. One graduate course in electromagnetic fields (ELEN 201 or 202)
2. One graduate course in modern networks (ELEN 211, 212, 214, or 219)
3. One graduate course in control systems (ELEN 232, 236, or 333)
4. One graduate course in electronics (ELEN 252, 261, 264, or 270)
5. One graduate course in digital systems (ELEN 500 or 603)
6. Four applied mathematics courses
7. Issues in Professional Practice course requirement (2 units)
8. Additional graduate courses in the student's emphasis area and in other areas recommended and approved by the graduate program advisor. Up to 15 units of electives may be selected from the following upper-division undergraduate courses: 112, 116, 117, 118, 127, 130, 133, 141, 143, 144, 145, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156 and 160. Programs for several emphasis areas and the associated advisors are available from the department Web site or the department handbook.

These M.S. degree requirements may be adjusted by the advisor based on the student's previous graduate work. Alterations in the approved program, not relating to the above departmental requirements, may be requested at any time by a petition initiated by the student and approved by the advisor. The program may include up to six engineering management and leadership units, with the advisor's agreement.

Students with relevant technical backgrounds may be admitted to the MSEE program without a BSEE from an accredited program. In order to guarantee prerequisites for graduate courses, those students must take sufficient additional courses beyond the 45-unit minimum to ensure coverage of all areas of the undergraduate EE core requirements.

The nine undergraduate core courses are:

1. ELEN 21 Introduction to Logic Design
2. ELEN 33 Introduction to Digital Signal Processing Systems
3. ELEN 50 Electric Circuits I
4. ELEN 100 Electric Circuits II
5. ELEN 104 Electromagnetics I
6. ELEN 105 Electromagnetics II
7. ELEN 110 Linear Systems
8. ELEN 115 Electronic Circuits I
9. ELEN 151 Semiconductor Devices I

The advisor will determine which courses must be taken to meet these requirements. Undergraduate core courses will not be included in the 45 units required for the MSEE.

Note: In general, no credit will be allowed for courses that duplicate prior course work, including courses listed above as degree requirements. (However, a graduate-level treatment of a topic is more advanced than an undergraduate course with a similar title.) Students should arrange any adjustments of these requirements with their academic advisor when they file their program of studies. In all cases, prerequisite requirements should be interpreted to mean the course specified or an equivalent course taken elsewhere.

Program Highlights

• MSEE Program for part time and full time students offers emphasis in a variety of rapidly evolving technical areas.
   
• Students design individual MSEE programs with advice from full time faculty advisor.
   
• Location in Silicon Valley allows easy connection to large well known companies and small start-up companies for interships, CO-OPs, and employment after graduation.

Certificates

• Certificates offer specialized focus areas.
   
• Certificate credits can be applied toward an MSEE degree.
   
• Students with a BS degree in other fields than Electrical Engineering can earn a Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering certificate and then begin an MSEE program.