5 Year: BS/MS IEOR

Requirements for the MS Degree within the 5-Year Program

The combined Bachelor’s-Master’s program has two features that distinguish itself from the standard MS program:

1. As part of their curriculum that satisfies the basic rules for an MS degree, students must complete three courses in their area of concentration. One course may be an upper-division or graduate course from outside the department that is aligned with the student’s concentration. Applicants may find it helpful to consider the following areas of concentration when preparing their course of study plan. Potential IEOR courses in each area are listed below. Students should consult their faculty advisors for potential courses in other departments.
   a. Operations Research: INDENG 231, 242, 261, 262A, 262B, 263A, 263B, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269
   b. Production, Logistics and Service Operations: INDENG 215, 230, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 258
   c. Financial Engineering: INDENG 215, 221, 222, 223, 224
2. Plan II (Comprehensive Exam or Master’s Project): Each Plan II student must choose one of the following options:
   a. Complete an individual project via 2 units of graduate-level independent study units (INDENG 299 and/or 599); students who choose this option are not required to pass the Comprehensive Exam
   b. Complete a small-group project via at least 2 units of a graduate-level project-based course to gain experience in applying IEOR methodology to real-world problems; students who choose this option are required to pass the Comprehensive Exam.

*NOTE: Students can fulfill either of these requirements without taking courses or units beyond those required for the master’s degree by carefully planning their course of study.

Berkeley undergraduates who take undergraduate and graduate coursework during their last undergraduate semester that is not needed for the bachelor’s degree or honors program at Berkeley or any other institution may petition to backdate graduate standing in order to receive graduate credit for that coursework. Graduate standing may be backdated for only one semester (the final undergraduate semester).

The request must be submitted to the Head Graduate Adviser in a memo. It can be submitted either before or when a student applies for advancement to candidacy. The memo must specify the units and courses taken in the FINAL undergraduate semester to be applied to the master’s degree and must be accompanied by a written statement from the student’s undergraduate college confirming that the coursework was not utilized to fulfill an undergraduate degree requirement. No course may be used to satisfy both an undergraduate and a graduate degree requirement. Courses in the 300, 400, or 600 series do not count toward the unit requirements for the master’s degree. No undergraduate independent study can count toward the unit requirements for the master’s degree.
No single course may be used to satisfy more than one category.

A master’s degree requires a minimum of two semesters of academic residence. Academic residence is defined as payment of registration fees and enrollment in at least 4 units in 100 or 200 series courses each semester of academic residence.

A student who has been advanced to candidacy has been officially recognized by the university as a candidate for the degree. In order to be advanced to candidacy a student must have an approved Course of Study Plan on file, completed a minimum number of units, and have a minimum GPA of 3.0. Students are required to submit their Advancement to Candidacy form before the third week of their second semester. If approved for advancement to candidacy, the student becomes eligible to complete the comprehensive exam or master’s project (a project report and oral examination by a committee of two faculty members – Plan B).