Career Switcher Programs
Career switcher programs are divided into completely zero-background programs (no CS prerequisite courses taken at all) and partially zero-background programs (some CS prerequisite courses taken). If a student is from an economics/business/biology background and has not taken prerequisite courses such as Data Structures, Computer Organization, Operating Systems, etc., they can refer to Prerequisite Courses for Career Switchers to plan their coursework.
Completely Zero-Background Career Switch
- NEU CS Align
- UPenn MCIT (favors high GPA from prestigious schools, GPA 3.9+ is relatively safe)
- UChicago MPCS
- UCI MSWE
- USC CS37
- NEU ISB
- UIUC MSIM
- Columbia CS Bridge
- NYU Tandon MSCS Bridge
- JHU MSECS
- NEU ISB
- CMU MITS
Requires Some Prerequisite Courses
- Duke ECE
- Duke Game Design
- Columbia MSCS
- Columbia EE
- CMU MSIN (there are past data points of students with 5-year Clinical Medicine undergrad degrees who completed prerequisites and switched to CS, as well as many EE/IS/Cybersecurity students who were admitted)
- CMU MISM
- Emory MSCS
- UCSD CS75 (there are past data points of Math majors who completed prerequisites and were admitted)
- Gatech CSE (you can first apply to a less competitive track, such as ISyE, then transfer to MSCS after enrollment)
- UIUC ECE
- UW EE PMP
- NCSU MCS
- NEU IS