Professional Master's

CU Boulder’s Professional Master of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering will provide you with a wide range of knowledge across the field of materials engineering. As a professional master's student, you will complete 30 hours of coursework covering leading-edge industry topics including traditional and emerging materials systems, experimental methods, and advanced computational analyses. In general, the MSE Professional Masters degree is a coursework-only degree; a thesis is not required.

Requirements

Required Core Courses for All Tracks (9 Credits)

  • Materials Composition and Structure 
  • Materials Characterization for Engineering
  • Materials Thermodynamics and Kinetics

Specialized Track Courses (12 Credits)

Students must take four approved track-specific courses. Required track-specific courses and approved track-specific electives are listed on the MSE Class Information webpage.

Breadth Electives (9 Credits)

Students must select three breadth electives with the approval of the MSE Graduate Advisor. Students may earn up to 6 credits of independent study towards breadth electives.

Professional Master's students may also take up to 6 credit hours of Engineering Management courses.

Additional Information

Students enrolled in the Professional Master’s program are not eligible to hold a Teaching Assistantship or Research Assistantship appointment.

Master's Degree Along-the-Way (PhD Students Only)

PhD students are eligible to apply for a Master’s degree along the way. The requirements are:

  1. Complete all 30 coursework hours
  2. Inform graduate advisor (staff) of your intent to add the MS along-the-way. You need program approval (staff need to fill out and send a form) to add the MS to your profile.
  3. Fill out candidacy application
  4. Return candidacy application to graduate advisor (staff) and they will collect required signatures.
  5. Apply online to graduate through BuffPortal by the deadline.

The deadlines for this form depends on the semester you want to “graduate" with the Master’s degree.  The dates are posted on the Graduate School website.  For example, if you want to receive the Master’s degree in May, you need to apply online to graduate and complete the forms by February 1. You will receive the Master’s degree in May and it will appear on your transcript by mid-June.