Employment through the University's Cooperative Education Program

In general, three hours of credit for CS 3900 or CS 5890 are awarded after completing a semester of full-time employment arranged through the University's Cooperative Education Program. Credit is awarded in a semester following the completion of the work, assuming that a favorable evaluation is received from the employer. The grade for the course is always "S". The student must fill out a form to indicate the semester in which credit is desired. The form is available at http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/compsci/forms/InternshipForm.pdf or in the Department of Computer Science office, 221 Hayes Hall. Undergraduate students may obtain up to six hours of credit for CS 3900 for employment arranged through Cooperative Education, three hours per semester for two semesters. Graduate students are limited to three hours of credit for CS 5890. Registration must be completed prior to the ADD deadline for the semester. No late adds are permitted.

Employment arranged by the student

Academic credit is given for co-ops and internships using course numbers CS 3900 for undergraduates and CS 5890 for graduate students. Academic credit is allowed for job experiences related to the development of the student as a computer scientist. After the student has completed work which s/he feels is worthy of computer science academic credit, s/he may apply to the Department of Computer Science for credit certification. Work of a highly routine or automatic nature, such as data entry or operations, is not certified for credit. Normally, the work should involve the design or implementation of some type of programming system, whether in an application area or in the area of system development.

When such work has been completed, a written report must be submitted summarizing the work done. The report must be specific as to the nature of the work. The amount of project design done by the student should be clearly indicated. An indication should be given of how many and which programming languages were used in working on the project. The amount of interaction with the operating system should also be specified. (Was it necessary to know a great deal about the operating system being used? How important was familiarity with the job control language?) Also, give some indication of the relative size of the project. In addition, the student is requested to submit listings of non-proprietary programs which were written entirely or mostly by the student. Finally, the student should submit the name and phone number of the immediate supervisor for the work performed. A letter or evaluation from the supervisor would be helpful. The student must also submit a form indicating the semester(s) in which credit is desired. The form is available at http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/compsci/forms/InternshipForm.pdf or in the Department of Computer Science office, 221 Hayes Hall.

The Undergraduate Committee of the department evaluates the material submitted by the student. They are authorized by the department to confer between 0 and 3 semester hours of credit for the work completed. The documentation which the student has submitted is studied. If further clarification is needed, both the student and the supervisor of the work may be contacted. The committee attempts to determine how significant the project was in contributing to the development of the student as a computer scientist.

In order to receive all three semester hours of credit, the project must have involved a significant amount of project design on the part of the student. Implementation of a project whose design was already complete will generally earn a maximum of two semester hours credit, regardless of the size or nature of the project.

After the deliberations of the committee, the student is notified of the number of hours of credit awarded. The department will register the student for CS 3900 or CS 5890. The course may be added to the student's class schedule for a semester, or credit may be obtained "by examination," which requires only the payment of a $50 fee. The grade given for this course is always S (satisfactory). Naturally, if the work was unsatisfactory, the student would not register for credit by examination.

This course may be repeated until a total of three semester hours of credit is received for Computer Science Practicum. At most three hours may be applied toward undergraduate degree requirements. It should be noted that CS 3900 is not applicable to the major requirements in computer science. CS 3900 credit is applied to the university's free elective requirement for undergraduates. CS 5890 credit is elective credit for graduate students and does not apply to degree requirements.

The process outlined above must be completed prior to the ADD deadline of the semester. No late adds are permitted.