EECS department releases new computer science minor requirements
New requirements increase flexibility and breadth of the minor
The MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science released its new CS minor requirements Jan. 31 on the CS Minor Piazza page. The requirements will be in effect starting from fall 2019.
The new requirements increase the flexibility of the major with more class choices in broader areas. The new requirements are a superset of the old requirements; completion of the old requirements would also fulfill the new requirements.
The new minor requires a total of 72 units, with up to 12 units of introductory level subjects, up to 63 units of basic level subjects, and at least 12 units of advanced level subjects. Additionally, students must take at least one software-intensive subject and one algorithms-intensive subject.
There are five options for introductory level subjects, 11 options for basic level subjects, and 28 options for advanced level subjects, with multiple counting as software and algorithms-intensives. In contrast, the old minor required a strict four class core and two additional courses in the basic and advanced electives list, which had three and eight class options, respectively.
Additionally, the new requirements include interdisciplinary course options, such as 6.809[J] (Interactive Music Systems) and 6.047 (Computational Biology: Genomes, Networks, Evolution).
Substitutions are not planned to be allowed, but student feedback is welcomed, according to EECS Undergraduate Officer Katrina LaCurts PhD ’14 in an email to The Tech.
LaCurts said that the changes resulted from student and faculty feedback on the original minor suggesting that it was “more restrictive than it needed to be to provide a substantial credential.” The changes were developed in the past year with contributions from “a variety of faculty in leadership roles in EECS … with substantial input from students.”
“Feedback has been largely positive so far, with more students interested in pursuing the minor,” according to La Curts.