Admission Requirements

1. Compliance with all of the eligibility requirements of the Graduate School as set forth in the Graduate Catalog.
2. Acceptance to graduate study by the Dean of the Graduate School.
3. Completion of a four-year undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university with an undergraduate grade point average of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale. Applicants are expected to have an undergraduate major or minor in a technical computing discipline, including coursework in
   1. Data Structures
   2. Database Systems / Database Management Systems
   3. Discrete Mathematics
   4. Statistics

   Applicants who do not satisfy these requirements may take undergraduate level courses to remove any prerequisites except for Data Structures. The applicant must satisfy the requirement for Data Structures to be admitted.

4. Minimum GRE and TOEFL scores, as described below.

Before the program director is allowed to review your application, the Graduate school must verify your TOEFL score. The acceptable TOEFL score is set by the University as:

• 213 for computer-based TOEFL
• 71 for the Internet-Based TOEFL
• 550 for pencil-and-paper-based TOEFL
• 6.0 overall for IELTS
• 105 for Duolingo English Test
• Details for other acceptable test scores:  https://www.nwmissouri.edu/admissions/international/englishproficiency.htm

Applicants not meeting the TOEFL/IELTS requirement are not forwarded to the school for consideration.

A student is more likely to be admitted by the school if

1. The student's undergraduate degree is in Computer Science or a closely related field AND
2. the student has successfully completed a course in data structures* AND
3. Total GRE >=290 AND
4. undergraduate GPA >=3.0, on a 4.0 scale AND
5. number of backlogs <=7

*Undergraduate courses in computer networks/network fundamentals and database management systems are required. Students admitted without these courses can take them at Northwest upon arrival for graduate study. However, students must have successfully completed a course in data structures prior to being admitted to the program.

Applicants who do not meet these requirements may be admitted provisionally.

The School of Computer Science and Information Systems reserves the right of final decision in accepting students to graduate degree candidacy in the school. Criteria for admittance to the program and acceptance to degree candidacy may include academic qualifications and performance, letters of recommendation, number of applicants, and available resources.

Application Deadlines

Applications and all transcripts must be submitted to the Office of Admissions by the following dates. International students should allow approximately two months from the time all application documents are received for notification of acceptance.