Master's Programs

Occasionally, admitted international students who have an I-20 from the Wichita State University, are unable to arrive in Wichita for the semester of their admission. This may happen due to various reasons, such as inability to obtain a US visa on time. Such students need to defer their admission to a later semester and obtain a new I-20 for that semester. A new I-20 can be requested by online submission of the Readmission Request Form.

Any student who has been admitted into one of these programs is eligible to apply for a departmental teaching assistantship. To apply, please complete the GTA Application Form and submit it along with a photocopy of transcripts to the departmental address given on the form. Teaching assistantships at WSU may only be awarded to international students who have either obtained a score of at least 23 on the Speaking Component of TOEFL, a score of at least 50 on TSE (Test of Spoken English) or an IELTS score of 7.0. Students without one of these scores can take TSE on campus by completing the TSE Referral Form and submitting to the WSU Office of International Education. Domestic students do not need to submit the English scores.

Some faculty members in the department, at times, also offer research assistantships. Students interested in applying for these need to contact individual faculty members directly about current availability of positions.

Several other employment opportunities are often available on campus, such as in the Ablah Library, Barton School of Business, etc., but these opportunities are best explored after arriving on campus.

Students of these programs are free to register for courses according to the degree requirements mentioned in the program brochures. No appointment with the Graduate Coordinator is necessary for receiving "permission" to take any courses. Students are encouraged to choose courses from those offered in any semester according to their personal tastes and future professional goals, as long as the chosen courses meet the degree requirements stated on the program brochures.

Each student, at some stage, needs to complete and get approved a Graduate Plan-of-Study that lists all specific courses that the student will take to obtain the degree. Master's students should submit their Plan-of-Study upon completion of 12 hours of degree work, and doctoral students should submit theirs before completing their qualifying examinations.

Students are encouraged to complete their Plan-of-Study Form themselves after deciding the set of all courses they will take for their degree. This set of courses should meet the degree requirements of their program.

Any course taken by a student for an undergraduate degree, at any institution, cannot be taken here again towards a graduate degree.

Remember to state the appropriate Major Code Number on your Plan-of-Study form:

• G35B for MSCN, MSCN Addendum Form (This addendum is required and must be filled out along with the plan of study form.)
• G35A for MSCS, MSCS Addendum Form (This addendum is required and must be filled out along with the plan of study form.)
• G34A for MSECE, or
• G10G for PhDEECS (PhD students also need to submit this Addendum along with their Plan-of-Study).

For MSEE students, please follow special instructions to file the Plan of Study.

For other master's students, after completing and signing this form, please submit it to the graduate secretary, Wendy Brooking (soc.gradadvising@wichita.edu), for verification, approval and further processing. No appointment with the graduate coordinator is necessary for completion or signing of this form.

Occassionally, some master's degree students decide to change their program of study, for example, from MSECE to MSCN, or from MSCN to MSCS, etc. The procedure for making such a switch is to apply to the WSU Graduate School for admission into the new program, along with the application fee. As the Graduate School already possesses all supporting documents of existing students (past transcripts, TOEFL/IELTS scores, etc.), those usually do not need to be resubmitted along with the new admission application. For international students, any change of program is put into effect from the student's second semester at WSU, or later. Please contact the Graduate School for more details.

(Reduced Course Load, I-20 extension, exception forms, etc.)

• Please fill in the form. Please be sure to include your name, mywsu ID, and any information that is neccessary for our office to approve the form.
• If you are a project or thesis student, please be sure to have your project or thesis adviser sign the form if approiate.
• Submit the form to Wendy Brooking (soc.gradadvising@wichita.edu).

All master's degree and doctoral students need to complete PSIT before graduation, preferably within the first year of study.

Detailed, step-by-step instructions for completing this requirement are available at this link.

By law, all international students are required to register for at least nine credit hours of courses each semester. However, sometimes students need or want to register for fewer credit hours. As an example, students left with less than nine credit-hours to complete their degree need only to register for those remaining hours in their last semester. As another example, students with graduate assistantships are allowed to register for as little as six credit-hours. All such students need to complete the Full Course Load Certification Form. Students with graduate assistantships must attach a copy of their assistantship offer with this form. After completing and signing this form, please submit it, along with any supporting documents, to the graduate secretary, Wendy Brooking (soc.gradadvising@wichita.edu), for verification, approval and further processing.

All master's degree thesis students, by the date of their defense, are required to submit or have ready to submit (with the approval of their advisor) one paper that is based on their thesis to an external peer-reviewed conference or journal.

This requirement is checked at the time thesis students schedule a date for their Oral Defense. To schedule this date, all thesis students need to complete the following two forms:

• MS Paper Completion Form, and
• MS Request to Schedule Oral Defense

After completing and signing these forms, please submit them to the graduate coordinator or the graduate secretary, Wendy Brooking (soc.gradadvising@wichita.edu), for verification, approval and further processing. Contact information for graduate coordinators can be found below.