While selecting the CS program that is the best match for you is necessarily subjective, we list below several reasons you should consider CS@Mason:

  • World-class Faculty:  The department ranks among the Top 50 Computer Science Departments in the US, and it has a world-class faculty with research strengths in all areas of computing and a strong committment to undergraduate teaching and mentoring.  (See this page to find out more about the department's research activities and faculty awards for excellence in teaching and research.)

  • Diverse Programs and Courses:  With over 70 faculty members, the CS department at Mason is one of the largest in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the largest department in the College of Engineering and Computing. Consequently, we offer courses on all areas of computing ranging from robotics to cyber-security to data mining.

    We offer two undergraduate programs - the ABET-accredited BS in Computer Science and the BS in Applied Computer Science which is a unique program that has inter-disciplinary concentrations in Business Management and Marketing, Computer Game Design, Geoinformatics, Software Engineering, and Technology Policy -- for students interested in those fields.   Undergraduate students at Mason can easily switch between the BS in CS and BS in ACS, and vice versa.

  • Research opportunities: Scholarship is valued as a core characteristic of the Mason graduate, and Mason's programs for supporting undergraduate student research have received national recognition and awards. The CS department is committed to offering research opportunities to our undergraduate majors. See our undergraduate research pages for more information.

  • Honors programs: Academically talented CS undergraduate students can participate in the honors program offered by the Honors College at Mason. In addition, the CS department offers its own CS Honors Program for students with strong computational foundations and the drive to delve deeper into computing.

  • Location - Job and Internship Opportunites:  Mason is located in Fairfax in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Northern Virginia is home to one of the largest concentrations of high-tech firms in the nation. And where the companies are, the internships, connections, and jobs are. 

  • Accelerated BS/MS programs: Students can combine their BS degree with one of four MS degrees offered by the department - the MS in Computer Science, the MS in Information Systems, the MS in Information Security and Assurance, the MS in Software Engineering, as well as the inter-disciplinary MS in Data Analytics Engineering offered by the College of Engineering and Computing. 

 Even more reasons to choose CS@Mason