Plan of Study - New Curriculum beginning Fall 2027
The MSE Online is a part-time program, usually completed over 7-12 semesters, one of which is dedicated to writing the final term paper. Students can begin the program in the fall or spring semester. Students complete the program through a mix of synchronous meetings with program faculty, and asynchronous lectures and assignments.
A dedicated student can anticipate completing the program in 7 semesters. The maximum amount of time allowed to complete the program is 7 years from matriculation. A sample course of study for both a fall and a spring start are below.
Sample Course of Study
Fall Start →
Semesters are 14-weeks long. Some courses are mini-courses, which are half of a typical semester. Each semester contains two mini-semesters of 7-week courses. For example, the fall semester is broken into two mini-semesters, mini-1 and mini-2. Courses that follow the mini-semester schedule are noted.
Year 1 (48 units)
Fall Semester
17-603 Communications for Software Leaders I (6)
17-651 Software Specifications (12)
Spring Semester
17-604 Communications for Software Leaders II (6)
17-653 Software Engineering Management (12)
Summer Semester
12 Elective Units
Year 2 (45 units)
Fall Semester
17-650 Fundamentals of AI for SE (9)
17-619 Product Management Essentials I (6, mini-1)
17-626 Requirements for Information Systems (6, mini-2)
Spring Semester
17-633 Advanced Software Architecture (12)
Summer Semester
12 Elective Units
Year 3 (18 units)
Fall Semester
17-654 Software Quality Engineering (12)
17-679 Paper Writing for Industrial Software Research (6)
Spring Start →
Year 1 (39 units)
Spring Semester
17-633 Advanced Software Architecture (12)
Summer Semester
12 Elective Units
Fall Semester
17-651 Software Specifications (12)
17-650 Fundamentals of AI for SE (9)
Year 2 (54 units)
Spring Semester
17-653 Software Engineering Management (12)
Summer Semester
12 Elective Units
Fall Semester
17-603 Communications for Software Leaders I (6)
17-619 Product Management Essentials I (6, mini-1)
17-626 Requirements for Information Systems (6, mini-2)
17-654 Software Quality Engineering (12)
Year 3 (12 units)
Spring Semester
17-604 Communications for Software Leaders II (6)
Summer Semester
17-679 Paper Writing for Industrial Software Research (6)
Note on Elective Courses
MSE Online students may enroll in electives at Carnegie Mellon that are offered in the remote modality (REO). Please note that not all CMU courses will be available to MSE Online students. Prior to registration, please confirm with your academic advisor to ensure that the elective course is eligible to be taken by MSE Online students and approved to count toward degree requirements.
More REO modality classes are added to the university schedule of courses every semester. Independent study may also be a possibility. Please see program FAQs for independent study proposal process.
Examples of elective courses taken include:
05-692 Interaction Design Overview
10-601 Introduction to Machine Learning
10-703 Deep Reinforcement Learning & Control
11-611 Natural Language Processing
15-619 Cloud Computing
17-629 Product Management Essentials II
17-630 Context Engineering
17-636 DevOps
17-645 Machine Learning in Production
17-647 Scalable Systems Design
17-685 Dynamic Network Analysis
17-693 Negotiations for Software Leaders
17-765 Autonomous Self-Adaptive Systems Using Reinforcement Learning