Carnegie Mellon University

Program Eligibility

Eligible applicants to the MSE program for professionals have:

  • Completed an undergraduate degree in computer science or an engineering-related discipline that includes coursework in discrete mathematics or statistics, data structures and algorithms.
  • Completed at least two years of software development experience acquired through full-time positions as a junior or senior software engineer, quality analyst, or architect, among other positions.

In 2020, admitted students had an average of 4 years of industry experience in software engineering-related, full-time positions. In addition, admitted students typically have an average 156 GRE verbal score, and 167 GRE quantitative score. Admitted international students typically average a 103 total TOEFL score. That year, the program admitted 39% women and 61% men. 

Note: The scores provided are average scores of admitted applicants. GRE scores are optional. An application without GRE scores is not at a disadvantage; however, applicants who have taken the GREs are encouraged to submit their scores.