All Computer Science and Software Engineering students are to adhere to the following procedures and policies. NPS and other pertinent instructions are summarized and referenced regarding academic and administrative requirements. Therefore, this is not an all-inclusive document.

Students attend NPS on official military orders. Students therefore are expected to complete all academic requirements in the same manner as any other military order. The academic programs reflect requirements from academic departments, military services and the Navy subspecialty system. All service members should assume, in general, attendance at the Naval Postgraduate School implies adherence to all Navy requirements unless specifically noted otherwise in the Catalog or official NPS web sites.

Students are required to read and review thoroughly…

• Student On-Line Handbook
• Academic Honor Code Instruction(intranet only)
• Academic Council Policy Manual(intranet only)

Students considering employment outside of NPS must comply with Article 136 of the Student Information Handbook and NAVPGSCOLINST 5370.3C, (Encl 1 and Encl 2) Policy Concerning Outside Employment And Professional Activities For Faculty, Staff, And Students.

Students will register for 4 classes per quarter to maintain full time status. Students will plan on completing all 4 classes. Drops and Withdrawals are "Requests" and must be justified and documented. Poor performance or instructor preference WILL NOT be the sole criterion for a drop or withdrawal. Students will continue to attend class until the drop request is approved through the Program Officer.

Students who register for more than 4 classes (not including seminars) will not be allowed to drop during the first two weeks of classes. However, students will be considered for withdrawal through the 8th week of the academic quarter. As before, poor performance WILL NOT be the sole criterion for a withdrawal under this circumstance.

Directed Study courses provide students the opportunity for in-depth study in areas not covered by other department offerings or when a students schedule does not match with the departments normal offering of an existing course. But as Directed Studies can negatively impact the pool of available students for upper level graduate courses, no student will register for more than one Directed Study course in an 8 quarter course of study. Directed Study requests should include not only the course material to be covered, but details on homework, projects or other deliverables that will be required for a passing grade and credit.

All courses listed on published academic plans or matrix are required unless specifically noted as elective.

As academic departments use current registration for fiscal year teaching plans, it is in the student’s best interest to make decisions early regarding electives and refrain from frequent or late changes. Frequent registration changes and approvals multiply quickly for Instructors, Academic Associates and Program Officers and create unnecessary administrative burdens. Therefore, students must understand that all Add/Drops are REQUESTS. Be prepared to adequately justify any mid-course corrections.

Students will use the "Move" function within Python when requesting changes. The Move function cannot be used when it involves the current quarter or the next quarter (after the registration deadline). In this case, use an Add and subsequent Drop. Drops will not be approved without a corresponding Add request.

CS students will select a specialization track or pre-register for track courses by end of 3rd quarter (not including refresher). Failure to do so may result in having a specialization track selected for them. Criteria for selection will be based on low enrollment (Tracks that have low enrollment will be populated with students who fail to plan ahead).

All students must have an approved Thesis Proposal before the end of the fourth quarter.

Students will automatically be registered for 4 thesis slots. A fifth registration may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Students and Thesis Advisors must adequately justify additional thesis registrations in writing. Normally a student will only be allowed to take one or two thesis slots in a given quarter. Under no circumstances will four thesis slots be approved in a single quarter.

Directed Study with a student’s thesis advisor is discouraged and may count against one of the four thesis slots.

Student Thesis Extensions Requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Detailed justification will be required from the student and thesis advisor for Program Officer endorsement. Cases that are not adequately justified will be forwarded to the Academic Council with a negative endorsement.

Students will be considered for academic awards based on academic grades, quality, complexity and significance of thesis research, course load and military bearing. Additionally, performance relative to past award winners will be applied to ensure consistent academic standards are maintained. Candidates for awards and their advisors will be contacted for inputs and evaluations. Students are reminded that an academic award is a privilege and being considered for these awards is an honor itself given the highly competitive academic environment.

The Academic Council awards Degrees with distinction as recommended by the Program Officer via academic departments. The Academic Council limits departments to recommending no more than ten percent in any one academic year of the students earning a Master's degree within a degree program. This is not a quota, but only an upper limit. Degrees with distinction are also based on academic grades, quality, complexity and significance of thesis research, course load and military bearing. Performance relative to past award winners will again be applied to ensure consistent academic standards are maintained.