Admissions: Who Should Apply

The Admission Committee of the MSIT program takes a balanced look at each applicant, relying on a comprehensive set of documents and a personal interview to determine the best candidates for the program. You’ll be evaluated not only for your academic ability, but for your career goals and your “fit” for this unique program.

Basic Requirements

1. All must possess a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution. Applicants with eligible three-year degrees from foreign institutions will also be considered. For the part-time degree, any major will be considered. For the full-time program, applicants must possess a bachelor's in computer science or electrical engineering (or something very similar) to be considered. Because half of the courses for the full-time program must be taken through EECS, candidates must possess the EECS prerequisite knowledge in programming and higher level math.

2. Be able to commute to Northwestern’s Evanston campus on class days. (Saturdays only for part-time; Saturdays and weekdays for full-time).

Professional Requirements
All applicants are required to have work experience in an IT-related position. Because IT positions exist in every industry and nearly every company, our students have a diverse professional background. Applicants may hold any type or level of position within their companies, as long as they have a strong interest in better understanding the engineering principles of IT while learning how to evaluate and manage it.

If you hold a bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science or other technical field, you must have at least two years of IT-related job experience. If you hold a bachelor's degree in a non-technical field (i.e. English, music, political science), you must have at least four years of post-college IT-related job experience.

Academic Requirements
While we do not set minimum grade point averages or GRE scores, our applicants average an undergraduate GPA of 3.15/4.0 and quantitative GRE scores of 650/800. As an applicant for an engineering-based degree, you will be required to demonstrate sufficient math aptitute via your academic background, GRE scores, and/or work history.