Carnegie Mellon University
School of Computer Science  ›  Language Technologies Institute  ›  Academics  ›  PhD Programs  ›  Ph.D. Course Types

Course Types

The Ph.D. program program defines several different types of courses. This page explains the differences between the different types of courses.

Undergraduate courses have numbers below xx-600. Senior-level undergraduate courses (xx-4xx and xx-5xx) do not count for PhD graduation credit.
Graduate courses have numbers of xx-600 and above.

An "LTI course" is any 12-unit course with a number of 11-XXX; a 6-unit course with 11-XXX counts as one-half of an LTI course. Unless otherwise specified, "course" means an actual classroom course, not credit given for research or independent study.

The LTI allows any one MLD (10-XXX) graduate course to count as an "LTI course"

An “SCS course” is any 12-unit course with a course number indicating a unit of the School of Computer Science (including LTI); a 6-unit course with such a number counts as one-half of an SCS course. Unless otherwise specified, "course" means an actual classroom course, not credit given for research or independent study. 

Any course that satisfies a Breadth requirement can be counted as an "SCS course".

The courses listed below can also be counted as an "SCS course".

Course Title Units Semester
18-691 Digital Signal Processing 12 Spring
80-816 Causality and Machine Learning 12 Varies

There are several types of independent studies, as shown below.

Course Title Units Semester
11-910

Directed Research
Your primary research topic

 1-48 Both
11-920

Independent Study

 6-18 Both
11-920

Independent Study: Breadth
Not in your main area of research

 6-18 Discontinued
11-925

Independent Study: Area of Concentration
In your main area of research, but not your primary topic

 6-36 Discontinued
11-929 Masters Thesis 6-18 Both
11-930

Dissertation Research
Ph.D. student research after the thesis proposal is accepted

 5-36 Both

Note that the Independent Study courses listed above do not normally count for LTI class credit. The exception is if an Independent Study is used to replace an unavailable LTI course (with prior permission of the chair of the LTI graduate programs).

Masters students: Note that only 12 units of "Independent Study: Project" may normally count towards your total course requirements.