Summer Preparatory Program for MS-MIS students.

Congratulations on your admission to the MS in Management Information Systems at UIC Liautaud Graduate School of Business. We are pleased to know that you plan to enroll and are writing with an update on your program plan, as well as an option for beginning the program in summer, 2015.

Your program plan includes the following prerequisite courses, in addition to the eight courses required for the MS in MIS degree:

Any 2 Business Foundation Courses Statistics for Management (IDS 570)

Any 1 of the following technical foundation courses:

Business Info System Analysis & Design (IDS 405) Business Database Technology (IDS 410)

To help you complete these courses in a timely fashion, the Liautaud Graduate School of Business is initiating a summer program beginning on June 15, 2015, that will create an option for a limited number of students to complete up to sixteen credit hours (four prerequisite courses) during the summer months. The following courses are scheduled to be offered during the summer session (June 15th to Aug 17th 2015):

IDS 570 Statistics for Management IDS 532 Introduction to Operations Management ACTG 500 Introduction to Financial Accounting MKTG 500 Introduction to Marketing FIN 500 Introduction to Corporate Finance IDS 410 Business Database Technology IDS 401 Business Object Programming using Java

The tuition for this summer program will be $5813, and student fees will total $1256. These charges represent a substantial savings over the graduate business tuition and fees during the academic year (Please see the UIC website for details: https://admissions.uic.edu/grad/tuition_grad/tuition_grad_fal15_spr16.html ).

Here are some specific advantages of the summer program:

Completion of foundational courses will enable you to start taking advanced courses (eg. Data Mining, Statistical Software for Business Applications, Applied Consulting etc.) from the Fall semester.

Accelerate and finish your degree in one year or one-and-half years Gaining skills in advance can benefit in your internship or full time job search Fees for Summer term is less than 50% of that in Fall or Spring semesters. Note that you will not be

charged a tuition differential fees for this Summer 2015!

Please note that the summer program is completely OPTIONAL and should you choose not to join the summer cohort, you can start the program in Fall 2015.

1. NEXT STEPS? You must answer the Summer Preparatory Program form in your invitation email sent by James Brown. The deadline to fill out the form is March 15, 2015.

2. Accelerate your financial documents to be sent to OIS so that your I-20 and visa documents can be processed in a timely fashion.

3. Your specific courses will be decided in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. You will have an opportunity to discuss your entire course plan and pre-requisites, potential waivers or additions during your advising session that will scheduled upon your arrival at UIC.

Space for this option is limited, and timing to complete visa paperwork is tight. Please fill out the special invite by March 15 if this is an option that you would like to pursue. We will accept enrollment on a first-come, first-served basis.

Irrespective of your decision to join in Summer or Fall, we require you to go through an online preparatory package that will help review your skills and expertise before commencing the program.

Statistics

Statistical Reasoning: A Free-online course on basic statistics offered by Carnegie Mellon University https://oli.cmu.edu/courses/free-open/statistical-reasoning-course-details/

Another excellent resource on statistics, including the R software is available at http://www.openintro.org/stat/textbook.php

For developing a familiarity with statistical tools like SAS, SPSS or R, you can do any of the following courses available at Lynda.com [http://go.uic.edu/lynda - you will need a UIC netid and password to access this site]:

Up and Running with R SPSS Essential Training

Databases

The following courses are freely available via Lynda.com [ http://go.uic.edu/lynda - you will need a UIC netid and password to access this site]

Foundations of Programming: Databases by Simon Allardice SQL Server 2008 Essential Training SQL Server: Trigger, Stored Procedures, Functions.

Programming and Systems Design

The following courses are freely available via Lynda.com [ http://go.uic.edu/lynda - you will need a UIC netid and password to access this site]

Foundations of Programming: Object Oriented Design [OOAD and UML] Java Essential Training Java Advanced Training

If you have questions, please contact:

Ranganathan Chandrasekaran James Brown Director of Graduate Studies, MS in MIS program Assistant Director of Student Services Associate Professor of Information and Decision Sciences and Admissions UIC Business Liautaud Graduate School of Business ranga@uic.edu jwbrown2@uic.edu

FAQs about MS-MIS/MS-BA Prerequisites

1. Why have I been assigned pre-requisites for the graduate program? Our graduate program admits students with varied backgrounds and disciplines. Depending on student background, our admissions committee recommends a set of business and/or technical courses. For instance, a student with a technical or engineering background might have to take some business courses and a student with a business or arts background will need to take some technical courses. UIC views these courses as foundational knowledge on which your graduate program builds on.

2. Should I complete all the pre-requisites prior to starting my graduate program? No - You can design your course plan in such a way that you do the pre-requisite courses along with the set of other program-specific courses. If you lack technical foundations, you should plan to finish them in the first semester so that you can subsequently take advanced courses that require this foundational knowledge. For eg., a student who lacks skills in Java programming language should plan to complete pre-requisite IDS 401 in the first semester so that he/she can take advanced courses that require Java [eg. IDS 517] in the later semester.

3. How much time do I have to complete the pre-requisite courses? UIC graduate college requires you to complete all of the pre-requisite courses within one academic year of joining the program.

4. Do pre-requisites add to my tuition fees? Is there a way to avoid or minimize my fees? There are two options you can consider to avoid or minimize the additional tuition fees for the pre-requisite courses

(1) Liautaud Graduate School of Business is introducing a summer preparatory program in Summer 2015 that can be used to complete up to 16 credit hours [3 or 4 courses] of pre-requisite courses for less than 50% tuition that a student would pay in Fall or Spring semesters. Please see a separate note on the summer program for additional information.

(2) By careful selection of course-mix, students can avoid paying additional fees for the pre-requisite courses in Fall or Spring semesters.

UIC follows a tiered-system for charging tuition and other fees. For different ranges or tiers, please see https://admissions.uic.edu/grad/tuition_grad/tuition_grad_fal14_spr15.html

Full-time graduate students as well as international students on F-1 visa are required to register for 9 credit hours or more in Fall and Spring semesters. (http://grad.uic.edu/course-loads-and-full-three-quarter-and-half-time). Registering for 3 courses, i.e, 12 credit hours would place a student on Range I [12 hours and over] and any additional courses are not charged. Typical course-load for our full-time graduate students vary between 3 and 5 courses [12 20 credit hours] per semester. If, for instance, a student chooses to do 2 pre-requisite courses and 2 program courses in a semester, they will still be in the same range of tuition and hence the pre-requisites dont come at any additional cost.

5. Can I complete the pre-requisite courses outside UIC? Yes You can take the technical pre-requisite courses [like Databases or Java programming] in other universities or private institutions. We prefer that you take the business prerequisite courses at UIC as

many of these courses are a part of our MBA program and have been designed with specific requirements of the program in mind.

If you choose to complete the technical pre-requisites outside UIC, you need to provide complete documentation of your training [eg. Content covered in these courses], your performance in these courses [eg. Grades or scores], nature of training etc. It would be a good idea to contact our program advisors with complete information on these non-UIC courses to verify that they meet the equivalence requirements, prior to joining these courses. UIC might require you to take an assessment or waiver exam to confirm that you have the required skills or expertise.

6. Are the list of courses provided to me at the time of admissions final? Can I change the set of pre-requisite courses assigned to me? You will have an opportunity to discuss your pre-requisite courses during the advising session with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). You will also have the opportunity to petition for waiver or change in the pre-requisite courses assigned to you. In consultation with DGS, you can choose the pre-requisite courses that best fit in with your career interests and that which addresses the gaps in your current skillset.

7. What are the common foundational/pre-requisite courses for the MS-MIS and MS-BA programs?

Technical Prerequisites (0-12 credit hours)

IDS 401 Data Structures and Operating Systems IDS 405 Business Systems Analysis and Design [Not for MS-BA] IDS 410 Business Database Systems

Business Prerequisites (0-8 credit hours)

Two courses in functional areas of business:

IDS 532 Operations Management ACTG 500 Accounting FIN 500 Finance MKTG Marketing

Other Prerequisites (0-12 credit hours)

IDS 570 Statistics for Management MBA 590 Professional Presence Improv & Leadership IDS 406 Business Systems Design Project [Not for MS-BA]