UNC Charlotte is part of the University of North Carolina system. The school was founded in 1946 and is situated only 8 miles from the center of Charlotte. It is currently the fourth largest member of the University of North Carolina system. The campus is made up of 85 buildings spread over 1000 acres. It is home to the largest library in the Southern Piedmont area and it contains more than one million volumes. This primes it to be a Doctoral and Research Intensive institution. The school offers 80 Bachelor degree programs, 64 Master’s degree programs and 21 Doctoral degree programs.

UNC Charlotte Accreditation

Details

UNC Charlotte has been awarded accreditation by the Commission of Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

UNC Charlotte Application Requirements

Students who wish to apply as incoming freshman at UNC Charlotte must apply for the fall term of the academic year. Students must complete an online application and pay a non-refundable $60 application fee to be considered for admission to the school.
In addition to the online application, students must also submit their high school transcripts. These transcripts must be mailed directly from the applicant’s high school. Otherwise, the transcripts may be submitted through the NCWISE electronic delivery system. Students must also submit their official SAT or ACT test schools. These scores must also be submitted directly via the College Board or from the ACT.

The average high school GPA of incoming freshman is 3.7 to 4.3 when it is weighted and 3.2 to 3.7 when it is unweighted. The average SAT score of incoming freshman is 1540-1770. The average ACT score is 22 to 26.

Students who apply to UNC Charlotte must have completed:
• 4 years of English
• Four years of mathematics
• Two years of social studies
• Three years of science
• Two years of a foreign language

The admissions board at UNC Charlotte makes its decisions based on academic courses and high school performance. They also consider the applicant’s performance on the standardized testing including SAT and ACT scores.

Students are not required to submit letters of recommendation or personal essays when applying to UNC Charlotte.

Tuition and Financial Aid

Tuition for undergraduates is offered on two different rates. Students who are residents of the state of North Carolina have preferential rates. Students who are attending the school full time will pay $3,266 for 12 or more credit hours per semester.

Students who are not residents of the state of North Carolina can expect to pay $9851.50 for full time education per academic semester.

UNC Charlotte awards student financial assistance based on both merit and need. About 61 percent of the $100 million in aid available from the university is given to students who can demonstrated financial need. The rest is given to students who qualify for various scholarships and grants.

The school awards the following forms of tuition assistance and financial aid to incoming students:

• Loans
• Grants
• Scholarships
• Student employment
• FAFSA

B.A. or B.S. in Computer Science at UNC Charlotte

The Department of Computer Science at UNC Charlotte offers students the chance to earn a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. The school offers the latest technical and computer equipment available to undergraduate students to aid them in completing a list of courses that will prepare them for a long career in computer science.

Students who choose to take the Bachelor of Science pathway to an undergraduate degree will complete 120 hours of credits to achieve their degree. The first 25-28 hours of their degree credits are spent fulfilling the general education requirements of the school. Then, they spend 31 credit hours honing basic skills in analytics, communication and programming.

Once these two requirements are complete, students will take their core computer science courses. Some of the courses include:

• Data Structures
• Design and Analysis of Algorithms
• Operating Systems and Networks
• Software Engineering
• Database Design and Implementation
• Logic and Computer Systems
• Programming Languages

Students in the B.S. program will also take 9 to 15 hours of their outside concentration. This concentration might be in business or in computer engineering.

In the last few years of the program, the students will begin to focus on the Computer Science focus area programs. Students will take classes in:

• Intelligent Systems
• Game Design and Development
• Graphics and Visualization
• Networking and Distributed Computing
• Computing Systems

The final capstone project is then completed. The project may be research or a thesis. It may also be a software development project or a game design project.

Students who choose to undertake the Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science will follow a similar pathway as those who choose the B.S. degree. Students begin their degree with general education requirements and basic skills. They then take the core computer science requirements including:

• Data Structures
• Design and Analysis of Algorithms
• Operating Systems and Networks
• Software Engineering
• Database Design and Implementation

Students who choose the Bachelor of Arts pathways can choose to take a disciplinary focus in business or in cognitive science. Students who choose the cognitive science discipline will take classes in psychology and philosophy. Students who choose the business pathway will take classes in accounting and economics.

This degree is also completed with the completion of the Computer Science focus area credits and a capstone project.

Students who are participating in one of these degrees in Computer Science may also be eligible for the 5-Year BA/BS-MS degree program offered by UNC Charlotte. This program encourages students who are seeing exceptional success in the undergraduate program to pursue further study in graduate school. Students can qualify for this option in their junior year. If accepted, students will take graduate level classes during the senior year of their undergraduate program.

The Department of Computer Science at UNC Charlotte offers students the chance to move beyond basic areas of computing and into the latest trends in analytics, knowledge systems and visual analytics. As a school, UNC Charlotte is a top research institution and students who choose to pursue their degree there will benefit from the school’s cutting edge research in robotics, machine intelligence, games, databases and visualization at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral level.

Another excellent resource:

Top 10 Best Online Masters in Computer Science