Guidelines on transition to ‘MSc with thesis’ in METU COGS

All transition decisions are made by the academic committee of the department. In order to be considered for transition, the candidates must submit a petition to the department. The petitions are called for by the department in termly or yearly periods, please closely follow the mails from the student mail list.

Here are the eligibility requirements and guidelines for transition:

1. The student should have completed at most 3 semesters in the non-thesis MSc programme (starting at most the 4th semester), including the deficiency (‘hazırlık’) semesters.

2. Besides the successful completion of the obligatory Primer courses (507 and 508), at least three 3-credit courses must be completed with an average grade no less than 3.50. These courses must be taken after the admission to the non-thesis program and picked from COGS coded courses or from the “Master Course List” (see the Department website).

3. Item 2 can be waived in case the candidate has been offered a position in a research project, the topic of which will be evaluated by the committee regarding its relevance to the research agenda of the department.

4. Prior to the application, the candidate must get in contact with a potential thesis advisor (co or main) from the department faculty, discuss and agree with him/her on a potential thesis topic. The thesis topic and the plans about the thesis work need to be outlined in a document (min 800 words), approved by the potential (co-)advisor and attached to the petition.

5. The fulfillment of course requirements and the consent of a potential thesis advisor are necessary but not sufficient conditions for transition. The final decision is at the discretion of the Cognitive Science academic committee, who may take into account the specializations and allowed workloads of the faculty, the research capacity and needs of the department, and other relevant factors.