M.S. Program

You can earn your degree as either a full-time or part-time student, through a customized balance of coursework, directed research, and/or thesis research. Students also supplement their technical work with coursework on other topics that are specified in the graduate engineering core curriculum.

M.S. Degree Requirements

An M.S. degree requires a minimum 46 units of study, including required core and elective courses within the School of Engineering, with an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher. If students decide to do an optional thesis work, they are required to engage in research that results, for example, in the development of a new approach to solving a relevant bioengineering problem, or a technical tool, a design criteria, or a biomedical application. This work should be documented in a journal publication, conference, or research report, and must also be included in a Master's thesis.

Courses used to meet the 46-unit minimum cannot include those previously used to satisfy an undergraduate degree program requirement. This includes cross-listed undergraduate courses at Santa Clara and equivalent courses at other institutions. If some required courses have been completed prior to graduate-level matriculation at SCU, additional electives will be required to satisfy the minimum unit total requirement.

Master of Science degree must include the following:

Engineering Core-Enrichment experience (minimum of 4 units)

• A minimum of 4 units must be from the Graduate Core, which requires at least two courses from the three areas listed below. BIOE 210 (satisfies Engineering and Society) is required.
• Emerging Topics in Engineering;
• Professional Development

Please refer to Chapter 6: Enrichment Experience and Graduate Core for additional information and the core course list.

Bioengineering Core (13 units) 

• BIOE 232 L&L (3 units)
• BIOE 200 (twice, 2 units)
• BIOE 280 (4 units)
• Approved Applied Mathematics courses (4 units)

Focus area (10 – 16 units) 

• Primary focus area (minimum of 6 units)
• Secondary focus area (minimum of 4 units)

If students choose Computational Bioengineering or Translational Bioengineering focus areas, they are required to complete additional 6 units to satisfy the requirements.

Biomolecular Engineering: 

• BIOE 257, 263, 282, 283, 286, 288, 300, 301

Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering: 

• BIOE 258, 259, 269, 273, 378

Biodevice Engineering:

• BIOE 203, 216, 260, 267, 268, 276, 277, 308

Computational Bioengineering:

• BIOE 227A, 227B, 251, 252, 261, 281, 312, 
• AMTH 240, 364, 370, 371, 377 (6 units)

Translational Bioengineering: 

• BIOE 206, 263, 279, 285, 302, 307, 320, 381
• Graduate Capstone Project sequence: BIOE 294, 295, 296 (6 units)

Technical Electives (4 – 19 units) 

All graduate-level BIOE courses (except BIOE 210) may count as Technical Electives. Select graduate courses from ECEN, MECH, or CSEN may be credited as Technical Electives upon approval by their academic advisor. No double dip is allowed.

All focus areas offer a culminating experience, which can be pursued by taking BIOE 297 and/or BIOE 397 (Master’s Thesis). Up to 6 units of BIOE 297 can be taken and counted toward the 46-unit requirement; if also taking BIOE 397, only up to 3 units of BIOE 297 can be taken. Submission of a M.S. Thesis is required for BIOE 397 (max. 9 units).

Alternative elective courses may be taken subject to approval from the student's advisor. 

Transfer Units

For students in the five-year accelerated BS/MS program, a maximum of 20 units may be transferred. Up to 9 units may be transferred to the M.S. degree for non-SCU students.