MS-FAQ

International students are required to maintain full-time status in Fall and Spring semesters. Full-time status is defined as 12 hours or more in Fall and Spring. Full-time status is not required in Summer. If you are required to take an ESL course, it will often count as four hours towards your status.

ISSS must approve the following reduced enrollments before any changes are made in Banner registration system.

If you wish to enroll for a reduced course load (RCL) for academic reasons or final semester, please fill out the appropriate form online: F-1 RCL and J-1 RCL. Your academic advisor must complete and submit the form, and an ISSS advisor must review it and approve your reduced course load before you drop any class.

• Academic reasons. You may reduce your course load for only one semester total during your program of study for academic reasons. A reduced course load is acceptable under the following circumstances:
  • New students enrolled for the first time and having difficulty with spoken English;
  • Difficulty with reading requirements;
  • Difficulty with unfamiliar teaching methods.
  • A student who has insufficient background for the class level in which he/she was placed may also seek approval for a reduction in course load at any time.
• Medical reasons. If you have a valid medical reason for reducing your course load, you must provide ISSS with a certificate from a medical doctor, doctor of osteopathy, or licensed clinical psychologist in the United States.   You may only reduce your course load for medical reasons for a maximum of 12 months during your program of study, however, ISSS can only approve one semester at a time.
• Final term of study. During your final term of study, and with the prior approval of ISSS, you only need to enroll for the required number of hours needed to complete your degree.

• Statistics: 32, not counting STAT 410.
• Analytics: 36, not counting STAT 410. To complete all course requirements, more than 32 hours will be necessary.
• Applied: 36, including STAT 410.

Yes. However, realize that you still need to complete the required minimum of 32 total hours for the Statistics or 36 total hours for the Analytics programs. Speak to your academic advisor to determine if a course would be eligible for degree consideration before registering for the course.

Not for courses that are used to meet a requirement (course, or total hours) for your program. For courses that are in addition to your required coursework, you may use this option.

Please check the relevant requirements on the Statistics Department website. You should verify that you have complete the correct…

• Courses: Verify that you have completed all required courses.
• Hours: Verify you have completed the necessary total number of hours. Hour subtotals are not strictly enforced.

Yes, provided they have different titles. For example STAT 430 Stochastic Process and STAT 430 Foundations of Data Science.

It does not need to be repeated. However, note that you still must complete a minimum of 32 hours of graduate work, so you will need to complete additional electives.

Yes. This transfer can be done at almost any time. The transfer would need to be completed before week 8 of your planned semester of graduation. Please contact stat-grad@illinois.edu for more details. 

Yes. But only four hours of STAT 593 may count towards the total number of hours needed to graduate.

No. For example INFO 490 (Foundations of Data Science) is cross-listed as STAT 430. If you register for INFO 490, it counts as STAT 430.

Yes, a limited number of courses are available for course substitutions from related disciplines can be considered. Please see your advisor for further details prior to or shortly after starting the course as a syllabus will be required for review. 

See the Graduate College’s Academic Calendar.