Enrollment Information
Congratulations on your admission to Portland State University's Electrical and Computer Engineering Masters Program! This page has important information to know about enrolling in your first term.
The Quarter System
Portland State is on the quarter system, not the semester system. Quarters are also referred to as terms. The academic year consists of Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters and there are usually much fewer course offerings during Summer quarter. It is important to remember that quarters move much faster than semesters as they are only 11 weeks (10 weeks + finals week). Summer term is typically even shorter at 8 weeks.
How many credits do I register for?
9 credits each quarter is considered full-time enrollment for graduate students. Half-time enrollment is 5 credits.
How are graduate-level courses numbered?
Graduate-level courses are numbered 500 and higher and anything 499 or lower cannot be used for a graduate degree. 600-level courses are typically only for PhD students.
How many courses do I register for?
All ECE and EE lecture courses are 4 credits each at the graduate-level. Full-time students enroll in two 4-credit ECE or EE lecture courses and a 1-credit course each quarter.
Students are encouraged to take the ECE 508 workshops that are offered in Fall, Winter, and Spring terms as their 1-credit course to reach full-time enrollment at 9 credits or 5 credits at half-time. Students also have the option of taking the ETM 505 or ETM 507 1-credit seminar courses to meet the enrollment minimum.
There is also the ECE 563 Grad School Essentials: Scholarly Skills course in Fall and ECE 564 follow up course in Winter. These courses are designed for students planning to do an MS thesis or PhD. If you are interested in following the thesis path you can reach out to ECE faculty members in the area you are interested in researching.
Can I register for 3 ECE lecture courses in a quarter?
Students are limited to registering for 11 credits in a quarter. Students are not allowed to take three lecture courses in a term since the quarter moves very fast. The recommendation is that full-time students take 9 credits each quarter and concentrate on doing well to earn and maintain a high GPA.
What is the difference between ECE and EE?
Most courses offered by the ECE Department are under the ECE prefix. The EE prefix has courses related to the Signal Processing & Machine Learning track and the Power Engineering track. The rest of the tracks' courses are under ECE.
What courses should I begin with in my track?
We are working to publish guides for recommended paths through each of the 9 ECE MS tracks soon. For now please see our graduate tracks for information on the courses required for each of the tracks. Please note that there is often overlap between tracks and there are several courses like ECE 525, 571, 581, and 585 that are usually good choices to begin the program with and can be applied to a few of the different tracks, particularly the Computer Architecture, Digital IC, Design Verification & Validation, and Embedded Systems tracks.
How can I plan out my future courses?
Students can find planning information on the Yearly Course Guides page. The first link on the page can be particularly useful since it lists the days/times.
What is a 'Westside' course and how do I know if I am registering for one?
While most ECE courses are held downtown at the main PSU campus, there are also several courses held at the Willow Creek Center at 185th and Baseline road in Washington County. Taking courses here is often more convenient for working professional who live in the area or for second-year MS students who are doing internships. These courses will have a section of 'WCC' instead of a number like '001' for on-campus courses. There will also be a course note stating its location. The schedule of these courses is also an indication of the location since they always start at either 17:00 or 19:00 (PSU uses military time for scheduling), while on-campus evening courses always start at 16:40 or 18:40.
Is there an orientation for ECE Graduate Students?
Yes, Dr. Hall holds a mandatory orientation session. These are typically held the week before Fall term and the week before Winter term.
What if I have questions that were not answered here?
Please reach out to us at ecegrad@pdx.edu and we will be happy to answer your questions. Students admitted to PSU can also find various general information on their next steps on the Admitted Graduate Students page. Admitted International Students can also find additional information on the International Graduates page.