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Master of Science Degree

Ten Courses

The master's degree in system dynamics is a 30-credit-hour program that can be taken completely online.   

At least 21 credit hours must be in system dynamics and the remaining nine can be in mathematics, organizational studies, economics, or system dynamics as applied to problem solving in a variety of domains.

Up to six of these latter credit hours may be completed as supervised project work. (Three of these credits may also be earned by double-counting a part of the junior and senior undergraduate projects involving system dynamics, providing the SS&PS Department views this work to be equivalent to a graduate course.)

All entering students must submit a plan of study identifying the courses to be taken and a prospective project topic before the end of the first semester in the program. If the student has earned a Graduate Certificate in System Dynamics from WPI, the plan of study must be submitted with the application for the master's degree program. The plan of study must be approved by the SS&PS Department.

Required courses (6 credits)

• SD 550 System Dynamics Foundation: Managing Complexity (3 credits)
• SD 551 Modeling and Experimental Analysis of Complex Problems (3 credits)

Level A (select 6 to 9 credits)

• SD 552 System Dynamics for Insight (3 credits)
• SD 553 Model Analysis and Evaluation Techniques (3 credits)
• SD 554 Real World System Dynamics (3 credits)
• SD 555 Psychological Foundations of System Dynamics (3 credits)

Level B (select 9 to12 credits)

• SD 560 Strategy Dynamics (3 credits)
• SD 561 Environmental Dynamics (3 credits)
• SD 562 Project Dynamics (3 credits)
• SD 565 Macroeconomic Dynamics (3 credits)

Level C - Electives (select 3 to 9 credits)

• SS 590 Special Topics in System Dynamics (credit as specified)
• MA 510/CS522 Numerical Methods (3 credit hours)
• MA 514 Numerical Differential Equations (3 credit hours)
• Approved graduate coursework in an application area (e.g., economics, psychology, management, engineering, or applied sciences)

A selection from the following WPI online courses may be taken to meet this part of the degree requirement:

• ACC 501 Financial Accounting (2 credits)
• FIN 502 Finance (2 credits)
• FIN 508 Economics Of The Firm (2 credits)
• FIN 509 Domestic And Global Economic Environment Of Business (2 credits)
• OBC 503 Organizational Behavior (2 credits)
• OBC 531 Managing Organizational Change (3 credits)
• CE 574 Water Resources Management (3 credits)
• CE 579 Planning & Designing for a Sustainable Built Natural Environment (3 credits)

5. Up to 6 credit hours of directed research

All courses selected by the student must appear in the graduate catalog and must be approved by the SS&PS Department.

Background Requirements

Applicants will be eligible for admission to the program if they have earned an undergraduate degree from an accredited university consistent with the WPI graduate catalog. Admission will also be open to qualified WPI students who opt for a five-year Bachelors-Masters Degree, with the undergraduate major based on a student's interests. Admission decisions will be made by the SS&PS Department (Social Science & Policies Studies) based on all of the factors presented in the application, including prior academic performance, quality of professional experience, letters of recommendation, TOEFL scores in case of students for whom English is not the first language, GRE scores unless waived by the department, etc.

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Last modified: February 05, 2008 14:30:09