[Developer, Graduate School] 3. Course Registration and Semester Start.

This week marks the official start of my graduate school semester. Starting with the first class on September 4th (Saturday), this week has been focused on course registration and orientation (OT).

Typically, OT is held in-person at the graduate school, but this year, due to COVID-19, it was conducted online through a video conference.

During the OT, we received information about graduation requirements, course delivery methods, course registration, and had a brief introduction session between new students and professors.

Here's a summary of the key points (I imagine most graduate programs have similar graduation requirements).

Maximum course credits per semester: 9 credits
For thesis track: 24 credits of coursework + 6 credits of research guidance. For alternative track: 30 credits of coursework + 6 credits of research guidance for graduation.
Eligibility for the qualifying exam: after completing 18 credits.
Passing the qualifying exam and English proficiency exam for graduation.

Unlike other graduate programs where students have a wider range of courses to choose from, the course schedule for this program was already fixed with 3 courses. (Probably due to the nature of a weekend graduate program, it may not be feasible to offer a wide variety of courses.)

Apparently, it's possible to take up to 9 credits (3 courses) from related departments (similar fields) throughout the graduate program.

Unfortunately, this semester's courses seem to lean more towards business management than IT. I'll need to carefully plan my course selections for future semesters, taking advantage of related department courses to get the classes I need.

My first class is tomorrow, and I hope I can graduate successfully within two years!