The Five Year Bachelors/Masters Program, called the 5th Year M.S. Program for short, offers qualified Berkeley EECS and L&S CS undergraduate students a unique opportunity to begin graduate study during their undergraduate years, thereby accelerating the Masters degree by requiring only one additional year beyond the Bachelors degree. This is not a concurrent degree program. Students earn their Bachelors degree first and then the Masters. However, careful planning during the undergraduate program allows motivated students to begin a research project and complete some Master's course requirements while still in undergraduate standing. Depending on how quickly a student progresses through the undergraduate program, the additional graduate year may come sooner than the fifth year at Berkeley.

The 5th Year M.S. requirements are identical to those of the M.S. that is regularly obtained by Ph.D. students along the way, including a mandatory research project with written report or thesis. Applicants to the 5th Year M.S. program are considered separately from those applying for a Ph.D. and can later apply for admission for the Ph.D., where they will be considered in competition with other Ph.D. applicants. The M.S. component of this program is equivalent to the "M.S.-only" program except that there is an additional breadth requirement. Upon completion of the program, one receives either a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EE) or a Master of Science in Computer Science (CS).

This program is geared toward students who would like to pursue an education beyond the B.S./B.A., allowing them to achieve greater breadth and/or depth of knowledge, and who would like to try their hand at research as well. It is not intended for students who have definitely decided to pursue a Ph.D. immediately following graduation. Those students are advised to apply for a M.S./ Ph.D. program at Berkeley or elsewhere during their senior year. Students who have been accepted into the Five Year B.A./M.S. or B.S./M.S. are free to change their minds later and apply to enter the Ph.D. program or apply to a Ph.D. program at another university. Note that admission is competitive with all our Ph.D. applicants.