A minimum of thirty semester hours must be earned toward completion of the degree. A minimum grade point average of 3.000 is required over all courses applied towards the degree. A maximum of eight semester hours of graduate credit from outside Northeastern University may be counted toward the degree. All transfer credits must be approved by petition before course enrollment.

The program may be pursued on a full- or part-time basis. The program requires that a mix of core required courses and elective courses be taken. As the core courses are all independent of each other, the program may be started in any semester. In addition, a set of prerequisite courses is available to bridge any gap in the technical background.

There are four core courses and three tracks of electives. The core courses, each carrying four semester hours of credit, are independent, without firm prerequisites. The core courses provide the essential knowledge base required by a graduate of the Master's program in Telecommunication Systems Management. This knowledge base includes an understanding of: (i) the breadth of the field of telecommunications, both wireline and wireless; (ii) data networking protocols and architecture, particularly the Internet; (iii) public policy and economic issues specific to the telecommunications industry; (iv) the underlying physical infrastructure of the network; and an introduction to business management.

At least two elective courses must be taken from one of the following three specified areas of concentration.