Admission: Process

There is no separate admissions process for applicants with an MS or doctoral degree objective but students with potential of obtaining a doctoral degree are given higher priority. PhD students can achieve a Master's on the way to the doctoral degree.

The application deadline for spring admission is 1 October. The review begins 2 October. We shall inform you of our decision after 15 October.

The application deadline for fall admission is 15 December. The review begins 23 December. We shall inform you of our decision between early February and mid April.

We process documents that arrive after the deadline but cannot guarantee that they will be included in the review. Applications that are incomplete by the time of review are not competitive for admission. For Fall 2008 we had over 750 applications for around 86 slots. For Fall 2009 we had over 1,000 applications for around 47 slots.

Purdue University has a central Graduate School Administration that oversees the application process of all departments of the University. If we approve your admission, we shall recommend to the Graduate School that you be admitted. You will not be admitted until the Graduate School grants you admission. The Graduate School, however, very rarely rejects our recommendations except for problems with documents. We, therefore, urge you to follow with particular care the instructions relating to transcripts, evidence of degrees awarded, translations of such documents, and proof of English proficiency. The official notice will be posted in the online application system.

If admitted, you will automatically be considered for financial support in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships. However, admisison without financial support is possible.

Of the incoming class for fall 2009, approximately 36% were supported by departmental funds in terms of fellowships and assistantships.

According to the Council of Graduate School's Resolution you are under no obligation to respond to fall offers of financial support prior to April 15.

International Applicants

The fellowships and graduate assistantships that we offer are normally sufficient proof of financial support for the office of International Students and Scholars (ISS) to issue the forms required for a student visa.

For more information on how to obtain a student visa visit this ISS page.

Contact Us: grad-info@cs.purdue.edu
Last Updated: September 17, 2009 04:18PM