Frequently Asked Questions about the Ph.D. programThis page was created on August 25, 2003. Last update September 4, 2003.
1. Should I apply to the Ph.D. program or the Master's program?
1. Should I apply to the Ph.D. program or the Master's program?
If you are a computer professional or a novice to computer science and wish to gain a formal understanding of the principles and techniques of applied computer science, our Master's Program may be the right choice for you.
The key question is a match between your interests and faculty research. Please study our web-site to see which research group and which individual faculty members perform research to which you feel affinity. Another key question is how you feel about our formal requirements. Please study the web-page about these requirements.
Upon successful completion of the Course requirements and the presentation of a research-oriented Master's Thesis, students in the Ph.D. program receive a Master's Degree. This concludes the first phase of their work toward their Ph.D. and is expected to take two years.
We do not offer the "Master's Degree in the Ph.D. program" as a separate program. Only students admitted into the Ph.D. program are eligible for this avenue toward the Master's Degree. If you are not interested in Ph.D.-level research, you may want to consider our Master's Program .
No. The University of Chicago does not offer study in any type of engineering. If you wish to study Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Civil Engineering, etc., then the University of Chicago is not a good match to your interests. This depends on your background and interest in performing Ph.D-level independent research in one of the areas of faculty interest. Please study our web-page to find out about the research areas pursued by our faculty.
No, this is not necessary; in fact, we ask you to refrain from doing so because of the high volume of applications. You are, however, encouraged to mention on your application form as well as in your Personal Statement any faculty members whose research appeals to you. The Admissions Committee assigns an initial advisor to each incoming student. Students can change advisors later, after personal interaction with our faculty.
The deadline is January 2nd. Late applications will be considered only if exceptional merit is demonstrated. An
on-line application is now available. For a
paper application, send email to admissions@cs.uchicago.edu.
Classes start in the third or fourth week of September.
Our program starts in Autumn. Only in cases of exceptional merit
do we consider exceptions to this rule.
For the paper-based exam, a total score of 600 or higher is required, and the scores for each individual section must be 60 or higher. For the computer-based exam, a total score of 250 or higher is required, and the scores for each individual section must be 25 or higher. These TOEFL requirements are strictly adhered to by the University. The University cannot issue any visa-related paperwork if TOEFL scores are below the stated minimum requirements. No exceptions. If your TOEFL scores fall short, please arrange to retake the test and achieve satisfactory scores as soon as possible.
What we are most interested in is the applicant's research potential. These scores are just one of many criteria we consider. There are no minimum scores. We much prefer students who have taken challenging advanced courses to those with top scores on rudimentary courses. There are many ways for applicants to demonstrate their research potential.
There are no rules about this. Make it as informative as you can. We love to hear details about your background, about your career so far, about your goals, about your research interests, about your reasons for choosing certain areas of research, about your reasons for choosing the University of Chicago, and any other thoughts you wish to share with us.
Please mention your participation and achievement in your Statement of Purpose. Please give a precise indication of what your achievement meant. We'd like to know the organization running the competition and the population of the area from where students were eligible to participate. If you received a prize, we'd like to know how many students shared each prize. We'd also like to know if there is a web-site where some of these data can be verified. It is also helpful if one of the letters of recommendation explicitly verifies your statements.
Please send us a copy. If the publication is not in English, an English translation is helpful. If the publication appeared in a local outlet not easily found in American libraries, it is helpful if at least one of your letters of recommendation specifically comments on the nature of the publication (student publication, major publication of new research, etc.). Participation in student competitions and having a prior research record are not required for admission to our Ph.D. program; in fact, only a fraction of our current graduate students had such background at the time they applied to our program. The key to admission is your research potential as perceived by our Admissions Committee through the examination of all documents in your application material.
What we are interested in is not grades but research potential; grades are but one indicator. A lower grade in a challenging course is worth more than a perfect grade in an easy or irrelevant course. If you feel your grades do not reflect your academic potential, please let us know why.
We do not expect that applicants have decided upon a precise thesis topic. Applicants tend to have a preference for one or more of the broad areas of research pursued by the faculty in our department. These areas include algorithms and complexity, artificial intelligence, programming languages, computational mathematics, distributed systems, networks, databases, systems, computational biology. This list is incomplete; please study our web-page for departmental research for up-to-date information. Tell us why you prefer a particular area.
We fully expect students' interests to change over time, partly in response to their interaction with our faculty. (Please note that our faculty's interests also change.) Preferences you express in your Statement of Purpose will not be binding on you, they simply give us a chance to know more about you at the time of application.
Students enrolled in the Ph.D. program receive a stipend from the department as long as they make satisfactory progress toward their degree. The stipend is more than adequate to cover a student's typical living expenses, and also covers tuition. In return, students have to perform services for the department, most often as Teaching Assistants. Some advanced students may be funded by their advisor's research grant as Research Assistants for varying periods of time depending on the student's progress and on grant availability. During the periods of such funding, no service to the Department is required.
Funding depends on satisfactory progress toward your degree. Students are expected to graduate in five years or less. If sufficient progress is demonstrated, the faculty may extend funding through a sixth year. After the sixth year, support from the department is not generally available.
Please check our undergraduate course descriptions. You are likely to teach a course with a course number beginning 10, 11, or 12. You may need to master specific programming languages such as C++ and Scheme to be able to perform your teaching duties.
Your primary source of information is our web-site. Please study all aspects of it; especially the Ph.D. requirements, the departmental research and the profiles of the individual faculty members. If, after having studied these web sources, you still have further questions, you may write to admissions@cs.uchicago.edu. Please keep your message short. Due to the large volume of incoming mail, long messages and messages containing attachments run the risk of not being read.
|
Ph.D. program homepage