Requirements and Details

The GRE is required.

• A strong showing (more than 75th percentile) in the quantitative GRE score is essential.
• A strong score in the verbal section is also important.

Admission is competitive.

Positive letters of recommendation are important, as is a solid undergraduate academic record.

Lack of a computer science background is usually not a major concern, since prerequisite courses are prescribed. However, a background in the sciences and mathematics is essential.

Admission decisions are made at specific times associated with the application deadlines, usually in the week following the deadlines.

A final admission decision may take up to three weeks to receive from the application deadline and up to ten weeks for I-20s to be issued to international students.

Fully-qualified applicants will have taken courses that cover the following topics:

• Non-linear data structures: sorting and searching algorithms.
• Computer architecture: hardware organization, I/O interface, interrupt mechanisms and pipeline processor design.
• File systems; hashed indexed, ISAM files; B-trees; external sorting.
• Programming languages: design and implementation.
• Operating systems: process, memory and file system management, device handlers.
• Finite mathematics and modern algebra.