csGraduateApps

A curated list of application resources for prospective graduate students in Computer Science and related fields. List created by Chinasa T. Okolo, a Computer Science PhD student at Cornell. Feel free to fork and make pull requests with new opportunities!

There are dozens of PhD programs in Computer Science (based in the United States) who accept applicants each year, so I won't list them out here but will provide resources to help you along your journey. Fortunately, many departments have started applicant support programs for underrepresented students (primarily PhD students) applying to their respective programs! Check out the list below:

Will be updating for 2022 as soon as I can! In the meantime, this Twitter thread may be helpful. For programs I have not seen updates for the 2022 application cycle, they are listed as "Status Unknown".

Applicant Support Programs

Resources for Applying to CS Graduate Programs

When applying to graduate school, my main thesis was set in two parts: (1) the program had to be a top program (top 25 or so) in CS (2) there had to be at least 2-3 professors that I was interested in working with in the department. To be honest, I applied to schools outside of the top 25 like Emory and Washington University in St. Louis (WashU), but they also had other strong departments in medicine, computational biology, etc. that aligned with my interests at the time. To this point, I believe that my second criteria was much more important than my first criteria. It's nice to be in a top-tier program, but if you aren't doing research you're passionate about, it kinds of lessens the point for pursuing a PhD. I was fortunate to get both, but this may not always be possible.

Also, Black in AI recently started their Graduate application mentoring program to support Black students applying to graduate programs! The deadline has passed, but stay tuned for future program updates. I've been involved with this organization for years and support everything they do.

Program Lists

• CS Rankings (My favorite resource for finding top CS programs!)
• US News
• CS/HCI PhD Opportunities (2021) A great resource for finding open lab positions!

General Resources

• Computing Research Association Widening Participation (CRA-WP) CS Graduate School Resource Page
• Brown University - Helpful Resources For Applying To Computer Science PhD Programs

Application Tips

Finding Fellowships

Check out my extensive repository on fellowships and scholarships for graduate students in Computer Science and related fields!

Statement Writing

• Writing a Research Statement for Graduate School and Fellowships
• CS PhD Statements of Purpose
• Personal Statements by Christopher W. Fletcher
• Personal Statements by Jing Yu Koh

Preparing for Graduate School in CS

• UT Austin - Preparing for Graduate School
• A Princeton CS Major's Guide to Applying to Graduate School
• Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science by Mor Harchol-Balter
• Grad School Resources by Kalpesh Krishna

Surviving in Graduate School

• How to Be a Successful PhD Student by Mark Dredze and Hanna M. Wallach