Resources

Applying to Grad School

I personally benefitted from many initiatives that aim to help students apply to grad school, so here are a couple that I found helpful.

Choosing Programs

It can be hard to know where even to apply to. I found it helpful to read papers and look at the top conferences in the areas I was interested in to see who is publishing research I like. From there, I aimed to find 2-4 other professors at a given institution of interest, which is where CSRanking became a helpful resource to find PIs in certain research areas and their websites.

• csrankings.org: ranks CS programs around the world and can be helpful for finding professors in your area.
• csstipendrankings.org: information (some slightly outdated) on PhD stipends.

Writing Your Application

For crafting the personal statement, SoP, and just generally receiving mentorship, these resources were helpful.

• cs-sop.org: database of CS PhD Statement of Purpose examples posted by previous applicants.
• Graduate Application Support Programs: programs where applicants are matched with current PhD student mentors that can help you with your application material. Application deadlines tend to vary year-to-year, but I’ve noted some for the 2024-2025 cycle.
  • Carnegie Mellon University SCS GASP
    • deadline: October 8, 2024
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology EECS GAAP
    • deadline: October 15, 2024 (after this deadline you can still get one-off consultations)
    • MIT has other application support programs outside of EECS as well: MIT GAAPs
  • University of Washington CSE PAMS
    • deadline: summer
  • University of Massachussets Amherst CICS PhD Applicant Support Program
    • deadline: rolling
  • Cornell University CIS SASP
    • deadline: October 18, 2024
  • Northwestern University PhD Application Feedback Program
    • deadline: November 4, 2024
  • UC Berkeley EECS EAAA
    • deadline: October 6, 2024
  • UC Berkeley School of Information Ph.D. Applicant Feedback Program
    • deadline: November 1, 2024
  • Stanford CS SASP
    • deadline: October 25, 2024
  • Other institutions that have had programs in the past, but I couldn’t find information on for the 2024-2025 cycle include: Brown, UPenn, UCSB.
• For a more general guide on application dos and don’ts, there is also Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science by Professor Mor Harchol-Balter at CMU.

Application Fee Waivers

There are a variety of ways to get fee waivers. I encourage you to look at your target schools’ specific fee waiver policies, but I have listed some of the ways I received them.

• Demonstrating financial need: some programs will waive you application fee if you are on financial aid at your current university and you submit your aid statement.
• Conferences: if you are able to attend conferences like Tapia or Grace Hopper, many programs will have booths where they give out fee waiver codes. Some schools will also waive your application fee if you submit proof of conference attendance.
• Targeted programs or organization membership: if you are a member or participate in some of the following programs, you may qualify for a fee waiver. I have not listed them all (there are too many).
  • Graduate Application Support Programs (by school)
  • REU programs (by school)
  • Association Computing Machinery Women Council (ACM-W)
  • The Leadership Alliance (and affiliated programs)
  • Black in AI
  • LatinX in AI
  • Posse
  • QuestBridge
• Some programs just waive fees for everyone like CMU Societal Computing :-)

Some General Comments

Don’t be afraid to reach out to graduate students in the labs you are interested in to ask them about their experiences and to receive advice.

If you would like to chat about applying to grad school, UChicago’s PhD program, my research, or other related things, feel free to reach out to me via email. I will do my best to respond.

Good Luck!