Admission to the Graduate Program

We are excited that you are considering our Graduate Program. We offer admission to the M.S. and Ph.D. programs. The Ph.D. program is intended for students that wish to pursue a research-oriented career, while the M.S. program is intended for students seeking advanced positions in the software industry. Admission to the Ph.D. program is more competitive than the M.S. program.

   FINANCIAL SUPPORT
   ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
   ADMISSION DEADLINES
   B.S./M.S. PROGRAM
   M.S. to Ph.D
   TRANSFER OF CREDITS INTO THE M.S. or Ph.D. PROGRAMS
   APPLICATION PROCESS
   DEFERRAL OF ADMISSIONS

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FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Admitted Ph.D. students are typically offered financial support in the form of teaching or research assistantships, which include full tuition. Admission into this program is very competitive, though, and you must have the intention of completing this program. M.S. students are typically admitted with no financial aid. Many, however, find such aid on campus; typically by taking programming jobs for different administrative and academic units. Information regarding tuition and other costs can be found from the Graduate School.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The requirements for admission to graduate study in computer science include.

1. Bachelor Degree: A bachelor's degree, usually in a science or engineering discipline or in mathematics, is required. The transcript should show a grade average of at least B (i.e., 3.0/4.0) in
1. all undergraduate course work, and
2. in the science, mathematics, and engineering courses.
2. Basic Mathematics: Two semesters of college level calculus, plus a course in linear algebra. Also desirable is a course in either probability theory or probability and statistics.
3. Minimal Background in Computer Science: As a measure of that background the student must satisfy 5 of the 7 proficiency requirements
4. Acceptance by the Computer Science Department and Graduate School.
5. All applicants to the MS or PhD program must submit Graduate Record Examination scores for the general aptitude tests. Applicants are encouraged to submit GRE test scores for the advanced examination in Computer Science as well.

Students of exceptional promise with non-standard background or who lack certain requirements may be considered for admission to the program on a provisional basis. The student will be informed of the requirements that must be satisfied for the termination of the provisional status.

ADMISSION DEADLINES
Most students are admitted beginning in Fall semesters, but we do admit a small number of students that start in Spring semester. Please make sure that you submit your application before the deadline:

• Fall Admissions     : January 15
• Spring Admissions: October 1

Late applications may not receive full consideration, especially for financial support.

B.S./M.S. PROGRAM
A student in the undergraduate program in CS at Stony Brook can apply for admission into the integrated B.S./M.S. program. Please note that this option is available only to Stony Brook students.

M.S. TO Ph.D
A student in the M.S. program can subsequently apply for admission into the Ph.D. program, but should keep in mind the higher standards for entry into the Ph.D. program. The Computer Science Graduate Program Handbook describes this process, as well as serving as the authoritative source on matters relating to the graduate program.

TRANSFER OF CREDITS INTO THE M.S. or Ph.D. PROGRAMS

• Only credits for bona fide graduate courses can be transferred.
• No more than 9 credits of graduate courses can be transferred.
• In order to be counted towards graduation, the credits must be evaluated by one of our faculty members. The evaluation must establish an equivalence between a course being transferred from another institution to a Computer Science course in Stony Brook, which is accepted as part of the graduation requirements (see the Graduate Program Handbook). The faculty member must be one of those who is teaching the corresponding graduate course on a regular basis.
• Graduate courses that do not meet the previous requirement can be transferred without being counted towards graduation. This can sometimes be useful because students who have earned 24 graduate credits of any kind need to be registered for only 9 credits (instead of 12) in order to have full status. Therefore, gaining this status early might reduce tuition liability.

APPLICATION PROCESS
Note that we accept only online applications, which can be accessed from this page maintained by the Stony Brook Graduate School. Address your enquiries regarding admissions to Graduate[AT]cs[DOT]stonybrook[DOT]edu. However, due to the large volume of applications that we receive, we are not always in a position to respond promptly to all student inquiries regarding application status. So, please read carefully in order to make sure that your application is filled properly.

The requirements for admission into the program are spelled out in the Computer Science Graduate Program Handbook, but we summarize the main points below:

• Background in Computer Science: Applicants are expected to have taken upper-division courses in five of the following seven areas of Computer Science: (i) Theory of Computation, (ii) Algorithms, (iii) Programming Languages or Compilers, (iv) Computer Architecture, (v) Databases, (vi) Operating Systems, and (vii) Networks or Visual Computing. Students with fewer proficiencies may be admitted if the rest of their qualifications are very strong.
• Standardized test scores: GRE general examinations are required. GRE subject tests are encouraged, especially for Ph.D. applicants. In addition, international students need to take TOEFL. We need official reports of your test scores from ETS. Please include Stony Brook's institution code (2548) as well as our department code (0402 for GRE, 78 for TOEFL and TSE) in your request to ETS
• A nonrefundable application fee of $60 is required at the time of application submission.

To be considered for admission, you must be a high achiever in the undergraduate program and have high grade-point average (GPA). Please arrange for official transcripts to be mailed to the following address:

Graduate Admission - Program
Department of Computer Science
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4400
U.S.A.
Program in the above address should be one of the following: Ph.D., M.S., BS/MS.

DEFERRAL OF ADMISSIONS
Sometimes students who are admitted into our graduate program cannot attend due to a variety of reasons and request that their admission be deferred to the following semester. Due to a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, we cannot accommodate such requests. Instead, the student needs to reapply for admission in a subsequent semester, indicating history of past admission.