Admissions

he Allen School does not offer a standalone, full-time master’s program; rather, the part-time, evening Professional Master’s Program is the only MS program available. The PMP is a coursework-based program designed for fully employed software developers residing in the Seattle area at the time of application. To be considered for admission, an applicant must have a minimum of two years of full-time, post-degree professional software development experience in which their job tasks involve at least 50% hands-on programming.

We recommend that students looking to complete graduate studies and research at the Allen School (UW-Seattle) consider applying to the Computer Science & Engineering Ph.D program, which awards an MS degree as you earn the doctorate. Otherwise, the other UW computer science master’s programs are the MS in Computer Science & Software Engineering at UW-Bothell and the MS in Computer Science and Systems at UW-Tacoma. A recent addition to UW-Tacoma is the PhD in Computer Science and Systems. All three (3) campuses operate under different academic policies so you will need to contact the departments directly for more information.

No, we do not. Students with an RA, TA, or Fellowship are required to be full-time in the PhD program. As such, satisfactory progress is expected to be consistent with a full-time focus on research and education work. Courses, seminars, and research meetings are typically scheduled to occur on campus during standard business hours. A full-time PhD program may often exceed a standard 40-hour work week between your own academic commitments and your work as a teaching or research assistant. This is usually incompatible with full-time employment.

No, we do not. Our Ph.D. program is offered in-person, including the coursework and research you will perform as a student.

Email the Ph.D. advising team at grad-advising [at] cs.washington.edu. We welcome questions from prospective students who would like to further explore how their backgrounds might fit with the goals of the program. We are happy to meet individually with students for questions not covered by our admissions pages!

The Ph.D. program targets exceptional students with demonstrated research potential and a career goal of academic or industrial research at a top-tier institution. This is not an ideal program for bolstering an already-existing career in software engineering.

The full-time Ph.D. program benefits students who want to follow our faculty into academic or industrial research, while the PMP takes our faculty’s cutting-edge research into the classroom for students to apply to their products and projects in the workplace. Please note that the UW Computer Science and Engineering department does not offer a terminal full-time master’s degree program; the PMP is the only standalone MS in Computer Science program available at the University of Washington in Seattle.

GRE scores are no longer required or accepted for the Ph.D. program. GRE scores will not be reviewed or considered by the Allen School, even if they are submitted to the University of Washington. Other graduate programs at the University of Washington may still require the GRE.

December 15, with students expected to enroll in the following autumn. The Allen School only holds one doctoral program admissions cycle each year.

The Ph.D. Program application process is fully-electronic and takes place in the UW Graduate School application. Our How to Apply page offers a step-by-step guide and additional information concerning each application component.

Admission to the Ph.D. program is extremely competitive. In 2023, we saw over 3,000 applications and send offers to 150 students. The average GPA of admits is 3.8, though GPA is not a major factor in admissions.

Competitive students will be able to demonstrate their research potential through their application materials, supported by letters of recommendation that reinforce this information. We utilize holistic admissions processes and look to the whole history of the student, including access to research opportunities (or lack thereof).

The UW Graduate School offers application fee waivers to U.S. residents who demonstrate financial need. The process for requesting a fee waiver from the UW Graduate School is available on their application page. The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering is unable to offer fee waivers to international students due to budgetary constraints.

The Allen School provides every student accepted to our Ph.D. program with 3 years of guaranteed financial support in the form of teaching and research assistantships or fellowships.

In exchange for 20 hours of work per week, research and teaching assistants receive:

Tuition waiver of all but approximately $250 per quarter in fees.
Monthly stipend to cover living expenses
Health insurance (100% of premium for student, 65% of premium for dependents)
There are two types of fellowships: those that students can apply for directly, and those that require a faculty nomination. At the application stage, students are more likely to be interested in the first category. Learn more at the Graduate School Fellowship page.

The average time to completion is about 6 years. Students will take longer or shorter depending on progress to milestones, research track record, and desired outcome post-Ph.D.

The Allen School doesn’t formally transfer credits from prior degrees into the Ph.D. program. That said, we allow students to waive up to two of the seven required courses based on prior graduate level coursework taken. You can learn more on our course waivers page.

Applicants are given the opportunity to indicate up to 3 interest areas from our research areas of expertise. If you are confident that you’d like to work with any particular faculty member(s), you may indicate their name(s) in the supplemental question. This question is optional but is strongly encouraged to make sure your application is reviewed by the appropriate reviewers during the admissions process. For a list of faculty and a description of their research, see our faculty directory. You do not need to contact faculty prior to applying, nor is it expected.

The University of Washington offers several benefits and leave options to graduate students in research, teaching, and graduate assistantship positions. Academic student employees (ASE) positions have work benefits defined by the ASE Contract. This contract is the result of a collective bargaining process between the Union of Academic Student Employees (UAW Local 4121), and the University of Washington.

• Graduate Appointee Insurance Program (GAIP): ASEs receive health insurance coverage that covers medical, vision, and dental. You can read the UW HR summary here.
  Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML): ASEs are eligible for paid medical and family leave after completing four calendar quarters of employment at the standard 50% appointment. PFML requests need to be the result of a “qualifying event.” You can read more about UW HR’s policy here.
• Leave of Absence: The UW Graduate School has additional policies that allow graduate students to take a leave of absence. Students are eligible for this option after completing their first quarter of instruction. You can read more about the Graduate School’s On-Leave Policy here.

Graduate School Policy 3.2 covers the methods by which a student can meet the English Language Proficiency Requirements for non-native speakers. Meeting the ELP Requirement in 3.2 is required for initial admission.

If you are using test scores for admission, your test scores must be valid at the time you submit your application.

Graduate School Policy 5.2 covers the English language requirements to work as a Teaching Assistant (TA) at the University of Washington. Since all students are required to work for at least two quarters as a TA, students must eventually meet this requirement too. Students do not need to meet the requirements to TA during their initial admission.

The Allen School is able to support students with F-1 or J-1 visas. You can read more about visa information at the International Student Services website explaining visas.

Applicants must hold a baccalaureate degree meeting one of the requirements below:

• A 3- or 4-year degree from a regionally-accredited college or university in the United States or an applied degree earned at a Washington community or technical college;
• A 3- or 4-year degree in a country with 13 years of pre-university formal education;
• A 4-year degree from in a country with 12 years of pre-university formal education;
• A 3-year degree and a 1-year postgraduate diploma.

Alternatively, applicants may hold a master’s (MA, MSc, etc.), doctoral (PhD, DPhil, etc.), or professional degree (MD, JD, etc.) from a regionally-accredited college or university in the United States or its equivalent from an accredited foreign institution.