The Allen School does not keep a waiting list. Decisions made by the Admissions Committee are final. Because applicants to our program are also applying to other programs, we expect that a certain number of our offers will be declined. To account for this, we offer admission to more applicants than we expect to accept our offer. This ensures that we fill our open spaces without needing to use a waiting list.
The Graduate School provides a
great FAQ which addresses your question. The
Tests sctions states: If you previously sent your test scores to the University of Washington, you will not need to re-send them. These scores are retained on file and can be used for a future application, assuming they are still valid.
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 a traditional fee waiver. Instead the Allen School offers to use School funds to pre-pay the application fee of applicants who participate in approved programs listed below.
Application Pre-payment Approved Organizations & Conferences
Applicants who participate in groups or programs listed below which focus on outreach as it relates to preparing students for computer science research careers are eligible for the Allen School's Application Fee Pre-payment Program.
- Access Technology
- American Indian Sciences and Engineering Society (AISES)
- National GEM Consortium (GEM Fellow applicant)
- ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference (Tapia)
- National Society of Blacks in Engineering (NSBE)
- Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC)
- Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
- McNair Scholars
In order to request pre-payment of the application fee, the applicant must first complete all required components of the application. Prior to submitting, email grad-admissions (at) cs.washington.edu with the following information at least seven (7) calendar days ahead of the application deadline (approximately December 6th):
- Full Name
- UW Graduate School Application ID Number
- Proof of Program Participation
- A PDF document using the following syntax for the file name: "Your name-date of application-conference or program name" (Les Sessoms-Nov 17 2020-GraceHopperConference). You may use your registration confirmation email, conference check-in confirmation, or other official document.
All accepted students are guaranteed full support for a minimum of 3 years through research assistantships, teaching assistantships, and departmental/external fellowships. Funding after the initial 3 years is usually available and is contingent on satisfactory academic progress and availability of funds. No student in good standing is unsupported in our program and all who graduate are funded until the completion of the Ph.D.
Applicants requesting a student visa must meet the University of Washington's financial ability requirement. The financial ability requirement is met by showing proof of readily accessible and adequate funding to cover living expenses, tuition and other campus fees for the first year of study. Stocks, bonds or proof of property ownership are not acceptable financial resources.
If you are admitted to the program you will be asked to indicate on an online form that you will be relying on funding from the Allen School. You do not need to submit any financial information (such as bank statements), unless you fit specific criteria as an international student. International students should refer to the Graduate School's webpage on Admitted Internationl Students for more information.
Assistantships
In exchange for 20 hours of work per week, Research/Teaching Assistants receive: (figures are current as of the 2020-2021 academic year)
- Tuition waiver of all but approximately $327 per quarter in fees
- Monthly stipend of $3,124 for beginning students
- Health insurance (100% of premium for student, 65% of premium for dependents)
Fellowships
There are two major categories of fellowships: those that students can apply for directly, and those to which students must be nominated by faculty. Most students will be more interested in the first category, since these are the fellowships that they can actively seek for themselves. The Graduate School Fellowships Page
Prospective students are welcome to review our
Research & Innovation page. There you will find information on the may Areas of Expertise at the UW-Seattle Campus. Each area has its own information page which is updated with the faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and staff involved in research. Graduate students and Postdocs are more likely to respond to a prospective student's inquiries, while faculty often are not. It is, in part, this reason that the Paul G. Allen School takes a different approach to the advisor/student relationship. We do not expect applicants to have previous interactions with our faculty, nor do they need to know who they want to spend their Ph.D.-life working with. All new grads are assigned a temporary faculty advisor based on availability, potential, funding, and several other factors. The student and advisor do not have to become "permanent" fixtures in each other's career until after the student's Qualifying examination.
If you are interested in finding out how to improve your application for a certain field or advisor, you are better-off contacting graduate students as they can be more frank with their recent experience of the process, and give more relevant advice than faculty and staff.
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 officially enter On-Leave status.. Students often use this option if they need a break for reasons not covered by the PFML policy. 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.
There may be additional policies for students using F-1 and J-1 visas so please contact the International Student Services office if you use one of these. There are also potential implications for your funding packages, so always consult your primary investigator (PI) and academic advisors before requesting On-Leave status.
