As of the Autumn 2023 application cycle, GRE scores are no longer required or accepted. GRE scores will not be reviewed or considered by the Allen School, even if they are submitted to the University of Washington.
Summary of Required Materials
You will need to submit the following material through the application portal:
- Transcript from prior degree demonstrating minimum GPA (3.0)
- English Language Proficiency (ELP) Test Score (If applicable; See Graduate School Policy 3.2)
- Letters of Recommendation (3)
- Statement of Purpose
- An approximately 1,000 word (max 500 KB) statement. Your submission will be refactored to plain-text, so don’t spend much time on formatting.
- Curriculum Vitae (CV). You can upload a PDF, Word, or plain text file.
- Application Fee: $85 paid online
Reusing Application Materials
The Graduate School provides a great FAQ which addresses questions regarding reusing application materials (as well as numerous other questions). 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.
You will still need to submit a statement of purpose and three (3) letters of recommendation via the application portal. You can choose to reuse your statement of purpose if you would like; However, it we recommend revising your statement, at the very least. We are not able to transfer previous statements of purpose or recommendation letters from prior years.
The panels below can be expanded and include information regarding formatting guidelines, screenshots of the application portal, and other descriptions of how the materials are used.
All applicants to the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering Ph.D. program must submit their application using the University of Washington’s online Graduate School Application. The Graduate School maintains a central application platform for the University of Washington, which includes a main repository for GRE and TOEFL scores. If you have technical questions about the application, or problems that arise when using the application system, then The Graduate School would be your best point of contact.
The UW has two categories of graduate application materials. The first category contains the materials the UW Graduate School has deemed a suitable admission metric, and the second consists of materials that the Allen School uses. This is an important distinction because it means applicants do not need to send their official transcripts until they are offered admission to the program. An applicant will not be able to accept the offer of admission, or register for courses, until the Graduate School has verified they meet the minimum requirements. The Paul G. Allen School is unable to grant exceptions or make decisions concerning these requirements.
A Graduate School Profile is created when applying to any graduate program at the University of Washington, across the three (3) campuses. This is the first step to any program admission. Prospective students should review the Graduate School's webpages regarding the admission process to understand what this ruling body focuses on versus what the Allen School is invested in.
Graduate School Profile information is stored indefinitely and this profile should be used every time you wish to be enrolled in a graduate program at the UW. You should approach this part as a permanent representation of “You” in the Graduate School system and it should contain the most truthful information at the time you are applying.
The Allen School's application process is focused on a holistic assessment of a student's potential to conduct research. Prospective students are welcome to review our Research & Innovation page. There you will find information on the many 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. The admissions committee 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.
The application has a Supplemental Questions section where if you are confident that you'd like to work with any particular faculty member(s), you may indicate their name(s). This question won't affect your chances of admission, rather it will help us to sensibly route applications during the review process. Please only list their full first and last name, and double-check for typos before submitting. For a list of faculty and a description of their research, see our faculty directory.
The UW Graduate School has established UW-wide minimum requirements for admission into graduate programs.
The Graduate School requires a Bachelor's degree, at the minimum. They are the only ones who can establish if your degree is valid or acceptable. Please contact the Graduate School about whether your degree meets the minimum requirement, as the Allen School staff is unable to make that determination. Enter your degree information into the provided fields as best as you can, as it won’t affect your application. The admissions committee for the Allen School looks at the unofficial transcripts submitted, and not the classifications entered into this part of the application.
The Allen School does not require prospective students to have a Computer Science, or related, degree. Please review the FAQ section for GRE, GPA, Degrees & Computing Background for more information.
The Graduate School requires a minimum 3.0 GPA, measured using the most recent 60 semester credits or 90 quarter credits taken, or the cumulative GPA for the entire degree program. Graduate programs may consider an applicant with a GPA below a 3.0., and the program can submit an admission petition to the Dean of the Graduate School for approval before an offer is made.
You can enter the grade reported on your transcript, or otherwise estimate, as there is no penalty for an incorrect answer. The Allen School admissions committee will review all applications as long as they have a self-reported score. Additionally, the Allen School is fairly flexible when it comes to self-reporting GPAs from schools that do not use a 4.0 grading system. This last 90 graded quarter credits/60 graded semester credits GPA requirement is meant to capture the GPA for your most recent two years of study. Try to calculate your GPA across these last 90/60 credits as accurately as possible; however, if it's easier, you can just enter the cumulative GPA for your most recent graduate degree, instead.
In addition to the Help text available on the application, the Graduate School provides tools for calculating GPA.
English Language Proficency is determined according to Memo 8 from the Graduate School.
Our program accepts the following methods by which non-native English speakers may meet this requirement:
- Having earned a degree in the United States or another country specified in Memo 8 in which English was the language of instruction
- Enclosing documentation from the undergraduate degree-granting institution that English was the language of instruction
- Providing official, valid scores from one of the English language proficiency exams listed below. Scores must be submitted to UW electronically and matched to the application in order for this requirement to be met.
| TOEFL iBT | TOEFL MyBest | Duolingo | Academic IELTS | |
| Minimum Score to Apply (ELP Not Satisfied) |
80 | 80 | 105 | 6.5 |
| ELP Satisfied |
92 or higher | 92 or higher | 120 or higher | 7.0 or higher |
Test scores, grades and degrees, institutions of previous study and personal recommendations are all important[/used as] indicators of an applicant's future success. However, these data do not reveal much about the individual, their motivation, why the applicant is interested in that particular program, or whether the applicant is the kind of student the Faculty want around the department. The Statement of Purpose exists to allow applicants to convey something personal about themselves and to convince the Faculty making the admissions selection that the applicant is an especially attractive candidate.
The Statement of Purpose should not relate a life story or flatter either the applicant or intended readers. It provides applicants the opportunity to present information that is not conveyed through objective data, in a clear, direct, and concise way, to explain their interests, motivations, goals and special talents. It must be honest.
Your Statement of Purpose should be approximately 1,000 words. The submission will be refactored to plain-text, so don’t spend much time on formatting. The application prompt for the Statement of Purpose is as follows:
Submit a personal statement of that includes: a) how you became interested in doing research, b) a relevant project or research experience that shows your technical knowledge and skill, and c) your plans for the future in computer science. You may wish to include information about what you feel are the strengths of your application, such as special interests and abilities, or give explanations for what you feel are any weaknesses in your academic record. If you have background that might particularly contribute to the intellectual and social enrichment of the program, please describe it. Examples include unique educational or cultural opportunities (or lack of them), social and economic disadvantages that you may have had to overcome, and interesting or unusual influences on your intellectual development.
Please note that we are proactive in handling partner situations in the admissions review process, so please let us know if such a situation exists and we will help if we can.
Letters of Recommendation are a pivotal component to the application process. It is one of the first ways the admission committee determine if a prospective student has demonstrated basic skills that a successful independent researcher possesses. The type of program that a student is interested in effects the type of letter of recommendation they should be submitting. Since the Allen School is a research-oriented Ph.D. program, a letter detailing an applicant's academic performance in the course is not going to garner as much merit as a letter that discusses that student's ability to act independently, their creativity and innovation, and their involvement in research-oriented projects. This link is a document written by the UW Career Center that briefly covers academic letters of recommendation.
The Allen School requires three (3) letters of recommendation, with a max of five (5). The Graduate School application portal is responsible for collecting letters of recommendation, and prospective students cannot use third-party tools to submit. Interfolio is not supported by The Graduate School application portal. The application system is capable of accepting recommendation letters that arrive after the application, however our review process begins immediately following the deadline so it is best to ensure your recommendation letters arrive on time. You will be asked to enter online the names and contact information (e.g., affiliation, email, phone) for your references and then to activate a request for a letter of recommendation. Your recommender will receive an email with a link that they then use to upload their letter. 
Applicants can return to the portal, even after the application has been submitted, to edit their recommender list. In order to change recommender info, applicants must withdraw the letter request and re-enter the contact information.