Graduate Education

Full-time Ph.D. Program

Working together, our students and faculty drive our field forward while generating innovations with real-world impact.

Consistently ranked among the top computer science and engineering graduate programs in the nation, the Paul G. Allen School offers our 300 full-time graduate students a collegial and supportive learning environment; research opportunities of the highest quality; and the chance to collaborate with entrepreneurial faculty who are recognized leaders in their fields. We are proud of our record of accomplishment in mentoring student researchers who go on to positions at the very best academic departments and industry laboratories. Working together, our students and faculty drive our field forward while generating innovations with real-world impact.

Explore Our Ph.D. Program

Ph.D. Admissions

Each year, the Allen School welcomes around 60 new students interested in pursuing advanced academic or industry research careers to our Ph.D. program.

Learn About Ph.D. Admissions »

The Process

Students earn their Ph.D. through a combination of coursework, original research and thesis preparation under the guidance of faculty at the forefront of the field.

Learn about the Ph.D. Process »

Course Guide

We offer an array of courses that support students in developing core skills and attaining a broad knowledge of computing while exploring their chosen area in depth.

Explore Ph.D. Courses & Requirements »

Student Handbook

From degree requirements, to funding, to helpful advice — and more — our online handbook has (nearly) all students need to know to navigate the program.

Explore the Student Handbook »

Ph.D. Advising

Our advising team is a group of compassionate and knowledgeable individuals who are here to support Ph.D. students on every step of their academic journey.

Meet the Ph.D. Advising Team »

Teaching Assistants

Teaching assistantships enable Ph.D. students to play an integral role in the learning experience at the Allen School while honing their skills as educators and mentors.

How To Become a Teaching Assistant »

Ph. D. Program Information

Students in the Allen School’s full-time Ph.D. program earn an integrated Master’s Degree on their path to the Ph.D. Key features of our program include:

Comprehensive, high-quality graduate computer science curriculum.
A vibrant academic and social community.
Welcoming and inclusive environment for international students, women, and other underrepresented groups.
Robust schedule of colloquia and lectures on current topics in research and technology.
Leading-edge interdisciplinary research opportunities, both on and off campus.

Our students benefit from many collaborations and relationships that we have developed across the campus and in the region. In addition to being the headquarters of established technology leaders such as Microsoft and Amazon, Seattle is also home to an extensive (and ever-growing) list of engineering centers established by major industry players from outside the Pacific Northwest.

Highlights

Allen School News

Research Showcase and Madrona Prize celebrate faculty and student innovation

From a robotic arm that learns to pick up new objects in real time, to a model that converts 2D videos into 3D virtual reality, to a curious chatbot that adapts to users, to machine learning methods for decoding the brain, the 2025 Research Showcase and Open House had something for everyone.

GeekWire

Six ‘grand challenges’ shaping the future of computer science

At the Allen School’s Research Showcase and Open House, school leaders celebrated the work of faculty and student researchers — and offered a blueprint for collaboratively tackling a set of human-centered problems for even greater impact.

Allen School News

Akari Asai named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35

Asai (Ph.D., ‘25), research scientist at Ai2 and incoming faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, was recognized for her pioneering research that has helped establish the foundations for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and showcase its effectiveness at reducing LLM hallucinations.