Demystifying the Computer Science

PhD Admission in the US

A Guideline for International Students

ThanhVu (Vu) Nguyen

George Mason University, Dept. of Computer Science

January 26, 2024

Preface
Having been involved in PhD admissions for many years, I’ve realized that many
international students, especially those in smaller countries or less well-known
universities, lack a clear understanding of the Computer Science PhD admission
process at US universities. This confusion not only discourages students from ap-
plying but also creates the perception that getting admitted to a CS PhD program
in the US is difficult compared to other countries.
So I want to share some details about the admission process and advice for those
who are interested in applying for a PhD in Computer Science in the US.
While this document is primarily intended for students interested in CS, it might be
relevant to students from various disciplines. Furthermore, although many examples
are specifics for schools that I and other contributors of this document know about,
the information should be generalizable to other R11 institutions in the US (and
universities in other countries).
In addition, this document can help US faculty and admission committee
gain a better understanding of international students and their cultural differences.
By recognizing and leveraging these differences, CS programs in the US can attract
larger and more competitive application pools from international students.
I wish you the best of luck. And if you follow this guidance, you will at least
have a good chance at GMU (see why you want to study at here). Happy school
hunting!
This document is available at

nguyenthanhvuh.github.io/phd-cs-us/demystify.pdf,

and its LATEX source is also on Github. If you have questions or comments, feel free
to create a GitHub issue for discussion.

1
An R1 institution in the US is a research-intensive university with a high level of research
activity across various disciplines. Currently, 146 (out of 4000) universities are classified as R1.

i
Contents
Preface i

Summary iv

1 Should You Apply to a CS PhD Program in the US? 1

2 How is Your Application Evaluated? 2

3 Your Application 4
3.1 Research Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 Letter of Recommendation (LOR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3 Statement of Purpose (SOP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.4 Your School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.5 Grades and GREs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.6 CV/Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.7 Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.8 Preparing and Tracking Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4 Getting Admitted 13

5 Funding 15
5.1 Graduate Assistantship (TA/RA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.1.1 Teaching Assistant (TA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.1.2 Research Assistant (RA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.2 Fellowship/Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

6 Choosing Schools and Professors 19

6.1 Choosing a University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.1.1 Schools that offer PhD in CS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.1.2 Selecting and Ranking Schools for CS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.2 Choosing an Adviser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.2.1 Finding the right adviser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.2.2 Types of Faculty: Who can serve as a PhD adviser? . . . . . 22
6.2.3 Tenured or tenure-track faculty? Who do you choose? . . . . 24
6.2.4 Should you contact a professor? How to get a desired reply? . 24
6.2.5 PhD in other related fields: CE, IST, Cybersecurity . . . . . 26

7 Miscs and FAQs 27

7.1 What can you do to increase your admission chance? . . . . . . . . . 27
7.2 Can I apply to CS PhD if my undergrad was not in CS or related areas? 28
7.3 Is an MS degree required for admission to PhD in CS? . . . . . . . . 29

ii
CONTENTS iii

7.4 How long does it take to complete the CS PhD program? . . . . . . 29

7.5 Differences between PhD in the US and Other Countries . . . . . . . 29
7.6 How do I call or address a professor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.7 How much do you cost? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.8 Will I be miserable during my a PhD? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

A Rankings of CS PhD programs 34

B Cultural Differences and Other Issues 36

B.1 Accepting, Postponing, and Decline Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
B.2 Academic Integrity (Cheating and Plagiarism) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
B.3 Illegal Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
B.4 Gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
B.5 Relationships with your Profs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

C History and Acknowledgement 39

Bibliography 40
Summary
Below we summarize the main points of this guideline. This gives you an overview
to decide which specific topics you want to explore more thoroughly.

1. Should you apply?

• Yes, definitely. CS PhD study in the US is fully funded and admission
into good universities is not any harder than non-US schools (§1).
2. How is your application evaluated?
• Applications are evaluated by the PhD Admission committee and each
application is reviewed by typically three faculty (§2).
• Individually faculty cannot directly admit a student—so do not email and
ask if you have a chance. However, faculty can advocate for a student and
therefore increase their admission chance—so do contact and introduce
yourself (§6.2.4).
3. Application Materials
• The committee will look at various factors, but the most important ones
are research ability, e.g., publications, statement of purpose (SOP), and
letters of recommendation (LORs).
• LORs are very important, but only if they are personalized and talk about
your research ability (§3.2).
• SOP is very important. Write it in such a way that makes you stand out
(§3.3 and §7.1)
• GRE is not required (§3.5). Spend your time on something else!
• Grades are important, but depend on the reputation of your school (§3.5).
• Getting an interview is typically a good sign as no one wants to interview
weak candidates (§3.7).
4. What to do after getting admitted?
• Celebrating! Now it is your turn to evaluate the school!
• Attend Open House to learn more about the place and interview profs—
they would be much more willing to talk to you now (§4).
5. Funding
• TA and RA are two main funding sources. TA (teaching assistantship) is
provided by the department to help profs. with classes (e.g., grading). RA
(research assistantship) is provided by profs. to help with their research
(§5).

iv
SUMMARY v

6. Choosing School and Professors

• Many schools do not offer PhD studies in CS and many CS professors

cannot formally advise or graduate PhD students (§6).
• Contacting a prof. for research opportunities is recommended, but do it
properly (§6.2.4).

7. Miscs and FAQS

• Increasing your admission chance by being unique and standing out (§7.1).
• You can successfully apply to CS PhD even if you have non-STEM back-
ground (§7.2).
• Compared to other countries, CS PhD in the US does not require an MS
degree but has longer PhD study time (§7.5).
• Your 5–6 year PhD program costs about $400K in total, but you do not
pay for it (§7.7).
• Despite some miserable stories on social media, many PhD students have
good mentors, supportive lab mates, healthy working environment ... and
are happy (§7.8).
Should You Apply to a CS PhD Program in the
US? Don’t make fun of graduate
1
students. They just made a
terrible life choice.
The Simpsons

First, I want to emphasize that PhD students in Computer Science do not need
to worry about funding, especially at good R1 universities in the US. If you are ad-
mitted, you will almost certainly receive full funding to support your study, including
tuition, health insurance, and stipend (monthly salary). Moreover, depending on the
university, you may even receive additional benefits such as summer pay, laptops,
(conference/workshop) traveling. §5 provides more details on funding.
Second, applying to a good US university should not be any harder than at
schools in other countries. In fact, it might even be more flexible since CS PhD in
the US do not require having an MS or a topic/proposal/adviser in advance. If you
believe you have a chance in other countries, e.g., South Korea, Singapore, Germany,
UK, Japan, and Australia, then you will surely have a chance in the US as well. §7.5
compares CS PhD study in the US to other countries.

Vu: One of the reasons I create this document is that my colleagues at GMU
are interested in recruiting Vietnamese students and are surprised when seeing very
few applications in Vietnam (see Appendix C). Each year our CS program receives
more than 350 PhD applications, most of which are international but only 3–4 are
from Vietnam. In general the number of CS PhD applications from Vietnam to US
universities is very low and more would be welcome.

Domestic students: If you’re a domestic student, you have several advantages in

your application. First, we already know about your school (see §3.4), and you are
also more familiar with the US education system and culture. You also have more
opportunities for funding, e.g., through government scholarships for US citizens and
residents. Finally, compared to international students, PhD applications in CS from
domestic students are few and that can really help your case.

Additional Resources
• Getting a Computer Science PhD in the USA by Shriram Krishnamurthi

• Blog post on PhD Admission by Philip Guo

• PhD Admission post by Yonatan Bisk (customized for CMU admission)

1
How is Your Application Evaluated?
How is education supposed to
2
make me feel smarter? Besides,
every time I learn something new,
it pushes some of the old stuff
out of my brain. Remember when
I took that home wine making
course, and I forgot how to drive?
The Simpsons

After you submit your PhD application (usually around December), it will first be
screened for general requirements, e.g., did you submit your transcripts and standard
scores? did your reference writers submit their letters? Usually, this screen process
is done through a central university system (i.e., not by the CS department). If you
pass this screen, your application will be forwarded to the CS department for further
evaluation. If you don’t, then the system will inform you what is missing and what
you need to do.

Hakan: At GMU, for full consideration, students should make sure to submit ALL
required documents by the application deadline, and should never assume that some
required documents (such as official TOEFL scores or official diplomas/transcripts)
will be waived by the admissions office. If something is listed and not marked as
“optional”, it is mandatory and they should plan for submitting all those.

Then, applications are reviewed by a PhD admission committee (adcom) that

consists of faculty members in CS (in some cases the committee can involve affiliated
faculty from different disciplines). These faculty have a wide-range of expertise and
background to ensure diverse perspectives in the evaluation process. The size and
the review load of the adcom depends on the department size. At GMU, the PhD
adcom typically has 15–20 faculty, and each committee member is assigned to review
25–30 applications. Note that GMU, UMass, and probably many other schools, have
separate adcom for MS programs.
Each application is assigned to about three faculty members, who will evaluate
your profile and reach a consensus. Note that while the assigned reviewers are likely
the main ones deciding your application, every faculty in the department will have
access to your application and can provide inputs and opinions on your profile.
The PhD adcom typically involves assistant professors in the department (see
§6.2.2 for various faculty titles). This provides junior faculty the opportunities to
recruit students. The chair of the committee will be a senior professor, but they
likely will not review individual applications and instead assign them to commit-
tee members. The chair will look at various factors such as research interests or
mentioning faculty names to assign the applications to appropriate faculty.

2
CHAPTER 2. HOW IS YOUR APPLICATION EVALUATED? 3

At GMU, we usually decide that a full-time PhD candidate is either (i) admit
with funding (TA or RA, see §5) or (ii) rejected. In other words, in most cases, we
either admit you with full funding, or we reject your application. In some rare cases,
we admit without funding because you have funding on your own, e.g., supported
by your government or having external fellowships. We justify our decision with a
summary of your application, where we list strengths (e.g., a well-known school) and
weaknesses (e.g., weak LORs).

Why we do not waive application fee? This is typically a requirement of the

university. Individual departments and programs do not have the flexibility to waive
the application fee, even if they want to.
In my opinion, requiring applicants to pay the fee helps ensure their seriousness,
as it filters out non-serious candidates. Also, if the application process were free for
everyone, we would receive an overwhelming number of applications to review.
Your Application
Son, if you really want something
3
in this life, you have to work for
it. Now quiet! They’re about to
announce the lottery numbers.
The Simpsons

The primary focus of the admissions committee is to evaluate your back-

ground and interest in research (a PhD in Computer Science is a research
degree!), and determine if you would fit into the program. To evaluate your profile,
we consider the following key indicators.

3.1 Research Ability

The most effective evidence of research ability is having published papers in rep-
utable international journals or conferences. Having papers published is a
sign that the applicant has successfully involved in research.

Vu: Many international students mention Scopus Q1, which consists of various
journals from IEEE, Elsevier, and many other publishers. I don’t know/recognize
many of journals listed in Scopus Q1. This might be something to be mindful of, as
CS faculty might not be too familiar with Scopus or journals listed there, so devote
some part in your statement to discuss the significance of your papers.

However, it is understandable that many students do not have the opportunities

to publish in top places. Thus, general writings, even those under submissions or
rejected, would still be good (and much better than nothing). But be sure to upload
your papers with your application and talk about them in your statement (see §3.3).
Note that local conferences and non-English journals or conferences do not carry as
much weight since their quality is often unknown to US faculty. However, if you
have published in such places, you should still mention them in your statement and
explain why they are good.

Craig: GMU and many other universities allow you to upload your published papers
and other writing samples. In many cases, even if the papers were not published at
top places, we can still determine their quality by simply skimming over the paper.

Additionally, work experiences at renowned research laboratories, such

as Microsoft Research, can strengthen your application. Unfortunately, many good
research places in your countries, e.g., VinAI in Vietnam, remain relatively unknown
to most universities in the US. So you should explicit say something about them in
your statement.

4
CHAPTER 3. YOUR APPLICATION 5

Hung: The reputation of VinAI has been increasing steadily over the past few years;
many of my colleagues heard about VinAI.

Finally, participating internationally recognized competitions can also

demonstrate your research potential. For example, participating in Math Olympiads
if you want to do theory or winning ACM programming contests if you want to “build”
systems, e.g., software analysis.

Thanh: Due to academic culture, professors in Vietnam usually aim for (interna-
tional) journals instead of conferences. Could you give some tips on how to know
whether a journal is good (CSrankings, unfortunately, only consider conferences)?.

Vu: One way is looking at what well-known researchers publish at. For example, if
you are interested in a field X, you can use CSRankings to look at active faculty in
X, and then look at their websites to see what journals they publish at.

3.2 Letter of Recommendation (LOR)

Most PhD programs will require at least two LORs. Having a letter from
an internationally recognized researcher can greatly strengthen your application.
However, obtaining such letters can be challenging for international students, who
might not have much interactions with such experts. So it is fine to have a letter
from people (e.g., profs, researchers, postdocs who mentored you) that know you well
enough to talk about your research experience and capabilities. Many students get
letters from supervisors from companies where they did internships or are working
at. It is OK as long as it is a research-based personalized letter (once again, we are
talking about PhD applications, not MS).

Vu: If your grading system is not US standard or you are from a good school
unknown outside of your country, you can ask your reference writers to explain about
that in their letters. For example, "Bach Khoa" are the top universities in Vietnam
for STEM studies but few people outside Vietnam know about them. So if you are
from there, you should ask your reference writers to mention that.
CHAPTER 3. YOUR APPLICATION 6

Self-written Letters Many international students write letters themselves, typi-

cally due to the requests of their profs., and have them signed by their profs. Such
letters have little values and are considered weak by reviewers (why can you not
even find someone who cares or knows enough about you to write a candid personal
reference letter?). Instead of the reference writer talking about you, in this case it
is you who write about yourself (and they just sign the letter).

Generic Letters When the writers do not know much about the applicants (e.g.,
just taking some course with them or not making any impression to write about),
they might write a generic letter, which is not useful and also considered weak. It
might be a good idea to directly ask if the prof. is willing to write a strong letter
for you. If not, then you should ask someone else. For example, if a student I don’t
know well ask me to write letter for them, I will explicitly tell them I don’t know
them that well to write much about them, and such a short, generic, and weak letter
will not help their case.

Hung: A sad reality is that most professors in Vietnam DO NOT know how to
write a good letter, or are lazy in writing letters hence delegate the writing to the
students. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this problem.

Vu:
Another sad reality is that some professors are unwilling to write letters or write
weak ones because they do not want (good) students to go abroad or only go to
places where they want the students to go to. If you are in this situation, you should
find someone else to write for you.

Sometimes students would go through great length just to get letters from well-
known professors in their school (e.g., department head). But as mentioned, if these
professors do not know you, the letters are generic and carry little value, in fact,
red flags. Moreover, a top professor in Vietnam might not be well-known to US
faculty (see more details in §3.4). So save the trouble and just get letters from
any professors/supervisors who knows you well and can write a good letter about
your research ability. It’s better to have a good personalized letter about your own
research ability from someone who is less well-known than a generic/weak letter from
a well-known person.

Waiving your Right Choosing not to look at a reference letter is pretty standard
in school and job applications. When you waive your right to see the letter, it adds a
layer of trust, showing you’re confident in your choice of referees and that you’re not
trying to twist their words. It’s also about keeping things open and honest between
you and your letter writers, and encourages them to be real about your strengths
and qualifications. Plus, it keeps things private.
CHAPTER 3. YOUR APPLICATION 7

Reviewers might raise concerns (a red flag) about a letter that is not waived, e.g.,
if you do not trust your letter writers, then you should find someone else to write for
you. In short, it’s a standard practice and a way of keeping things straightforward
and respectful in the whole recommendation game.

Didier Should letter writers have PhDs? In Rwanda, a lot of students interact more
with teaching faculty who might not have PhD.

Vu: This is an interesting and useful detail that US faculty might not be aware of
and students should mention about this in their statements. In general, I think it
should be fine as long as that person can properly evaluate your research ability.

Reminding Writers After you submit your application, you can tell your writers
that and remind them to submit their letters if they haven’t done so. But don’t send
too many reminders as that can be annoying to the writers.
Note that most places only have deadlines for the applicant, but are very flexible
with the letter writers (in many cases do not even give them any deadline). Also,
many places do not begin the admission review process right after the deadline and
work on application reviews in the next semester (mid January).

VEF 2.0 For Vietnamese students, it’s worth mentioning about the VEF2.0 pro-
gram, which has helped many good students in gaining acceptance to top PhD
programs in the US. VEF2.0 follows an interesting model where US faculty mem-
bers from leading institutions are invited to conduct rigorous interviews with VEF
students and subsequently provide reference letters on their behalf. Despite the lim-
ited interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee (primarily confined to
the interview itself), these reference letters are generally helpful as they have helped
many students getting into top PhD programs in the US.

3.3 Statement of Purpose (SOP)

CHAPTER 3. YOUR APPLICATION 8

While you might not have control over LORs or where your go to school, you
do over your statement of purpose (SOP) or personal statement1 ! So write it well
because it could make a big difference. In your statement, you have the opportunity
to make your application stand out and unique, which can make you fit the CS
program you’re applying to, even if you don’t have very strong research experience.
A well-written SOP also shows that you can communicate, which is very important
in research, and that you can effectively teach and communicate with students, which
is important for TA funding (see §5).
There are various guides on writing statement, e.g., [1], and many example state-
ments are available. So I will not talk too much about statements. In short, focus
on your research goal and vision, and convince us that you can achieve it through
your experience, e.g., published papers, or if you work on some projects by yourself,
talk about it. Also, talk about things that adcom members might not know about,
e.g., your Github project with 1K+ stars or your regular contributions to well-known
open-source projects. Finally, talk about what makes you different than the other
1000 applicants that we are considering (e.g., see §7.1 for increasing your admission
chance).

Hung: I think asking for a “research vision” from a Ph.D. applicant is too much.
Even people graduated with a Ph.D. have a great difficulty in explicating their re-
search vision. In my opinion, you should focus on showing (not telling) your research
passion (if you do have).

Finally, this is something easy to do, but is neglected by many applicants: cus-
tomize the statement for the school you’re applying to, e.g., why do you apply
here? provide names of professors who you’re interested in (if they are not already in
the adcom, your application might get forwarded to them for evaluation; and they
will likely be those who interview you). This shows that you’re serious and have
done homework on places you’re applying to. Adcom will look for this part at the
end of the statement, so do not skip it.
1
Some schools separate these documents and ask you to write both: SOP, which focuses on
research experiences, and Personal Statement, which is everything more personal, e.g., why PhD,
challenges, diversity, etc
CHAPTER 3. YOUR APPLICATION 9

Vu: I often read the research statement (and the LORs) first. If I am persuaded
by then, I would skim over other factors and advocate for admission (unless I see red
flags in other parts). If I am not convinced, then I will likely recommend rejection
(unless I see something standout in other parts).

Do careful research on professors, don’t mention emeritus or adjunct faculty (see more
about various types of faculty in §6.2.2). Also, be careful not to send statements to
wrong schools or mixing facts (e.g., talking about school X but mentioned about
working with profs. at school Y; and definitely do not talk about George Washington
when applying to George Mason). I have seen such statements more time that I
should.

Additional Resources
• How to Write a Grad School Personal Statement by Mike Hicks

• CS PhD SOP database by cs-sop.org

3.4 Your School

Graduating from top universities that we recognize helps. For example, if your school
is well-known, then it is “top foreign”, which is definitely a plus. However, if we do
not know much about schools in your country, then we are uncertain about the
quality of your school and likely treat your school as “unknown foreign”, which can
be a minus point.
So what can you do about this? several things including asking your CS dept to
put itself on CSRankings (it’s the easiest way to get CS people to know about the
school and its CS faculty) and explaining about your school in your statement (ask
your LOR writer to do that too). Of course, if you’re interested in working with
Vietnamese, consider CS PhD programs in the US that have Vietnamese professors.

Vu: Sometime PhD adcom in the US will share a document such as this one,
which lists the top schools in several countries. In some cases we ask other faculty
and students if we think they know about the place. For example, when I was a
postdoc at UMD, members in their CS PhD adcom ask me to evaluate applicants
from Vietnam. During my time at UNL and now here at GMU, I have looked at
Vietnamese applications (whether they are assigned to me or not) and provide input
to their reviewers, e.g., X is the top tech school in Vietnam and so it should be top
instead of unknown foreign, which makes a huge difference.

Deepak: If an applicant is anxious about their school not being known outside
their country, they can provide information about their school and department, with
independent sources where such information can be verified.
CHAPTER 3. YOUR APPLICATION 10

3.5 Grades and GREs

Having good grades is good, but unless your school is well-known, having top grades
or rankings usually will not help because we cannot evaluate them.
This can be an issue for students in many top international universities where the
competition is so high that very good students can still have low rankings from these
schools (and be overlooked by the adcom). So what to do with this? as mentioned
in §3.4 you can put a note about this in your statement and ask your LoR writers
to talk about it.
Note that while having good grades at unknown school might not help, having
bad grades will be red flag (unless your LORs or statement give a proper explana-
tion). This is especially true if you have bad grades in relevant courses (e.g., Math
and CS).

Thanh: Vietnamese universities typically offer specialized programs, such as the

talented engineer program at HUST, that have highly competitive entrance exams
and a limited number of available slots (e.g., 30 per year). However, these programs
often set higher requirements for students, including more demanding tests and as-
signments, resulting in lower GPAs and overall rankings. For example, an 3.5 GPA
students from such talented programs are typically much better than a 4.0 GPA stu-
dents not in those programs. Similarly, variations in GPA standards exist among
different universities, with technical universities generally having lower GPAs than
economical universities. These make gaining admission in the US difficult as US
faculty are not familiar with these issues.

Vu: Vietnamese students and even faculty often lament how this grading system
hurts Vietnamese students applying abroad. One way to mitigate this is making
these issues known in your SOP. Universities with Vietnamese profs are probably
aware of them, but in general your letter writers and you can explicitly mention
these in their letters and your statement.

GRE Most good CS PhD programs in the US no longer require GREs, so you
don’t need to take them. However, they might be useful for international students
from programs we are not familiar with. If you have good GRE scores then you
should include them in your application.

English Test Unless your degrees are from specific countries such as these, you
will need to take standardized English test. Just do well enough to pass minimum
requirement set by the university, which has many options for you to select from.
CHAPTER 3. YOUR APPLICATION 11

Vu: The minimum for GMU (being above this might not mean much, but below is
a red flag).
• GPA: ≥ 3.0 in your undergrad (but we also consider the rank/prestige of your
school)
• GRE: not required, though it can help boost your profile
• English requirement tests (one of the below)
– TOEF: 88 pts in total AND ≥ 20 points in each subsection OR
– IELTS: ≥ 6.5 OR
– DuoLingo Graduate English: ≥ 120 OR
– Pearson Test of Academic English: ≥ 67

3.6 CV/Resume
The CV/Resume should provide a summary of the applicant’s achievements. It
should allow the reviewers to quickly scan to identify major achievements (e.g.,
Publications, Programming Competition Awards, Teaching Experience).

3.7 Interview
Many PhD programs have the tradition of interviewing applicants. The most com-
mon case is that a professor is interested in working with a student and want to chat
with them to make decision (e.g., to offer them RA). The professor might include
one of their current students as part of the interview. In some case, the interview is
done by several professors, e.g., to see if a student fits to their group or to recruit a
very strong student to their program.
Typically, an interview takes about 15–30 minutes, and one important aspect
of evaluation is your ability to effectively communicate, including speaking and un-
derstanding English. A professor might want to know more about your research
background or even ask you to read a paper (so be sure to do it!). Finally, during
the interview, you will have the opportunity to ask questions about the university.
It’s essential to prepare some thoughtful questions, similar to a job interview.

Vu: At GMU, we are encouraged to interview candidates. For very strong candi-
dates, the interview is actually to recruit them. In some cases a faculty interviews a
candidate that they see potentials and want to advocate for their admission. Without
the interview, such applications may be more likely to be rejected.

In short, getting an interview is a good sign; it means that someone is considering

you. If we are not interested in your application, we will not proceed with an
CHAPTER 3. YOUR APPLICATION 12

interview. However, do not worry much if you do not get an interview! For example,
at GMU, most of our admitted students with TA do not go through any interviews.

3.8 Preparing and Tracking Applications

Shared Spreadsheet Many students use a (shared) spreadsheet, e.g., Google
Sheets/Docs, to help them and their letter writers to keep track of their applica-
tions. Here are some information to put on the sheet.

• Your info: Full name, email, phone, link to website/CV. This is helpful for
the writers just in case they want to quickly get some information about you.

• Applications details: University, Dept, Application System URL, Submis-

sion Deadlines, Application Status (e.g., submitted, rejected, wait-listed, ac-
cepted)

• LoRs: Writer 1, Writer 2, Writer 3. If this is a shared document, you might

want to omit names and just use writer X. Under each is their status, e.g.,
sent/not yet/reminder needed, etc.
You can then share this sheet with your reference writers and remind them to
submit LoRs on your behalf (see §3.2).
Getting Admitted
"Oh... and how is education
4
supposed to make me feel
smarter? Besides, every time I
learn something new, it pushes
some old stuff out of my brain.
Remember when I took that
home wine-making course and I
forgot how to drive?"
The Simpsons

By around March you should hear back from most PhD programs you applied
to. If you haven’t heard back, reach out via email and ask about the status of your
application. If you receive offers, congratulations! Now you’re at a different game
because the schools that have admitted you will try to get you to accept them!
Important factors to consider are the reputation of schools and professors (§6), and
funding availability (§5). You will have to make your decision by around April 15.

Open House Most schools will have Open House events, which are a great
resource to learn about the school, department, faculty, research, living, etc. Even
if you can’t come in person, you should attend virtually and meet with individual
faculty. During the Open House, you get a chance to talk to individual faculty and
current students. Take notes of faculty who make you excited, count those that are
taking in new students (if they meet you, likely they are considering new students!).
Talk to students about their advisers, the dept, the area, funding situation etc. Ask
about anything you want to determine that they deserve you.

Vu: GMU has Virtual Open House (VOH), e.g., https://cs-gmu.github.io/

cs-phd-voh-s23/. We invite all admitted PhD students to the VOH through Zoom
to learn about the CS program, the department, GMU, and the DC area in general.
Students also get opportunities to chat with professors and current students.

If you do not get admitted If you do not get admitted to any schools or don’t
want to go to the ones that admit you, try again next time. Graduate admission can
involve randomness and noise. Don’t bother asking for feedback, you will not likely
get any. In the meantime, you can work on improving your profile, e.g., get more
research experiences, publish more papers, improve your connections for better LoR
writers, etc.
You can also consider applying to MS programs, which are typically easier to get
in (but you need to pay). If you get in an MS program at a school of your choice, you

13
CHAPTER 4. GETTING ADMITTED 14

can contact professors to work with them. If you do well, you can ask the professor
to support you to convert to PhD. This is a common path for many students.
Funding
Bart, with $10,000, we’d be
5
millionaires! We could buy all
kinds of useful things like. . . love!’
The Simpsons

As mentioned, if you’re admitted to a good CS PhD program, you should not

have to worry about funding! In the US, the common types of funding for PhD
are graduate teaching assistant (GTA or TA), graduate research assistant (GRA or
RA), and Fellowship. RA is paid by a prof. for you to do their research. TA is
paid by the department for you to help with teaching. Finally, fellowship is an
independent funding that can come from a school, a company, or an organization.
Tab. 5.1 summarizes the differences. Note that funding is typically more available
for PhD students than Masters.

5.1 Graduate Assistantship (TA/RA)

The most common type of funding is graduate assistantship, which is either TA
or RA. Both TA and RA come with tuition waiving (you don’t have to pay tuition),
health insurance (this takes care of your insurance, which is a must have in the US),
and most importantly, your stipend (i.e., your salary). Some universities also pay
insurance for spouse/children (or give very good discount).
Several things about stipends. First, the amount of stipend depends on the
university, which in turn depends on various factors such as location (e.g., a stipend
in Washington DC is likely higher than in Lincoln, Nebraska due to higher living
cost). Second, a school year is typically 9-month in the US, so stipend is for 9 months
(so divide by 9 for each month). Third, like most source of income in the US, you
will have to pay tax on your stipend. Fourth, CS department typically has higher
stipend comparing to other study fields. Finally, private universities might pay more

Tab. 5.1: Different types of PhD funding. All Covered: includes tuition, insurance, and
stipend.

TA RA Fellowship
From School Profs. School/External
For Teaching Assist. Research Research
Cover All? Yes Yes Yes
Summer? No Maybe Yes
Pros Research Freedom Get to do research Research Freedom
Cons Teaching Duties Research Restriction Competitive, Limited

15
CHAPTER 5. FUNDING 16

for stipend (but they could have higher "activity" or some other hidden fee, or you
may be required to pay fees for each credit hour).
Students often complain their stipend being too low, but it is actually not bad
and you can live comfortably with it. In many cases, it is also enough to support your
spouse and kids (many CS PhD students have their family with them). So don’t
worry too much about stipend. If you’re admitted to a good CS PhD program,
you will be fine. A good school would know that it has to be competitive to attract
students. For example, at GMU, every year we discuss about improving the benefits,
and especially stipend, for our graduate students.
For a full breakdown of how much a graduate student costs, see §7.7.

Vu: TA and RA at GMU have similar benefits in tuition waiving and insurance.
The college and department will set the rate for 9-month graduate assistant stipend.
TA, which is paid by the department, will likely be that amount but RA might be
higher depending on the stage of the student (1st year vs ABDa ) and the prof.
a
All but dissertation: really close to graduate.

Having health insurance is required at many US universities. Do not assume that

you’re young and healthy and ignore insurance. At GMU, and at most good CS PhD
programs, your GTA or GRA will always come with full insurance. In fact, at GMU
your spouse/children will get significant discount rate for health insurance. So you
will never have to worry much about health issues for you or your family here.

5.1.1 Teaching Assistant (TA)

TA is common in the beginning when you haven’t found an adviser who would pay
you RA. As a TA, you spend up to 20 hrs/week and help with classes (e.g., grading
or teaching labs/recitation). Your TA is paid through the school or department,
i.e., they hire you to help teach. During a semester, a TA might work with several
courses and professors (not necessary their adviser). TA funding is not typically
available during the summer, which has few courses.

How to get TA? Unless you have other funding such as RA or Fellowships, TA
is typically default for good CS PhD programs. When you apply to be a full-
time student, state that you need financial assistant. It is common that the PhD
committee will either admit you and give you GTA, or reject you; i.e., we do not
admit a student without supporting them.

Vu: At GMU CS, students admitted with TA have 4 years of GTA guaranteed, and
in some cases also receive stipend for the first summer.

Even if you have other funding and do not need TA, you still should do TA at
least once. This allows you to see what teaching is like, which is especially helpful
CHAPTER 5. FUNDING 17

for research career where you often give talks and tell people about your work. GMU
sometimes has classes that a more senior student can teach. In that case, you will
be paid as GTA or even sometimes as a lecturer. This is a good opportunity for
students to get teaching experience and also get paid more (as a lecturer).

5.1.2 Research Assistant (RA)

RA is provided through a professor through their own funding so you can work on
their project. You do not need to teach as an RA, so you can focus on your research.
Depending on the professor, RA may be available during the summer. §7.7 gives
more details on RA budget.
How to get RA? When a professor recruits you, they will likely give you RA
right away (e.g., when you apply). A common scenario is that you first get admitted
with TA, and then after a year or two find an adviser to support you with RA. See
how to contact a prof. in §6.2.4 for research opportunities.

Vu: If you got recruited by a prof., who would give you RA right away, it’s very
likely you will get admitted. For example, if a prof., even if not in PhD adcom, wants
to work with and funds you, the PhD adcom will respect that decision and admit you
(unless your application has many red flags).

5.2 Fellowship/Scholarship
Fellowship is another type of funding that students can apply for (e.g., from school,
industries, government). Fellowships are typically competitive and generous, and
gives pretty much all benefits tuition/insurance that a TA/RA has. Moreover, they
often give higher stipend (including summer) and open doors for job opportunities
(e.g., internship).
In general, fellowship is prestigious, and you will stand out if you get one. Every
PhD student has pubs, but only superstars have NSF grad or Microsoft fellowship.
In fact, these are so prestigious that even if you didn’t get it but make it to the final
round, school will still mention you on their website and you still should put it on
your CV.
How to get Fellowship? You need to apply for them. The US government
has many fellowships, though they would likely require US citizenship or residency.
However, tech companies including Google, Microsoft, Facebook have fellowships
that international students can apply for.
Prestigious fellowships typically require a clear and good research plan, so it is
a good idea to wait until at least your second year to have research experience and
even publication before applying. Remember, you’re competing with the top PhD
students at top universities worldwide.
CHAPTER 5. FUNDING 18

Vu: PhD applicants at GMU are automatically eligible for a Presidential Fellowship.
It is at least as good as GTA but the most important thing is that as a fellowship
it is truly free money (i.e., you are not depending on any prof. or TA). PhD adcom
members nominate applicants for this fellowship and the committee will vote and give
the fellowship to the top 2.
Choosing Schools and Professors
Choosing a school and an adviser is clearly among the most important things in
your mind when you apply and especially when you get admitted. This is further
6
complicated due to cultural differences and unfamiliarity of international students
to the US higher education system. This section aims to mitigate some confusions
and help you make informed decision.

6.1 Choosing a University

We will first discuss about universities in the US that offer PhD in CS. Then we will
talk about how to rank and select them.

6.1.1 Schools that offer PhD in CS

Most universities the US have CS programs. However, while many universities offer
PhD in their CS programs, many do not. These universities might offer just Bachelor
degrees (e.g., BS) and no graduate studies (i.e., no MS or Ph.D degrees), or they
just offer MS programs (but no PhD). For example, Penn State in University Park
has Ph.D. in CS, but Penn State in Harrisburg only has BS and MS in CS, and
Penn State in York only has BS in CS. On the other hand, multiple locations of the
University of Texas, e.g., Austin, Dallas, Arlington, have PhDs in CS.
Thus, if your goal is Ph.D. in CS, you have to aim only for schools offering such
a degree. While this can be confusing due to the large number of universities in the
US, a little research, e.g., searching for PhD in CS from the school website, will help
you find out. All schools listed in Appendix A have PhD studies in CS, so you can
start there.

6.1.2 Selecting and Ranking Schools for CS

International students not familiar with US universities often put them into two
bins: (i) very top schools that they dream about, and (ii) everything else. In many

19
CHAPTER 6. CHOOSING SCHOOLS AND PROFESSORS 20

cases, they use resources such as rankings from US News, which are not very trans-
parent and highly questionable1 . Sometimes these students evaluate CS programs
using the reputations non-CS programs such as medical, math, or physics. They
even rank universities based on popular states they know in the US, e.g., California
and New York. Clearly, there are so many thing wrong with these methods.
You can learn about CS programs and research expertise of faculty using re-
sources such as CSRankings.org, which is designed specifically to help prospective
PhD students in Computer Science! You will be very surprised to learn that a
school that you didn’t know much about can have very strong research in your in-
terested topic (and vice versa, a school you thought highly about might have no
faculty working in the research field you’re interested in). This is also a good way to
learn about individual faculty (who works on what) and well-known CS conferences2 .
Appendix A gives the top 50 CS programs in the US according to CSRankings.

Dat: Most Vietnamese students, including those from top schools, do not know
about CSRankings. May be applicants who worked at top research places such as
VinAI would know about it.

However, in general, rankings can be superficial and you need to do more research
to be informed and make better decision. For example, if you get admissions to
several places, you should consider attending Open Houses and contact profs. that
you’re interested in at those place and talk to them. They would be more willing to
chat with you now that you have been admitted. Ask them questions about their
work, how they manage students, their expectations. You can even ask to contact
their students. See more in §4 on what to do after getting admitted.

Hung: I always encourage the students I admitted to talk with my students and the
students of other faculty in other schools who admitted them. You will unlikely hear
straight-out complaints from current students in a professor’s group. But sometimes
what is important are things that they (current students) don’t tell you. Pay attention
to their "level of excitement" being in the group.

1
https://cra.org/cra-statement-us-news-world-report-rankings-computer-science-universities/
2
In CS (and probably only in CS), conferences, not journals, are often the main venue to publish
research finding.
CHAPTER 6. CHOOSING SCHOOLS AND PROFESSORS 21

Xiaokuan: Chinese students often only look at USNews rankings when selecting
their Ph.D. universities (I did that, too, when I was applying for Ph.D. positions).
Now that I am a professor, I find it to be the least promising way. The reason
is that USNews does not provide a good metric for evaluating the quality of the
Ph.D. program. If you want to do great research, CSRankings is the best way to
find good and active professors (which did not exist when I was applying), since it
solely focuses on publications at top-tier CS conferences. Also, I think Ph.D. is not
only about research; you need to also consider your daily life there, since you will
(probably) stay for at least five years. You might regret it if you did not consider this
seriously before applying.

6.2 Choosing an Adviser

Obviously, there is no one-size-fit-all answer to this question. The best adviser is
the one that you can work well with, i.e., fits you. This is difficult and takes time.
Fortunately, unlike many countries that require finding an adviser and research topic
before starting the PhD (§7.5), CS PhD programs in the US will typically give you
a couple of years to search for advisers and research topics. This is especially true if
you’re admitted with TA (§5.1.1), which gives you time to explore and find adviser.

6.2.1 Finding the right adviser

Here are some general advice to find professor. First, search for profs. that share
similar research interests. You can learn about faculty and their level of research
activity through the faculty’s website or even from CSRankings. For example, in
CSRankings, if you want to work with PL, you can search for those publish in PL
conferences. If you want to work with SE and AI, you can search for faculty who
work in both SE and AI. You can also go to their website, look at their papers
and projects. In any case, you should contact the professor and talk to them. For
example, you can (cold) email them and ask about their research and if they are
taking new students (§6.2.4), and schedule appointments to chat with them (office
hrs are often the best time).

Xiaokuan: Whether the student’s research interest matches that of the adviser
is very important; if there is a mismatch, either the student or the adviser has to
make compromises, which often leads to disagreements or conflicts. IMO, the adviser
should be the one who guides students to do research while allowing students to
pursue their own interest, instead of dictating their research.

Another effective way is taking graduate level courses in the topics you are inter-
ested in (remember: you have those 2 years to explore). Professors teaching these
special topics courses and research seminars might be recruiting students—giving
you even a higher chance. Do well in the class, answer questions, talk to the prof
CHAPTER 6. CHOOSING SCHOOLS AND PROFESSORS 22

after classes, etc—being stand out. Many professors, including myself, prefer taking
in new students this way. It gives both the professor and student more time, e.g., a
whole semester, to work and evaluate the relationship before making any commit-
ment (sounds a bit like a marriage!). You can also ask if you can do an independent
study or research with a prof. This can be informal (no credit) and takes place
during the summer or winter break. For example, I do this with multiple students,
many of whom are undergrads. Many will drop because they find they don’t like my
research, but some will stay and become my PhD students.
Ultimately, choose a prof. that fits you the most by communicating with them,
taking their courses, meeting and asking them questions, and even talking to their
current students. It will take time and effort, but remember, you will be working
with this person for 5+ years, so it is important to try to find the right one.

Thanh: In my opinion, having a well-suited adviser is crucial for a successful

PhD and research career. One effective approach to finding a suitable professor
is by working with a professor during your undergraduate studies. An exemplary
instance is VinAI’s residency program, where residents collaborate with professors
from the US for two years before applying to PhD programs. Many VinAI residents
have achieved remarkable results and gained admission to prestigious US universities.
Unfortunately, VinAI’s resident program is limited to AI research.
In other fields, e.g. Software Engineering, Vietnamese students face challenges in
reaching US professors. Do you have any tips for Vietnamese students who want to
connect with US professors and work as research assistants?

Vu: §6.2.4 shows how to contact a professor for research opportunities. Many proba-
bly will say no (or do not reply) as they do not have the bandwidth to take on random
students, but some may say yes if they see potential fit.

Additional Resources
• The Definitive "what do I ask/look for" in a PhD Advisor Guide

6.2.2 Types of Faculty: Who can serve as a PhD adviser?

Not every faculty can serve as your formal adviser. Let’s try to understand the
different types of faculty and their roles. For example, you might hear about tenured,
tenure track, and teaching faculty. You might also hear about assistant, associate,
full, adjunct, emeritus, teaching, research professors. Here is a primer on these
terminologies.

Tenure-line and teaching faculty Tenure line faculty, consisting of tenured and
tenured-track profs., focus on research, which includes publishing papers, obtaining
grants, mentoring Ph.D students. They often have very low teaching load (e.g., 1
per semester). Tenured faculty are professors who have been promoted to have a
CHAPTER 6. CHOOSING SCHOOLS AND PROFESSORS 23

permanent position (informally, very hard to fire them). Tenure-track faculty are
(more likely young) professors who are on the track to get tenure. Both tenure
and tenured track faculty can serve as a formal adviser of Ph.D. students.
This is very important because you need to have a tenure line faculty as your main
PhD adviser. §6.2.3 talks more about choosing between tenure and tenured-track
professor as your adviser.
In contrast, teaching (or instructional faculty or professor of practice) mainly
focus on teaching. They typically teach 3–4 classes per semester (which is quite a
lot) and do not have research responsibilities (e.g., they do not have to worry much
about publishing papers or obtaining grants). They can mentor Ph.D. students but
they typically cannot serve as a formal adviser of Ph.D. students (i.e., they cannot
graduate PhD students).
It is worth noting that professors in a non-CS department also unlikely can serve
as formal PhD advisers for CS students (see §6.2.5).

Titles Faculty have rankings, e.g., assistant, associate, full, regardless if they are
tenure line or teaching. Assistant means new faculty, associate means they have been
promoted, and full means they are senior. A tenure track faculty starts with being an
assistant professor and then gets tenure and promoted to associate (typically after 6
years) and then full (time varies, some become full within 3-4 years, some 10+ years,
some remain associate).
Adjunct faculty is not full-time, e.g., they might be working in industry and
teach a class or two for fun. Emeritus means they are retired but still have some
affiliation with the university. Research faculty (or research scientist) are typically
non-tenure line faculty who focus on research. Due to their roles, adjunct, emeritus,
and research faculty typically do not advise Ph.D. students.
CHAPTER 6. CHOOSING SCHOOLS AND PROFESSORS 24

6.2.3 Tenured or tenure-track faculty? Who do you choose?

The short answer is that tenure-track faculty such as assistant professors are
more likely to be young and active in research (they have to, in order to get tenure).
Thus, they will likely have more time to work with you and push you to do research
and publish. However, they may not have as much experience in managing students
and may not have as much funding (yet).
Tenured faculty, e.g., associate and full profs., are likely older, more well-known,
and have more experience in managing students. However, they might not push you
as hard (they don’t have to, they already got tenure). They might also expect you
to figure things out yourself, i.e., so you need to be very independent. Some tenured
faculty are also no longer active in research and more involved with administrative
responsibilities or with their startup companies (this means they will likely not take
new students).

6.2.4 Should you contact a professor? How to get a desired reply?

CHAPTER 6. CHOOSING SCHOOLS AND PROFESSORS 25

Faculty received many "cold" e-mails from international students seeking for
admission, TA, and RA. Most of the time, we ignore these emails, but in some rare
occasions we do answer them. So why do we ignore some but reply to others and
how to write an email that get our attention?
First, if you want to contact a prof. to ask about your admission chance, please
don’t. We don’t know and can’t answer because as explained in §2, we don’t make
individual decisions and might not even be assigned to evaluate your application. It
is the same as sending a paper draft to a journal editor and ask them if your paper
has a chance.
So what to do if you want someone to look at your profile and give input? You
could ask your professors, collaborators, or those who have previously applied. For
these kind of feedback, don’t ask strangers like random profs., instead ask someone
you have personal connection with.
If you want to contact a prof. to ask about research opportunities, or GTA/GRA
support, then yes, I believe you should—it is worth it. However, you need to put
effort into it and really do it the right way.
First, read the prof’s website, see if they say something about contacting them.
Many profs. explicitly indicate how prospective students should (or should not)
contact them (e.g., using specific email subjects). In general, the best way to catch
the prof.’s attention is to customize your email for them. For example, read their
papers, know what they work on, and see if you are interested in their research. Then
send them an email talking how/why their work would match yours. In contrast, if
you write a generic email that can be sent to multiple professors (e.g., if you just
change some names and keywords in the email or copy and paste paper titles), you
will not get a response.
Below is a good example that I would reply to.

Dear Prof. Nguyen,

I am writing to inquire about potential research opportunities as a GRA in your
group at GMU. Currently I am an undergraduate student in Computer Science at
UNIV and plan to graduate in May 2023.
I have read your TSE’21 paper on numerical invariant generation, and I am interested
in this line of dynamic invariant research. I have worked (optional: with prof. Y at
Z) on static program analysis and I think it could be used to tackle the spurious
issues mentioned in your paper. I have a small paper at conference/workshop C and
a project on symbolic execution at Github G.
...
This is a good example because it is clearly written just for me. It shows that the
student knows about my work on invariant generation and has related background
(paper C and project G).

Finally, profs. are very busy so don’t take it personally if you don’t get anything
from them (though I would be very surprised if such thoughtful emails get no replies!).
CHAPTER 6. CHOOSING SCHOOLS AND PROFESSORS 26

Xiaokuan Applying for Ph.D. and contacting a potential Ph.D. adviser is a classic
‘why me, why you’ problem, similar to looking for a job in a company. On a high
level, you need to show that you have done your homework regarding the professor
and the university, and clearly explain: 1) why do you think you are a good fit in
professor A’s group? 2) why do you want to be advised by professor A, not B? 3)
why do you want to apply for university X, not Y? If you don’t want to spend time
to do your homework, the chance of getting a reply is close to zero.

Deepak: In my view, cold emails are not welcome by most faculty members and
should be avoided. However, if one is already admitted to a program in some depart-
ment, by all means, send an email to the faculty you may be interested in working
with, but do mention right at the beginning that you are already admitted to the
program as well as several other universities. State specific areas (preferably specific
topics-ML, robotics instead of AI).

Additional Resources
• A Note about Emailing Professors by Yonatan Bisk

• §B.1 How to accept/postpone/decline PhD offers (and do it gracefully)

6.2.5 PhD in other related fields: CE, IST, Cybersecurity

In many cases you do not need to do a PhD in CS to work in your area of inter-
ested. For example, in addition to a traditional CS department, GMU has IST and
Cybersecurity departments, which have faculty with PhD in CS and work on CS
topics (e.g., AI, Security, Robotics). So it is totally possible that you still get to do
CS research and publish in CS-focused venues even if you’re not in a traditional CS
program. It is common to see faculty with CS PhD in a non-CS department as well
as faculty with non-CS PhD in CS department.
However, if your goal is a PhD in CS, then you likely need to be in the CS dept
and advised by a CS faculty. In fact, if a faculty is not in CS, it is unlikely that
they can be the main adviser of a CS PhD student. They may co-advise or be in
the PhD dissertation committee, but your main adviser will need to be a tenured or
tenure-track faculty in CS. If in doubt, you should check with the CS department for
their requirements. For this specific reason, CSRankings includes only tenure line
faculty who can advise CS PhD students. I also have compiled a list of Vietnamese
faculty who can advise PhD students. §6.2.2 talks more about who can serve as your
PhD adviser.
Miscs and FAQs
"I want to share something with
7
you – the three little sentences
that will get you through life;
number 1: Cover for me, number
2: Oh, good idea, Boss, and
number 3: It was like that when I
got here."
The Simpsons

7.1 What can you do to increase your admission

chance?

Show something that makes you stand out, e.g., do you have a degree or back-
ground in dance or music and want to integrate them with CS? are you a female or
a minority in CS (research for "URM minority in CS in the US" on Google)? Do
you participate in outreach activities that help increase diversity and inclusion in
CS? All of these are unique and would get noticed from reviewers.
Even if you do not have research experience, you can talk about your personal
projects, as long as they can help show you can do research. For example, if you
have an open-source project on Github that is used by many people, has lots of stars
in Github, do talk about it. If you write technical, research-like blogs, talk about
them too.
In his post, Matt Might was initially unsure about an application. However, upon
learning that the applicant had led a 100km hike in the Himalayas, he decided to

27
CHAPTER 7. MISCS AND FAQS 28

accept the applicant. This is a good example of being "stand out", and I would also
advocate for that student as this shows they have the persistence and determination
required for research.

7.2 Can I apply to CS PhD if my undergrad was not in

CS or related areas?
Yes, as long as you can demonstrate you are ready for CS PhD research through
research experiences, LoRs, statements, etc as mentioned. You might be even able
to leverage this to make your profile stand out as mentioned in §7.1.
One main concern for non-CS or non-STEM students is if you have the suffi-
cient technical background, typically obtained through core CS courses. So you will
want to show that you have such knowledge through your coursework, projects, or
research. For example, if you have taken a course on Algorithms, even online ones
like Coursera, you can talk about it in your statement. If you have done a project
that requires knowledge of OS or have a professional certification (e.g., A+) through
work, you can talk about it in your statement. If you have done research that re-
quires knowledge of Discrete Maths, you can talk about it in your statement. You
can also ask your LoR writers to talk about your technical background. In summary,
in your application, convince us that you have the technical background to do CS
PhD research. Note that many online courses teaching about AI does not really help
much as these are not core CS knowledge.
In short, you do not need to formally taking CS courses, you just need to show
that you have these essential knowledge through ways as mentioned. Many universi-
ties are well-aware that incoming graduate students might not have all the technical
background, so they often have a "bridge" courses to help students catch up. For
example, GMU has four bridge courses (Data Structures and Algorithms, Computer
Systems, Discrete Math, and Programming Foundation) that incoming students can
take to catch up on their CS knowledge.

Vu: I would strongly advocate for a non-STEM student who shows that they have
a strong drive for CS by studying core CS knowledge through various channels (e.g.,
self-study through online courses, projects, etc). I have seen many students with non-
CS background who are very successful in CS PhD. I also have seen many students
with CS background who are not successful in CS PhD. So it is not about your
background, it is about your drive and passion for CS research.
CHAPTER 7. MISCS AND FAQS 29

7.3 Is an MS degree required for admission to PhD in

CS?
No. In fact, student with BS can get MS degree “along the way” to PhD. However,
MS can help if it gives research experience or is from a more well-known school than
your undergrad institution.
If you have an MS then some course work might be transferred for course credits,
which save a bit of time. But overall don’t count on this, especially if your MS is
not from the US.

7.4 How long does it take to complete the CS PhD

program?

Typically, it takes 5–7 years for CS PhD in the US. This can be longer than CS
PhDs in other countries, which might require MS first (recall that CS PhD programs
in the US do not require MS and you can get MS along the way to PhD). Within
these 5–7 years, CS PhD students often take a “leave of absence” for 1–2 semesters
to do internship at companies and research labs.
The first 2 years you typically take coursework (somewhat equivalent to an MS
study), find an adviser, learn how to do research. The next 2–3 years you focus on
your research, form dissertation topic, and get results published. The last 1-2 years
you continue to publish, write and defend your dissertation, and look for job. In
many cases you might take a summer or two off to do internship to get additional
research opportunities. The PhDComics figure on top shows the “ambition” level of a
PhD student over their years of study (they miss the 6–7th year where the ambition
is “Just let me graduate”).

7.5 Differences between PhD in the US and Other

Countries
This summarizes the main differences between CS PhD in the US and other countries.
CHAPTER 7. MISCS AND FAQS 30

MS Degree requirement: as mentioned in §7.3 and 7.4, CS PhD programs in the

US do not require MS degree. In contrast, many other countries do require MS degree
before joining a PhD program. This means that US PhD programs are longer (5–7
years, 2 of which are coursework) than other countries (3–4 years, no coursework).
Project proposal : in many countries, you have to choose a project and adviser
during the application process (e.g., you write a proposal to a potential adviser).
In the US, you often start your PhD without an adviser or project and find them
later. This is because as someone who just finished your undergraduate study, it is
unlikely that you know enough about research to do proposal or picking an adviser.
This is also why US PhD programs are longer.
Course work : in the US you will spend the first couple of years taking classes
and explore potential adviser and research topics. In other countries, you (who
already have an MS) start your research right away, e.g., you immediately work on
the research project you proposed with the adviser you chose. Also, in the US you
also have to pass a series of "exams", e.g., qualifying exam, comprehensive exam,
thesis proposal defense1 . In other countries, you do not have to do these exams or
only do a few of them.
Funding: In many countries stipend comes from the university or from the gov’t.
These funding often have a fixed duration (e.g., 3 years). In the US, stipend (e.g.,
RA) comes directly from your adviser (no fixed duration). There are also fewer TA
opportunities in the European universities compared to the US.
Faculty position after PhD: In other countries, PhD graduates interested academia
typically apply for additional research appointments, i.e., postdocs, and then con-
sider faculty position. In the US, PhD graduates often apply directly for faculty
position (postdoc for US graduates is no longer a popular option as it was before).
Work-life balance: PhD students in the US are often said to be overworked
compared to other countries, e.g., in Europe. This is partly due to the longer PhD
program and that US PhD students are often paid through TA, which requires them
to do TA in addition to their own research. In contrast, PhD students in other
countries are often paid through fellowships, which do not require them to do TA.
1
The word "ABD" (all but dissertation) is used in the US to refer to a PhD candidate who
have finished all course work and exams and only need to write and defend their dissertation.
CHAPTER 7. MISCS AND FAQS 31

7.6 How do I call or address a professor?

If you’re reaching out to a professor for the first time, address them as Prof. or
Dr. Lastname. Many international students use Prof. or Dr. FirstName LastName,
but this can come across as if you’re simply copying and pasting names. It’s not
necessary, so stick with Prof. or Dr. Lastname.
Furthermore, avoid using Mr. or Mrs., or the professor’s first name if you’re
not acquainted with them yet. As you become more familiar with your prof and
depending on their preferences, you may transition to addressing them by their first
name. For example, I prefer that my students and colleague call me Vu. Some
students call me Dr. Vu, which I find a bit amusing but am totally fine with it.

DK: I was amused to read this as if I recall correctly, you never called me by my
first name when you were at UNM. You always called me Prof. And, many times, I
would jokingly call you back as Prof. Vu.

Vu: Yes, for some reason I enjoy addressing you as “Prof.” (without appending a last
or first name). The use of Prof. Vu may have foreshadowed my future in academia.

Note that in some universities the formal title Dr. Lastname is preferred over
Prof. You just need to observe and follow the conventions at your particular insti-
CHAPTER 7. MISCS AND FAQS 32

tution. Additionally, be aware that not all faculty members may hold a Ph.D., in
which case using Prof. Lastname is a suitable alternative.

Referring to professors you know Because you are already familiar with these
individuals, you can just informally use their names if they are OK with it as men-
tioned above (or Dr./Prof., if you want to be formal). You can also include their
institution if it makes it more precise. For example, I can say: "I did my postdoc
with Jeff Foster at Univ. of Maryland".
Do not include ranking (e.g., Assistant, Associate, Scientist, ...) when referring
to someone. I see many international students include a lengthy title of people they
know, e.g., I am advised by Asst. Prof. X, and I also collaborate with Distinguished
Scientist Y. This is not necessary and makes it look like you’re trying to show off
your connections. These nuances represent some cultural differences that you may
encounter and will gradually adapt to. More on cultural differences in Appendix B.

7.7 How much do you cost?

PhD students often ask why their salary is so low compared to ludicrous grants their
advisers get. They also wonder why their offer letters sometimes show that their
benefits higher than what they actually receive (i.e., stipend). This section aims to
shed some light to these questions.

Tab. 7.1 shows the budget breakdown for a GRA per year (this level of details is
what faculty actually uses when applying for grants). These numbers are based on
my experience at public universities in the US. Private universities may have different
numbers. For simplicity, in this table I will assume the department has a 9-month
stipend of $27000 (GMU actually pays more) and therefore a 3-month summer of
$9000. I will also use GMU tuition rate of about $15,000/year for full-time study
(which is quite cheap compared to private universities, e.g., MIT charges around
$50K) and a 58.9% rate on indirect cost, which is what GMU charges for overhead
or administrative costs (yes, after all, universities are businesses!). Finally, I assume
the student take two conference trips per year, one domestic and one international
(conf. registration, airline tickets, taxi, meals, etc are all included).
At the end, the total budget comes out to be $69K/year to support a PhD
student. The summary is that over your 5-6 year of your PhD, you cost about
$350K–400K, and while you’re paid X, your adviser probably pays 2X for you.
CHAPTER 7. MISCS AND FAQS 33

Tab. 7.1: GRA cost breakdown. F & A is Facilities & Administrative Cost Base and MTDC
is Modified Total Direct Cost. These are things that the university can charge overhead to.
Budget Cost $ Notes
GRA (9-month) 27K
GRA (summer) 9K 3-month, 20hrs/week
Total Salary 36K
Health Insurance 3K full year
Tuition (In-State) 15K ($680/ Credit + $150/Student Fee/ Credit)* 9 credits =
$7470 ($6120 + $1350) per semester
Total Tuition & Insurance 18K Full year tuition + insurance
Conference Registration 500
International Travel 1800
Domestic Travel 700
Total Travel 3K
Total Direct Cost 57K Salary + Travel + Health + Tuition
F & A (MTDC) 21K Direct Cost - GRA Salary
Total Indirect Cost 12K 58.9% of MTDC
Total (Direct + Indirect) 69K Budget for a GRA

7.8 Will I be miserable during my a PhD?

There are many stories on how students are mistreated, stressed, and miserable.
Issues including bad relationships with professors, conflicts with co-authors and lab
mates, feeling discriminated (e.g., because you’re an international student), etc do
exist, and it is good to be aware of those. However, in reality there are many good
mentors, supportive lab mates and department, and so on. So don’t let social media
make you feel pessimistic and deter your quest to advance knowledge.
Rankings of CS PhD programs
Tab. A.1 lists the top 50 CS programs in the US from CSRankings.org, a ranking
A
system based on faculty publications at top CS conferences.

34
APPENDIX A. RANKINGS OF CS PHD PROGRAMS 35

Tab. A.1: Top 50 CS PhD programs in the U.S. (CSRankings, Jan. 2024). ∗
indicates that
the university has Vietnamese prof. that can advise CS PhD students.

1 Carnegie Mellon 26 Duke University

2 Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign∗ 27 Univ. of California - Santa Barbara
3 Univ. of California-San Diego 28 Rutgers University∗
4 Georgia Institute of Technology 29 Univ. of California - Riverside
5 MIT 30 Pennsylvania State University
6 Univ. of California - Berkeley 31 Northwestern University
7 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor∗ 32 George Mason University∗
8 University of Washington 33 Texas A&M University∗
9 Stanford University 34 University of Utah
10 Cornell University 35 North Carolina State University
11 University of Maryland - College Park 36 Ohio State
12 Northeastern University∗ 37 University of Virginia
13 Purdue University 38 Yale University
14 University of Wisconsin - Madison∗ 39 Univ. of California - Santa Cruz
15 University of Texas at Austin 40 Brown University
16 University of Pennsylvania 41 Harvard University
17 Columbia University∗ 42 Boston University
18 Princeton University∗ 43 Rice University
19 New York University 44 University at Buffalo∗
20 University of Massachusetts-Amherst∗ 45 University of Colorado-Boulder
21 Univ. of California - Los Angeles 46 University of Illinois at Chicago
22 University of Southern California 47 University of Minnesota
23 University of Chicago 48 University of North Carolina∗
24 Stony Brook University∗ 49 Arizona State University∗
25 Univ. of California - Irvine 50 Univ. Of California - Davis
Cultural Differences and Other Issues
This section lists some cultural issues that international students might want to pay
B
attention to. These issues might not specific to just the PhD admission process but
in general.

B.1 Accepting, Postponing, and Decline Offers

Students, especially international ones, often get confused on what to do after they
get an offer from a professor, e.g., how to postpone or accept/reject offers, and most
importantly, how to do so without offending anyone. In short, if you are not serious
about an offer for any reason (e.g., still waiting for other offers), do not accept, i.e.,
commit to it. If you are not sure, ask for more time to decide. But do not accept an
offer and then later reject it. This is considered rude and unprofessional, and will
likely burn bridges with that professor.

Accepting an offer If you decide to accept an offer, you can say something like:
“Thank you for the offer. I am very excited about it and would like to accept it. I
look forward to working with you. Can you please send me more details about the
offer and what to do next?” . Here you are not only accepting the offer but also
asking for more details. This is perfectly fine and professors will understand and
appreciate your enthusiasm. They will likely send you more details about the offer
and what to do next. If you decide to accept an offer, you should do so quickly.
If you have better offers, you might mention them to the professor and ask if
they could match them. It is unlikely they can do so as RA might be fixed by
the department and not negotiable. They might recommend you for departmental
fellowships or some additional perks.

Postponing an offer If you need more time to decide, you can ask for more time.
You can say something like: “Thank you for the offer. I am very excited about it.
However, I am still waiting for other offers and need more time to decide. Would
it be possible to postpone the decision for a few weeks?”. This is perfectly fine and
professors will understand and might even appreciate your honesty. They will likely
give you a few weeks to decide. If you need more time, you can ask for more time.
But do not ask for too much time, e.g., more than a month. You also should not
postpone the offers multiple times, which will likely annoy people.

Declining an offer If you decide to decline or reject an offer, you can say some-
thing like: “Thank you for the offer. I am very excited about it. However, I have
decided to accept another offer. I appreciate your time and consideration. I hope we
can work together in the future.” Professors will understand and will likely wish you
good luck. If you decide to reject an offer, you should do so quickly.

36
APPENDIX B. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND OTHER ISSUES 37

This is very similar to a professional job offer. You should be serious about it and
communicate promptly. Importantly, do not accept an offer and then later reject it.
If you do this with a company, you might face legal consequences. If you do this
with a professor, they will likely not do anything about it (i.e., not worth their time)
but they will not want to work with you in the future.

B.2 Academic Integrity (Cheating and Plagiarism)

Plagiarism and cheating (e.g., exams, assignments) is a BIG no-no in the US. If
you’re caught cheating, you will face very heavy consequence and likely be expelled
from the university (e.g., after the second time at GMU). This is quite different
from many international countries where cheating is common and often tolerated.
Faculty is extremely good at detecting cheating (we have been dealing with these
situations so many times over so many years), and will report cheating cases. In
short, whatever you do, don’t cheat—not worth it.
Here is the typically steps: (i) a faculty suspecting a cheating case will report
it to the Office of Academic Integrity (OAI) at the university—the report often
has supporting evidence and suggested penalty (e.g., a failing grade); (ii) OAI will
take over and investigate the case; and (iii) OAI will make the final decision. It is
important to note that after receiving the report from your prof., OAI completely
takes over and makes decision. This means begging your professor will not help
because they simply are no longer involved in the case.

B.3 Illegal Software

Using illegal/cracked software is very common in many countries (and even in the
US). However, do not install or use them on university computers, even those given
to you from your adviser. It is unlikely that the university will track you down, but
it is the software company that will. They have very sophisticated tools to detect
illegal software and will sue your university/department. Imagine your department
or adviser being sued for a large sum of money, and it is you who caused it. If you
need to purchase software, ask your adviser or the department.

B.4 Gifts
In many countries, it is customary to give professors gifts, often during holidays.
These gifts can be costly and profs. sometimes expected them. In the US, it is
uncommon and perfectly OK to not to give gifts. However, if you’d like to offer small
souvenir-like tokens, it’s a thoughtful gesture that’s appreciated. Some professors
proudly display their gifts, which can come from students and colleagues (e.g., when
APPENDIX B. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND OTHER ISSUES 38

they travel to their home countries or conferences). In summary, small gifts are fine,
but avoid anything that might make your professors uncomfortable.

B.5 Relationships with your Profs.

There’s a misconception that in the US it’s all business, with professors as bosses
who pay students for their work, and you doing something nice implying you expect
something in return. However, the reality is quite the opposite. While people can
be straightforward and direct, they are also friendly and informal. You can call
your professor by their first name (§7.6), disagree with them and argue (and gain
respect doing so), seek their help (even on personal matters), come to their houses
for parties or gathering, and give them small thoughtful gifts that they put on their
desks (§B.4). Many students and professors maintain lifelong relationships, staying
in touch through cards, emails, and calls, even after their academic journey ends.
History and Acknowledgement
History This document was conceived during a lunch with Craig Yu at GMU. We
C
talked on about why GMU were not able to attract good Vietnamese and other inter-
national students, despite having a much stronger CS program than many schools
that these students want to go to (part of the reason is described in §6.1.2). We
wished there were a way for international students to know about the US PhD pro-
grams (also for US faculty to understand more about international students and
therefore have better chance of recruiting and working with them). I was also a
member of the large VietPhD group on Facebook and saw many questions from
students about PhD programs. However, most active participant are students in
non-CS fields or not in US, and their answers are unfortunately not always accurate
and sometimes leading to more confusion. So I thought it would be useful to have a
document that is specific to CS PhD programs in the US from an insider prospective.
I started writing this document in May 2023 and have been updating it since
then (mostly around deadline time when I tend to procrastinate, i.e., productive
procrastination!). I have put the source code of this document on GitHub so that
anyone can contribute to it.

About Me I am an assistant professor in the CS dept at George Mason Univer-

sity (GMU). Prior to GMU, I was at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). I
have been in the PhD admission process at GMU and UNL for many years. Cur-
rently I serve as the program director of the MS program in Software Engineering
at GMU (thus also have some experience with the MS admission process–which is
quite different than PhD). My personal and lab website is at dynaroars.github.io.
Though I’m not an international student, many of my students and collaborators
are. I also mentor multiple students from Vietnam, and have close colleagues and
friends who were once international students. I hope to capture the diverse challenges
and experiences they’ve faced in this document, so that it can be a valuable resource
for prospective international students. Finally, my upbringing in the US provides
a perspective aligned with American culture, allowing me to shed light on various
issues, particularly those related to cultural differences (Appendix B).

Acknowledgement Many people have contributed to this document. Profs. Craig

Yu (GMU), Hakan Aydin (GMU), Xiaokuan Zhang (GMU), Hung Le (UMass), and
Deepak Kapur (UNM) provided valuable input in the early version. Other GMU
faculty members also have provided feedback and contributions. Many students in-
cluding Didier (GMU), Thanh (Melbourne), and Dat (Melbourne) have contributed
valuable questions and feedback. Thank you!

39
Bibliography
[1] Chris Blattman. Writing your statement of purpose,
2023. https://chrisblattman.com/blog/2022/01/11/
phd-applicants-writing-your-statement-of-purpose/, last accessed
January 26, 2024.

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