A curated list of application resources for prospective graduate students in Computer Science and related fields. List created by Chinasa T. Okolo, a Computer Science PhD graduate from Cornell. Feel free to fork and make pull requests with new opportunities!
There are dozens of PhD programs in Computer Science (based in the United States) that accept applicants each year, so I won't list them out here but will provide resources to help you along your journey. Fortunately, many departments have started applicant support programs for underrepresented students (primarily PhD students) applying to their respective programs! Check out the list below:
For programs I have not seen updates for the upcoming application cycle, they are listed as "Status Unknown".
In the process of updating 2025-2026 deadlines! This former list by Andrew Kuznetsov may also be useful.
Please note that these programs are primarily for underrepresented students who have little access to external support in preparing their graduate school applications. Given the limited support available by many of these programs, it is important to be thoughtful in applying to these programs.
| School | Program | Deadline | Masters/PhD | Other details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown | Computer Science | TBD | Both | Status Unknown |
| Carnegie Mellon | Computer Science | October 13th, 2025 | PhD | |
| Human-Computer Interaction | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown | |
| Cornell | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| Information Science | October 27th, 2025 | PhD | ||
| Operations Research | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown | |
| Columbia | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| ETH Zurich | All departments | TBD | MSc | Status Unknown |
| Georgia Tech | College of Computing | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| Johns Hopkins | Computer Science and Electrical Engineering | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| MIT | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| Northwestern | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| Oregon State University | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| Princeton | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| Stanford | Computer Science | November 25th, 2025 | PhD | |
| UC Berkeley | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) | October 5th, 2025 | Both | |
| School of Information (iSchool) | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown | |
| University of Chicago | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| University of Colorado Boulder | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| University of Massachusetts Amherst | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| University of Michigan | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| Information School | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown | |
| University of Pennsylvania | Computer and Information Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| Bioengineering | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown | |
| University of Texas at Austin | Computer Science | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown |
| University of Toronto | Computer Science | TBD | Both | Status Unknown |
| School of Information | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown | |
| University of Washington | Computer Science | Rolling | PhD | Applications open starting in mid-September 2025 |
| Electrical & Computer Engineering | TBD | PhD | Status Unknown | |
| Information School | TBD | Both | Status Unknown | |
When applying to graduate school, my main thesis was set in two parts: (1) the program had to be a top program (top 25 or so) in CS (2) there had to be at least 2-3 professors that I was interested in working with in the department. To be honest, I applied to schools outside of the top 25, like Emory and Washington University in St. Louis (WashU), but they also had other strong departments in medicine, computational biology, etc., that aligned with my interests at the time. To this point, I believe that my second criteria was much more important than my first criteria. It's nice to be in a top-tier program, but if you aren't doing research you're passionate about, it kind of weakens the point of pursuing a PhD. I was fortunate to get both, but this may not always be possible.
Also, Black in AI recently relaunched their Emerging Leaders in AI to support Black students applying to graduate programs! If you'd like to mentor, the interest form is still open. The deadline has not opened for mentees, so stay tuned for future program updates! I've been involved with this organization for years and will be serving as a mentor for a few preparatory sessions later this November.
Queer in AI also launched their Graduate School Application Program last year. If you have the means, please donate to their Grad App Fund.
- CS Rankings (My favorite resource for finding top CS programs!)
- US News
- CS/HCI PhD Opportunities (2021) A great resource for finding open lab positions!
- Computing Research Association Widening Participation (CRA-WP) CS Graduate School Resource Page
- Brown University - Helpful Resources For Applying To Computer Science PhD Programs
Check out my extensive repository on fellowships and scholarships for graduate students in Computer Science and related fields!
- Writing a Research Statement for Graduate School and Fellowships
- CS PhD Statements of Purpose
- Personal Statements by Christopher W. Fletcher
- Personal Statements by Jing Yu Koh
- UT Austin - Preparing for Graduate School
- A Princeton CS Major's Guide to Applying to Graduate School
- Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science by Mor Harchol-Balter
- Grad School Resources by Kalpesh Krishna
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
