Graduate Admissions: General Information

The Graduate Program in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers study toward the M.S. degree and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Sciences.

Most admitted students are offered financial aid, typically in the form of teaching assistantships. We also nominate our top applicants for University-sponsored fellowships. Further information about our degree programs, financial aid and admissions requirements is provided in our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about graduate admissions. When you are ready to apply, you can find detailed instructions in How to Apply for admission to the CS graduate program.

The department is consistently ranked as one of the top ten computer science departments in the United States. The UW-Madison also ranks as one of the top ten public universities in the country in terms of federal research funds, and has been listed among the top educational institutions overall since the early 1900's. The department has internationally recognized research programs in many areas, including Artificial Intelligence, Computational Biology, Computer Architecture, Computer Graphics, Computer Networks, Database Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Optimization, Numerical Analysis, Performance Analysis, Programming Languages and Compilers, Security, Systems, and Theory. A strength of our program is the wealth of opportunities to participate in collaborative multidisciplinary research. 

Madison also has a number of high-tech companies that are transforming the city into a local high-tech hub. These companies leverage the strength of our department and provide our students opportunities to intract with industry locally. Some of these companies include:

• High-tech giants establishing labs in Madison with close ties to our department. Microsoft recently opened The Jim Gray Systems Lab in Madison. Google recently established an enginineering office in Madison. 
• Local high-tech companies, like Epic Systems.
• Startups by our faculty and students, like Nemean Networks and NovaShield.
  

An important measure of an academic program is the success of its graduates. We take great pride in the achievements of our alumni. Many of our former Ph.D. students are now on the faculty at other top-tier computer science departments, including Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Duke University, Purdue University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Washington, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Texas at Austin. Other alumni are making important contributions at companies such as Cisco, Epic, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun. Still other graduates are at successful startup companies or teaching at small colleges. We believe the learning environment in the department is second to none, making this an unbeatable choice for continuing your education.

For more information about our department and graduate program, please consult:

• the department home page
  
• the opportunities and resources on our CS Graduate Program page
  
• a brochure about the department
• faculty awards and student awards 
• In addition, the CS Department Graduate Guidebook describes our courses and degree requirements in great detail. The Graduate School's summary statistics table provides a profile of the student composition of our graduate program and the types of financial support students receive. 

Contact Information

After reading the department web pages, further questions should be directed to: