Applying to Computer Science PhD programs in the US

1. PhD Demystify: A book for Prospective PhD Students in CS

This handbook offers an insider’s guide to navigating the PhD admission process in Computer Science at U.S. institutions. It explains how PhD admission works from an insider perspective. It aims to motivate students—both from abroad and from less well-known institutions—to pursue PhD programs in CS at U.S. universities.

• PDF: https://roars.dev/phd-cs-us/demystify.pdf
• Amazon: Kindle
• For discussion and questions, open a new Github issue https://github.com/dynaroars/phd-cs-us/issues

2. Links for Prospective Students

1. Applying to PhD Programs in Computer Science by Mor Harchol-Balter

2. Getting a Computer Science PhD in the USA by Shriram Krishnamurthi

3. Blog post on PhD Admission by Philip Guo

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

5. HOWTO: Get into grad school for science, engineering, math and computer science by Matt Might

6. Grad School Resources by Kalpesh Krishna

7. Ph.D. Applications: FAQ by Noah Smith

8. Awesome CS PhD application advice by Jed Yang

9. Undergrad to PhD, or not - advice for undergrads interested in research by John Hewitt

10. Quora answer on the admission committee process by Scott Fahlman

11. Reflecting on CS Graduate Admissions by David Anderson

12. The PhD in CS: Getting There and Being Successful (Youtube) by Michael Hilton, Janet Davis, and Ian Ludden

13. Applying for a PhD in NLP by Zhijing Jin and ACL Year-Round Mentorship Session

14. Demystifying ML PhD Admissions to US Universities by Hima Lakkaraju

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1. Student Perspectives on Applying to NLP PhD Programs by Akari Asai, John Hewitt, Sidd Karamcheti, Kalpesh Krishna, Nelson Liu, Roma Patel, and Nicholas Tomlin

2. Machine Learning PhD Applications — Everything You Need to Know by Tim Dettmers

2.1. Letters of Recommendation (LOR)

1. Advice for Requesting Letters of Recommendation - Goldhaber-Gordon Group, Stanford University
2. Advice to Graduate School Recommendation Letter Writers - Brown University
3. HOWTO: How to get a great LOR - Matt Might

2.2. Statement of purpose (SOP)

1. Database of Example PhD SOPs by the CS-SOP initiative

2. Some Suggestions on writing your statement of purpose by Jennifer Mankoff

3. Graduate School Personal Statements by Christopher Fletcher

4. Inside PhD admissions: What readers look for in a Statement of Purpose by Nathan Schneider

5. How to Write a Bad Statement by Andy Pavlo

6. Tips and Tricks, How-To Guide for Grad School SoPs by Erica Weng

7. Graduate School Statement of Purpose by MIT EECS

8. How to write personal statement for graduate school application by Stanley Chan

9. Writing a Google AI Residency Cover Letter by Katherine Lee and Ben Eysenbach

10. Public examples: [Cody Coleman], [Sai Rallabandi], [Jeremy Lacomis], [Sean Kross], [Zahid Hossain], [Jean Yang]

2.4. Funding (TA, RA, Fellowships)

• Computer Science Awards, Scholarships, & Fellowships - GitHub by Chinasa T. Okolo

2.4.1. Fellowships

1. Tips for the NSF GRFP Application by Danielle Perry

2. NSF GRFP Advice by Christine Liu

3. NSF Fellowship by Alex Lang

4. NDSEG Fellowship Experience (Youtube)

5. Tips by Tara Safavi

6. Public examples: [Extensive NSF collection by Alex Lang], [Victoria Dean (NSF personal)], [Victoria Dean (NSF research)], [Tara Safavi (NSF)], [Paul Liang (Facebook)], [Devendra Chaplot (Facebook)], [Sai Rallabandi (Facebook)]

2.5. Choosing Advisor and School

1. Questions to Ask a Prospective Ph.D. Advisor on Visit Day, With Thorough and Forthright Explanations by Andrew Kuznetsov

2. How to Choose Your Grad School by Tim Dettmers

3. How to Pick a Graduate Advisor by Ben Barres

4. The Definitive ‘what do I ask/look for’ in a PhD Advisor Guide by Columbia CS

2.6. Contacting / Cold-Emailing Professors

1. Advice on Contacting Faculty for Prospective Research Students by Dave Evan