Graduate Admissions

Application Procedures

How to Apply

We require that you submit your application online. If you need to submit additional materials by mail, send them to the appropriate address below. (International applicants should submit materials to these addresses, not to the Office of International Admissions.)

Computer Science Degrees
Graduate Admissions
Computer Science Program
Indiana University
150 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405-7104
United States of America

Informatics Degrees
Indiana University
Informatics Graduate Programs
Graduate Studies Office
901 E. 10th Street, Room 233
Bloomington, IN 47408
United States of America

What We’re Looking For

We want to know if your interests and abilities match the program you’re applying for and if you seem likely to benefit from an education in the school. If you think it’s helpful, you can supplement the required application materials with other information that sheds light on your capabilities. A resume or curriculum vitae is ideal for including citations or links to any published work, hardware artifacts, or software artifacts you have produced.

Items that are important in the evaluation process include:

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

We do not require a bachelor’s degree in computer science, informatics, or a related field, but we are looking for background in key areas. For example, for computer science degrees, you should have had courses in data structures, machine organization and assembly language, and discrete structures.

LETTERS OF REFERENCE

Except in special cases, references should be from academic faculty, including at least some in informatics and computing. We ask for three letters but you may submit more. If you have experience as a teaching assistant, a letter from your teaching supervisor attesting to your teaching abilities could help your application for aid.

GRE SCORES

We require GRE scores for all applicants and cannot process your application until we receive them. We do not have cut-offs for GRE scores, preferring instead to use the full information available in your application to evaluate. IU’s institution code for reporting your GRE scores is 1324, and the department code is 0402 for computer science degrees, 0404 for informatics degrees.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The most important information to include in your statement of purpose concerns your academic goals. Tell us which research areas you are interested in and which Indiana University faculty you would like to work with. You may also use your statement of purpose to explain any anomalies in your record.

TRANSCRIPTS

You must submit a transcript from each previous undergraduate or graduate institution other than Indiana University that you have attended. We’re most interested in the grades you received in courses that are relevant to our graduate programs.

Computer Science Applicants

Applicants to the computer science programs must complete a supplemental form.

International Applicants

If you are not a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, you must submit the following with your application for admission:

  1. Financial documentation proving that you have the resources to support yourself and any dependents during your first year of study here. Download IU’s financial documentation form (PDF) and submit it with your application. Your admission cannot be finalized, and your immigration document cannot be issued, without this information.

  2. Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or IELTS scores. All applicants who are not native speakers of English or who did not receive an undergraduate or graduate degree from a university in the United States must submit these scores. IU’s institution code for reporting TOEFL scores is 1324, and the department code is 78 for computer science degrees and 99 for informatics degrees. We normally expect a minimum TOEFL score of 100 on the Internet-based test, 250 on the computer-based test, or approximately 600 on the paper-based test, or a score of 6.5 on the IELTS. We may make exceptions when there is other evidence of English ability.

Don’t worry if some of your materials, such as your GRE scores or a recommendation letter, have not reached us by the international priority deadline below. We encourage you to get them in as soon as possible, though.

Master’s Students Interested in a Ph.D. Program

When applying to one of our Ph.D. programs, current School of Informatics and Computing master’s students should contact Graduate Student Services for application procedures. Applicants must fill out the online application for the Ph.D. degree, but other procedures are different. You can reach us by e-mail at graduate@soic.indiana.edu.

Recent Applicants

If you applied here in the last two years and are applying again, contact us for instructions.

Deadlines

FALL SEMESTER

Priority Deadline for Admission and Financial Aid

  • International students: December 1
  • Domestic students: January 15

Deadline for Admission without Aid

  • International students: March 15
  • Domestic students: June 15

 SPRING SEMESTER

The Master of Science in Computer Science and Master of Science in Security Informatics programs accept applications for the spring semester. The deadline for spring admission to these programs is October 1 for all applicants (international and domestic students).

Admission Status and Notification

We evaluate applications for fall semester after the January 15 priority deadline for domestic applications. We’ll let you know as soon as we’ve reached a decision, typically by March 15. You can also check your admission status online by creating a OneStart account.

Occasionally students who are not admitted contact us for an explanation. Unfortunately, we receive several hundred applications per year, and we don’t have the staff to explain admissions decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Dual Master's Program

Students who are concurrently enrolled in two schools may qualify for two master's degrees under a provision that allows credit earned to satisfy the major requirements of one program to count as elective credit in a second program. Any area of substantial overlap in the two courses of study will be negotiated by the graduate advisor. A student must be formally admitted by both programs. All requirements for both degrees must be met. All course work must be completed within a period of six years.



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