Admission Requirements and Process

MSU students The application for admission, application fee, and all the required supporting documents should be received at least two months prior to your desired semester of enrollment (see the deadlines below).

All outstanding applicants are automatically considered for graduate assistantships (teaching and research), and fellowships.

Institution and Program Codes

Applicants with Fellowships/Scholarships

If you have an external fellowship or scholarship of some kind, please email graddir@cse.msu.edu with information about your fellowship/scholarship including

Application Materials

A complete application consists of the following:

  1. MSU Graduate Application: Please complete the on-line Application for Graduate Studies. You will be required to pay an application fee. Complete the MSU Graduate Application before you fill out the Engineering Supplemental Application.
    • Personal Statements: This application requires 2 personal statements. In this application, you should just enter "Full statement completed on Engineering Supplemental Application".
    • Letters of recommendation: Your letters of recommendation will be collected in the Engineering Supplemental Application (GIMS). Just fill out enough information here to allow you to submit this application.
    •  Current MSU graduate students do not need to fill out this MSU Graduate Application and should start with the next step, the Engineering Supplemental Application.
    • Save your MSU applicant number.

  2. Engineering Supplemental Application: Please complete the on-line Engineering Supplemental Application, which is found on the College of Engineering Graduate Information Management System (GIMS). You may need to wait at least 48 hours after completing step 1 before you will be able to complete step 2 (for those that need to complete step 1 first). You will need the MSU applicant number provided in step 1. Be sure to select a program with Computer Science in the title.
  • Enter your academic and personal statements in GIMS. Ideally you should upload PDF documents. Note that GIMS will copy over your very brief personal and academic statements from your official MSU Graduate Application. Just replace these with your full statements within GIMS using the appropriate upload button.
  • Enter your reference information in GIMS
    • You need 3 letters of reference.
    • Ideally, at least two letters should be from college faculty who know you well.
    • GIMS will provide your references with information on how to submit their letters electronically.
    • Although electronic submission is the standard method for providing reference letters and is strongly preferred, a hard copy may be submitted to the address below if a reference is unable to submit the letter online.
  • Upload a resume/CV in GIMS
  • GIMS allows you to inquire about the status of your application at any time.

Note: We no longer process paper applications. In filling out the two on-line applications listed above, it is imperative you provide a correct and working email address. Almost all of our correspondence is conducted via email.

Additional application materials:

  1. Two official transcripts of all college work (undergraduate and graduate). Applicants should have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale. Transcripts must be sent directly from the university in sealed envelopes.

  2. TOEFL scores (for international applicants whose native language is not English). Applicants must take the internet-based test, not the paper-based test, unless there is extreme difficulty in doing so. If you request a waiver of the internet-based test, send email requesting this waiver to graddir@cse.msu.edu. If you wish to be considered for a teaching assistantship, you are strongly encouraged to take the test. The minimum required TOEFL score for regular admission is a total score of 80. Furthermore, the writing subscore must be at least 22, and the reading, listening, and speaking subscores must be at least 19. MSU does accept the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test score. The minimum required IELTS score for regular admission is an average score of 6.5.

  3. GRE General Test. Given the new GRE scoring scale, we cannot provide accurate guidance on minimum or typical required GRE scores. Using the old scoring scale, our typical median GRE verbal score was 520 and our typical median GRE quantitative score was 770.

  4. Samples of published papers or course project reports (optional). Ph.D. applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a non-returnable sample of their technical papers (in English).

Admission decisions are based on your overall record including grades, academic background, research experience and previous publications, test scores (GRE, TOEFL), letters of recommendation, work experience, and other information. Weaknesses in one area (e.g. test scores) may be compensated by strengths in another area (grades or previous research experience). 


All additional application materials mentioned above (i.e. transcripts, test scores, writing samples) should be sent to:

Graduate Admission Processing
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
3115 Engineering Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-0590
U.S.A.

Application Deadlines

SPRING September 15th - Application acceptance closing date
FALL

December 31 -Final date for which applications submitted by U.S. citizens and Permanent Residents are guaranteed full consideration for university fellowships.

January 15 - Application acceptance closing date (full consideration)


Incomplete applications will NOT be reviewed.

Note: We may accept complete applications after these deadlines, but there is no guarantee a late application will be processed.

Decision Dates

The Graduate Information Management System (GIMS) allows you to inquire about the status of your application at any time. For fall semester admission, admission offers will be sent out by the end of March. For spring semester admission, offers will be sent out by the end of October.

Requirements for Graduate Program Applicants Without a Degree in Computer Science

The breadth of academic programs at Michigan State University involving computing and information is rapidly expanding to include a variety of interdisciplinary areas and emerging fields. As a result, the Department encourages students to apply to the graduate program even if they do not have a B.S. or M.S. degree in computer science.

Naturally, to be successful in a Computer Science graduate degree program, an appropriate background level must be achieved. The following requirements indicate what background is needed before your application to our graduate programs will be seriously considered.

  1. Courses in mathematics including calculus. Some areas may also require linear (matrix) algebra as well as probability and statistics.
  2. A course in discrete mathematics and discrete structures (CSE 260)
  3. A course in computer organization and architecture (CSE 320)
  4. Courses in data structures and algorithms, object-oriented programming and software design (CSE 331 and CSE 335).

Prior to applying to MSU, you must satisfy the above requirements. If you are missing background in one or more areas, you must take the relevant coursework (at MSU or elsewhere) prior to submitting an application.


Course: CSE 260 Discrete Structures in Computer Science
Prerequisite:(MTH 133 or MTH 126 or MTH 153H or LBS 119)
Description:Propositional and first order logic. Equivalence and methods of proof. Basics of counting. Set operations, relations, functions. Grammars and finite state automata. Discrete probability. Applications to computer science and engineering.

Course: CSE 320 Computer Organization and Architecture
Prerequisite:(CSE 232 and CSE 260)
Description:Boolean algebra and digital logic. Combinational and sequential circuits. Representations of data and instructions. Architecture and major components of computer systems. Assembly language programming and interfacing to high level languages. Assembler and linker processing.

Course: CSE 331 Algorithms and Data Structures
Prerequisite:(CSE 232 and CSE 260)
Description:Linear data structures, trees, graphs and algorithms which operate on them. Fundamental algorithms for searching, sorting, string matching, graph problems. Design and analysis of algorithms.

Course: CSE 335 Object-oriented Software Design
Prerequisite:(CSE 232 and CSE 260)
Description:Development of large software products, libraries, and product families. Object-oriented programming using inheritance and polymorphism. Design methods. Specification and the use of contracts to design reliable software. Configuration management and life-cycle issues.