Admission Requirements

Doctoral students in information technology are selected on the basis of scholarship and potential from among applicants with appropriate degrees from institutions of high standing. Generally, a master's degree in an information technology-related area, such as engineering, computer science, operations research, statistics, mathematics, physical sciences, economics, and psychology, is required for admission to the program.

In addition, well-qualified students without an appropriate master's degree may apply directly to the Ph.D. program. Such students will have to complete the equivalent of an appropriate GMU master's degree as part of their program of study. In some cases it may be possible to obtain transfer credit for graduate course work taken elsewhere, subject to meeting the requirements for transfer credit imposed by the University. (The catalog description here assumes that a student has already received an appropriate master's degree.)

The admission process involves submitting the application for admission, undergraduate and graduate transcripts from previous colleges and universities attended, GRE test results, three letters of reference, a resume and a short statement of career goals and aspirations, and a self-assessment of past background. Translations of international credentials must be provided, if they are not in English; in some cases, applicants will be required to have documents evaluated by an external agency. All of an applicant's background is examined before an admission decision is made.

To ensure a common ground of fundamentals, students should have a background in topics such as calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, discrete structures, probability, and statistics. In addition, students entering the doctoral program in information technology must have a sound working knowledge in computing as demonstrated by examples of programs or applications developed and tested in at least one high-level programming language environment. Because much of the course work within this program requires computational proficiency, experience with a variety of languages and computer hardware is useful, as is an understanding of computer architecture. Highly qualified students who do not present evidence of appropriate course work for the program may be admitted and then required to take appropriate articulation courses.