Overview
The University of Texas, founded in 1883, is one of the largest universities in the country, with an enrollment of more than 51,000 on the Austin campus alone. There are other branches of the University in Houston, Galveston, San Antonio, and Dallas.

The graduate program in computer sciences was initiated in 1966. The undergraduate program was started in 1974 and has grown to include more than 1,200 computer sciences majors.

There are 245 graduate students in computer sciences; more than half of them are pursuing a Ph.D. degree. The department confers an average of fifty master's degrees and fifteen Ph.D. degrees annually.

The Location and Community
Austin, a metropolitan area of more than 656,000 people, is set in the scenic Hill Country of central Texas. The Colorado River, which flows through the city, has been dammed to form the chain of Highland Lakes, which provide opportunities for swimming, boating, and fishing. There are many fine parks and playgrounds. Austin also has five theater groups, several ballet troupes, an excellent symphony orchestra, and about fifty art galleries and is known as the "live music capital of the world."

Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
The Department of Computer Sciences offers programs leading to the M.S.C.S., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. Programs provide students with a broad education in the various areas of computer sciences and allow specialization through a thesis. The master's program with thesis requires 30 semester hours of course work. The M.S.C.S. is a nonthesis option and requires 36 hours of course work. The Ph.D. requires 18 semester hours of general course work and about 15 more in the area of specialization. This is followed by a written and oral presentation (based on the student's preliminary dissertation proposal) and by a dissertation.

Facilities & Resources
Many different computer systems are available for research use by faculty members and graduate students in the department. Machines available for parallel processing research include two 14-processor Sun Enterprise 5500s and a four processor IBM F50, as well as numerous dual and quad processor Suns and Linux boxes. The department has several research clusters, including an eight-node computational biology cluster, an eight-node cluster dedicated to research in natural language, and a 280-node Linux cluster received on several matching grants from IBM and NSF. These clusters, as well as all public computing resources, are available to everyone via Condor, a resource management tool for widely distributed systems. The department has an immersive theater and video wall for graphics and visualization research. More than 100 Pentium-based machines, including twenty dual- processor Xeons as well as dual- and quad-processor servers, have been donated by Intel for multimedia research. In addition, there are 100 Linux boxes, donated by Compaq, on graduate desks. All departmental computers are networked together using gig or 100 bps Ethernet. Network servers include a research-dedicated NetApps 820 with 2 terabytes of storage, a NetApps F845 with 6 TB of RAID disk that is used for home directory service, and a NetApps FAS 940 filer that is used as a checkpoint server for the large cluster as well as many other file servers, print servers, and communications servers.

The department continues to expand these existing departmental computing facilities, both through donations of equipment from manufacturers and through funds provided by the University.

Expenses and Aid
In 2004-05, tuition and fees for 9 credit hours were approximately $2500 per semester for Texas residents and $4900 per semester for nonresidents.

Financial Aid:
The Doctoral Fellows program guarantees a minimum stipend of $1592 per month for four years. This support consists of a fellowship the first year and either a teaching or a research assistantship during the second, third, and fourth years. Tuition and required fees are covered during the fellowship period. After the fourth year, students can be supported by their supervising professor or through a teaching assistantship.

The department also employs students as research and teaching assistants at a minimum starting salary of $1500 per month. The computation center has opportunities for qualified students as systems programmers and consultants, and local industries such as IBM, TI, Schlumberger, and Motorola employ students on a part-time basis. Low-interest loans are also available.

Housing/Living Expenses:
The cost of a dormitory room averages $6184 for nine months (including board). University housing for married students ranges in cost from $440 to $651 per month. Private housing is available in all price ranges.

How to Apply
The department deadline for fall applications is January 2. Applications are accepted for the spring semester, and the deadline for spring admission is September 1 for all applicants. The GRE General Test and Subject Test in computer science are required of all applicants. International applicants are strongly urged to take the TOEFL. Admission standards are high. An average student admitted to the Ph.D. program has a bachelor's degree in computer science, at least a 3.5 GPA, a combined verbal and quantitative GRE score of at least 1400, and an average score of 85 percent on the computer science Subject Test.

Applications are available electronically through the Graduate and International Admissions Center's (GIAC) Web page, which is accessible through the department's Web page. Applicants are strongly urged to read the departmental Web site carefully before proceeding with the application process.

Students who do not have Web access many contact the department by phone for information and the paper application. Students should specify the type of application they need (U.S. or international).

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