Admission, Funding, and Housing

Most of the information you need is on the Stevens Graduate School web page. There you will find much information as well as the application forms for admission, funding, and housing. American students can apply via the Web. International students must download the forms and mail them in.

Admission

Please note that the Computer Science department has more stringent application requirements than most of the other departments at Stevens. In particular:

You should apply by February 1 if you plan to start in the Fall semester. The reason for the early deadline is to give the department time to match incoming students with funding opportunities. If you apply after the deadline you may still be accepted, but the chances of both admission and funding go down the longer you delay. Also, subsidized housing is in high demand, and your chances are better the sooner you apply for housing.
You must take the GRE Computer Science subject test. If you will be taking the test on paper rather than by computer, it is preferable to take the test on Nov 4, 2000. Dec 9, 2000 is also acceptable but November is preferred.
It is not a requirement but my personal recommendation that you supply at least three letters of recommendation rather than only two. The best letters are written by persons with whom you have worked and who really know you rather than, for example, a professor who can write no more than ``this person got the highest grade in my class but I don't really know him/her.'' I know that getting more good letters is difficult but, frankly, if you cannot find three people who can describe why are an outstanding student, are you really qualified for doctoral study?
Stevens lists 550 is the minimum TOEFL score for successful admission to the Computer Science PhD program. Note that this is the minimum score, below which admission will not be considered. It is highly desirable to have a score far above 550.

Stevens-Funded Assistantships

Funding is awarded by the department to the most highly qualified students. Both teaching assistantships (TAs) and research assistantships (RAs) are available for full time students. A TA's duties are to assist in the teaching of courses, usually by grading assignments and/or teaching a small recitation section. A research assistant's duties are to assist a faculty member with his/her research. An RA position is preferable because the research the student performs is typically preparation for or directly relevant to the student's PhD dissertation topic. An assistantship pays the student's tuition and fees, and also yields a stipend. For the 2000-01 school year, the stipend is $12,000 for students whose highest degree is a BA or BS, $13,000 for students with an MA or MS, and $14,000 for students who have 30 or more graduate credits and have completed the PhD qualifying exam. Summer support, typicall at a much higher stipend level, may also be available.

Externally-Funded Fellowships

All of these fellowship programs are highly competitive, and most are limited to US citizens. However, obtaining such a fellowship will make your graduate career easier. A concise comparison of most major graduate fellowship programs is available here. Several well known fellowship programs, arranged by deadline, are:

Fannie & John Hertz Foundation Fellowships, available to citizens and permanent residents. Deadline: Nov 3, 2000. Recipients of this fellowship will be allowed to attend Stevens only through successful special petition.
National Physical Science Consortium Graduate Fellowships in Physical Sciences (NPSC), available to female and/or minority citizens. Deadline: Nov 5, 2000.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships (NSF), available to citizens, nationals, and permanent residents. Deadline: Nov 7, 2000.
Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, available to resident aliens, naturalized citizens, and children of two naturalized citizens. Deadline: Nov 30, 2000.
Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships, available to citizens who are members of certain races. Deadline: Nov 10, 2000.
National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships (NDSEG), available to citizens and nationals. Deadline: Jan 17, 2001.

I'm not sure these continue to exist: IBM, AT&T, Office of Naval Research (ONR), Air Force. The latter two programs may have been subsumed by NDSEG.

Housing

Many consider Hoboken a highly desirable place to live. Accordingly, apartments are in demand and are very expensive. Those who prefer to live off campus should search for apartments in the nearby towns of Jersey City and Bayonne. Affordable public transportation is available between Hoboken and these towns. There are many apartment search sites on the Web, such as vacancynet.com.

Stevens maintains three graduate dormitories, renting rooms at far below the market rate. For the current school year (2000-01), per-semester rates vary from $1515 to $2899, depending on the dormitory and whether one or two persons occupy the room. You should expect rates for the 2001-02 school year to be a few percent higher. This subsidized housing is in high demand, so contact the Office of Residence Life for a description of the housing alternatives and a housing application as soon as possible. Their address is:

Stevens Institute of Technology
Office of Residence Life
Castle Point on Hudson
Hoboken, NJ 07030
201-216-5128
Fax: 201-216-8324

Further information may be obtained by email to either the general Graduate School address, thegradschool@stevens-tech.edu or the Assistant Director of Residence Life, Mr. Douglas James.