Requirements for M.S. Program

The entrance requirement to the M.S. program of our department is a bachelor's degree in a systems-related area from an accredited college or university. This undergraduate preparation must include the following courses or their equivalents:

   Gifted students who have not satisfied these requirements may be admitted to the program on probation provided that the deficiencies are successfully made up (usually by Pass/Fail) by the end of the first semester in the program. Such students might require more than the usual amount of time necessary to satisfy the degree requirements.    

   Admission is on a competitive basis, with GRE (Graduate Record Examination) scores, undergraduate records, and recommendations used to determine those students who are accepted into the program. Financial aid is also available on a limited, competitive basis.

Requirements for Ph.D. Program

Regular admission to the Ph.D. program requires a sound computer science background, a satisfactory grade point average (usually at least 3.0), a satisfactory performance on the Graduate Record Examinations (usually at least 700 on quantitative and 1250 combined verbal-quantitative), demonstrated proficiency in English for foreign students residing outside the United States (see TOEFL information below), strong recommendations and a proven research track record (which may override minimum score requirements). There are also provisions for minority recruiting.

   The applicant's computer science background should include programming in some high level language, and assembler, plus data structures, operating systems and program languages.

   Consideration will be given to applicants who fail to meet one or more of these requirements but show outstanding promise in other ways.

   Foreign students residing outside the U.S.A. should furnish their TOEFL scores. TOEFL is an essential part of the foreign students' application and must be taken and satisfactorily passed prior to being considered eligible for admission to graduate school in Computer Science. In order to be acceptable, a TOEFL score must be in general at least 550 on the Paper Based Test (600 to be considered for a graduate assistantship). Equivalent scores for the Computer Based Test and Internet Based Test are as follows: 550=213=79 and 600=250=100 (more information can be found here).

An applicant to the graduate program in CSC department is required to apply online. Please click here to access the online application.

A sealed official transcript from each college and university attended should be sent to:

Louisiana State University
Graduate School Admissions Office
114 West David Boyd Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

The following documents must be uploaded into the application at the link above:

Deadline for admission to the Fall semester: February 1

Deadline for admission to the Spring semester: October 15

Financial Aid for Graduate Students

Students who have been admitted will automatically be considered for financial assistance. No additional application form is required for consideration for financial aid. Assistantships are offered generally in Fall of every year. All financial assistance is awarded on an annual basis and no award implies automatic renewal from year to year.

Deadline, for financial aid consideration (for Fall): February 1

Deadline, for financial aid consideration (for Spring): October 15