Admission

Requirements

Applicants to the doctoral program in CISE must hold a Bachelor's degree from an institution accredited by a recognized accrediting agency in the United States. Degrees from foreign countries are evaluated by the UPRM Office of Graduate Studies.

Applicants are expected to have the equivalent to undergraduate courses in Data Structures, Programming Languages, Foundations of Computing and/or Discrete Mathematics, and Calculus III. Applicants interested in entering in the Scientific Computing concentration should have an undergraduate course in Linear Algebra, while applicants interested in performing research in digital systems implementations should have an undergraduate course in Digital Circuits. Applicants deficient in up to four of these courses may be accepted conditionally in the program. All deficiencies should be removed during the first year of studies.

The application process begins with the submission of an online application that could be accessed through the Graduate Studies Office portal (http://grad.uprm.edu/) In addition to the general requirements set by the UPRM Office of Graduate Studies, the doctoral program in CISE requires:

• A recent Graduate Examination Record (GRE) report;

• An essay addressing a subject of interest related to Computer Science and Engineering, Scientific Computing or Information Sciences. The essay should neither be a historical review nor an anecdotal relation of personal expectations. Instead it must be focused on the applicant's research interests, vision and expectations, and the relations between them and a main area in the doctoral program in CISE. It must also indicate how the applicant expects the program to fulfill her/his career and academic goals. It is strongly suggested to prospective applicants to contact faculty members of the program to learn more about potential projects of interest before writing the technical essay.

The doctoral program in CISE is a research training program. Thus, preference is given to applicants that fit into, or are likely to engage as early as possible in a currently active research project in CISE.

Admission Evaluation Process

All applications to the doctoral program in CISE are first reviewed by the UPRM Office of Graduate Studies, which determines whether the application is complete and the applicant meets the general criteria established for graduate studies at UPRM. Successful applications are submitted to the CISE Graduate Committee which, in turn, evaluates:

• The applicant's academic history and the appropriateness of her/his academic background;
• The degree of alignment between the applicant's interests and projects in a CISE research track with open assistantship positions.
• The quality and maturity of the applicant's technical essay;
• The quality of the letters supporting the application;
• The GRE scores;
• The potential of the applicant for succeeding in the program within a reasonable period of time.

The CISE Graduate Committee evaluates applications on a competitive basis, and emits recommendations to the Office of Graduate Studies. The Committee strives to allocate each applicant within a CISE research track with research openings. Thus, admission is strongly conditioned to the availability of such research opportunities.

The final decision on the application is communicated to the applicant directly from the UPRM Office of Graduate Studies. No applicant is officially accepted into the program until she/he receives a letter of acceptance from the Director of Graduate Studies of UPRM or an authorized representative.