Graduate

Please e-mail all your financial support documents and the bio-page of your passport in one e-mail to iao@sa.utah.edu. (Hard copies will not be needed.)
Your application will be considered for financial aid if you select this in the application, however, all students not funded will need to provide these financial documents, and to avoid delays in issuing visas, it’s advisable to have these documents in place early.

• A financial statement showing a minimum. The funds should be liquid (available within very short notice), and the account must have been in the applicant’s name (or in the support person’s name who is signing the affidavit of support) for at least six months. Do take currency fluctuations into account. (Costs are subject to change.) Read an estimate of Graduate expenses. The financial documents can only be six months old by the time of the I-20 issuance.
• A signed statement from any sponsor providing financial support for the student, declaring the sponsor’s intent to financially support the student for an entire year of tuition and living expenses. Download the Affidavit. Applicants being sponsored by their embassy, government, or educational agency need only submit a letter of sponsorship from the appropriate authority.
• Upload a copy of the bio-pages of a current passport into the application system under “International.” We highly encourage all students to upload copies at the time of applying to avoid delays in processing.
• Students currently on an I-20 from another U.S. school will need to complete a transfer form, which will be mailed to the student after acceptance.

I-20s will be issued after completion of document verification, including financial support documents, for authenticity by the International Admissions office. Meaning, your I-20 may not be issued until after you have received your official acceptance into the University of Utah by the Office of Admissions.

Parts of the verification process take place after that you notify us that you accept our offer. Your patience is appreciated as the time that it takes to evaluate all docs, and the issuing of the I-20, varies from applicant to applicant. Following the instructions in these points will speed up the process.

• Surname on Passport – Ensure that your passport accurately reflects your name. If you don’t have a surname, or given name, be aware that the SEVIS system requires a family name/surname, so please address this issue early. If you posses a passport without a surname your I-20 will be issued with your given name(s) listed as your surname. The first name field on the I-20 will be entered as FNU (First Name Unknown). An alternative is to contact your government’s passport agency to see if it is possible to apply for a name correction/adjustment to your passport by means of adding an addendum or possibly by re-issuing your passport.
• Name(s) Must Match – The name on the Affidavit of Support needs to exactly match the name on the bank statements, and please note that the affidavit must be completely filled out. So, whomever is on the bank statement has to sign the affidavit of support. If there are two people on the bank statement, or different bank statements are needed with different names, then a separate affidavit of support is needed for each supporter’s name.
• Support Documents – Financial support documents should be no older than 6 months old. These documents should include funds that can be made available at a moments notice at the time of the I-20 issuance.
• Account for Currency Fluctuations – Please make sure that you have enough money available in your accounts as the currency conversion rate can go down and affect your account balance at the time of I-20 issuance. Extra funds in the account provide a margin against potential fluctuations or additional financial docs may be needed before I-20 can be issued.
• Submit What’s Needed & No More – Only submit support documents that are requested. Note that the more documents you submit for financial support, the more time it takes to verify them.
• E-mail Financial Documents to – Please e-mail all your financial support documents and the bio-page of your passport in one e-mail to iao@sa.utah.edu. Hard copies will not be needed.
• Check Your E-mail – Actively check your e-mails so you can find out if we need additional information from you.

Mailing Options for I-20 and Acceptance Letter

Most PhD students are paid for doing research for most of their academic career.

As an RA, TA or Graduate Assistant, in 2026/2027 you will receive $ 13,791 per term for the fall and the spring term. If you continue to do research over the summer (as an RA), you will be paid between $ 9,174 and $ 18,348 for the summer term – these numbers can vary based on the hours you are employed for at your advisor’s discretion. There are typically no teaching opportunities over the summer. Hence, you can expect a yearly income of between $ 36,696 and $ 45,870. Also note that many students choose to do industry internships over the summers.

Tax rates in the US and in Utah are relatively low by international standards. If you are filing taxes as an individual, you can expect a take home pay of about $ 34-36k on a salary of about $ 43k.

If you are paid by the school for the spring and fall terms you will also receive a health insurance benefit covered at 100% (including the summer).

Students who are financially supported by the Kahlert School of Computing are eligible for a tuition waiver called Tuition Benefit.

The Tuition Benefit covers your full tuition & many fees, which can be as much as $32k per year, assuming 12 credits per semester at the non-resident rate, if you receive a gradate assistantship, work as a teaching assistant, or a research assistant.

However, TAs will be responsible for differential tuition (a specific college charge, which is roughly $100 per credit for College of Engineering courses).

All international students have to pay the international student fee ($150 per semester).

If you do not get a tuition waiver, then you must pay tuition & all your fees:

• Utah Residents
• International Graduate Students and Non-Residents

The University of Utah campus is just next to downtown; public transportation is readily available and the cost of living is low comparable to most cities.

Cost of Attendance Information: 

The Cost of Attendance (COA) is an estimate of school-related expenses the student can expect to have for the academic year, or semester of enrollment. Check the estimated Academic Year Cost of Attendance.

Housing Information:

There are lots of options for housing at the U!  Would you like to live on campus or off campus? Are you interested in themed communities? Would you prefer a meal plan or a kitchen to do your own cooking? The U’s on-campus housing includes several special living options designed to bring students with similar interests, majors, goals, and experiences together. We develop a sense of belonging, provide opportunities for personal growth, and foster a safe and supportive environment. Our team aims to make the University of Utah feel like home.

Visit the following page for more information on housing options: https://www.housing.utah.edu/.

Optional for Masters and Ph.D. Applicants: If available and provided, it will be taken into consideration for the admission decision.

Arrange for ETS to send your most recent scores to the University of Utah, school code 4853, department code 0402.

Please follow instructions provided by the University of Utah International Admissions Office here.

1-3 single spaced pages. This is your chance to explain to the Kahlert School of Computing’s graduate admissions committee your experience in computer science/coding, your interests specific to the Kahlert School of Computing, and/or your goals.

We encourage you to include links to any digital research papers, publications, or awards. This is your chance to highlight all of your accomplishments, skills, and goals.

Letters from professors are preferred. Letters from employers are valuable as well, however, consider making an employer’s letter as a fourth LoR.

All letters of recommendation (LoR) must be uploaded electronically in the online application system by the recommender. We encourage you to “waive the right” to see your letters as most evaluators consider confidential letters more valuable.

Additional details on this are in the online application system.

Most recent CV or resume.

Please upload these as a link in your Statement of Purpose in the on-line application system.

International students must upload a copy of the bio-pages of a current passport. See International Applicants.

For domestic students, PhD $0 after waiver ( Please contact grad-admission@cs.utah.edu before submitting your application to take advantage of the waiver), MS $55

For international students, PhD $65, MS $65

A late fee of $30 will be charged to any applicant that applies after the Office of Admissions deadline.

The application fee is not waived under any circumstances. The fee can be paid through the on-line application system, or paid by check made out to the University of Utah, with your assigned id number from the application.

Note: Evaluation of your application will begin only after the application fee is received and the December 15th deadline has past.

International students must submit financial support documents for – I-20 processing. See International Applicants.
Your application will be considered by our department even if no financial support docs have been submitted, however, it’s advisable that the support docs are sent in early so not to delay the I-20 processing.

The Kahlert School of Computing is not part of the I-20 process and is not the best resource for any I-20 questions.

You may apply if you have received a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university. Four years of study is required for most international university degrees (see below for potential exceptions). The Office of Admissions is the best resource if you have questions regarding accreditation of your university.

If you are currently finishing your degree, BS or MS, please note your status in your applications statement of purpose, and upload available transcripts to date into the application system. You can be admitted based on this information and official transcripts will be verified before the start of the semester. You must have a Bachelor’s degree before starting the graduate degree program.

The Kahlert School of Computing does not require students to have a computer science bachelor’s degree. However, students need to have significant coding and computer science experience in order to be admitted and succeed in our graduate programs (MS and PhD).

A minimum of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale is required for admission. If your GPA is not calculated on a 4.0 scale, please enter the number as stated on your transcript. The international admissions will calculate the equivalent GPA.*

Please follow instructions provided by the University of Utah International Admissions Office here.

When an applicant does not meet the university’s formal requirements but is nevertheless deemed qualified by the departmental admissions committee, the department can petition the university for a waiver of a requirement. Certain three-year degree programs, for example, offer solid preparation for graduate work in computing. The department will request a waiver only for clearly qualified applicants.

The University of Utah Graduate School will accept completed international three-year bachelor’s degrees that meet certain criteria.

The Deep Learning in AI and Robotics Certificate Program will provide working knowledge of the use of state-of-the-art deep learning technology as a graduate student certificate program. Deep learning allows the identification of objects in images, translating languages and driving cars autonomously. Deep Learning in AI and Robotics is rapidly gaining application across all industries due to the availability of adequate computing power (e.g., GPU’s and large data sets to train with. This is true from sensor data processing to database analytics to fraud detection in banks. Utah currently has a large number of unfilled well-paying jobs in this area. Student enrollment in the program is achieved as a stackable certificate on top of a regular graduate degree. Students with appropriate background may be allowed into the program as non-matriculated students. The successful award of the certificate in Deep Learning in AI and Robotics results from the completion of 15 student credit hours of work at the graduate level. This program provides education in this area to engineering and science graduate students beyond those with computing background. In addition, the certificate program requires a graduate internship project with program’s industry partners.

For more information, refer to the Program Information Brochure (PDF).

Admissions to the Graduate Certificate in Deep Learning in AI and Robotics

The Graduate Certificate in Deep Learning in AI and Robotics requires a capstone project. For some work with a local company see this page.

Ziad Al-Halah
Tom Henderson
Cathy Liu
Nikola Markovic
Shandian Zhe
Tolga Tasdizen
David Sacharny
Vivek Srikumar
Tucker Hermanns
Alan Kuntz

Data is impacting many areas of science, engineering, and industry; from analyzing troves of weather data to modeling traffic patterns to processing millions of online customers, it is the enormous data which is creating new opportunities and challenges. To tackle these challenges, one must have the training to store, manage, process and analyze data at these scales. But the challenges are beyond scale alone, the complexity of the data requires new powerful analytical techniques. Finally, it is crucial to have skills in communicating and interpreting the results of this analysis. A person trained in all of these skills is a data scientist.

Requirements (PDF)

Admissions to the Graduate Certificate in Data Science here.

Center for Extreme Data Management Analysis and Visualization (CEDMAV)

Utah Center for Data Science

Director: El Kindi Rezig

Other Faculty:

• Aditya Bhaskara
• Chris R. Johnson
• Mike Kirby
• Marina Kogan
• Alexander Lex
• Valerio Pascucci
• Bei Wang-Phillips
• Jeff M. Phillips
• Vivek Srikumar
• Blair Sullivan
• Shandian Zhe