students and professor sitting outside of the science and engineering hall

Prospective Graduate Students

Whether you are new to computer science and want to learn more about its applications in order to progress in your career, or you want to study for a master’s degree or pursue a particular research question at the doctoral level, we have a program to help you achieve your goals.

Master of Science programs

“I'm a thirty-something software developer who left a DC-area startup to pursue my graduate education in computer science at GW. Being able to follow my intellectual passions while being mentored by supportive faculty has helped me kick imposter syndrome and pivot my career from applications development towards low-level systems programming. I'm currently researching the server-side applications of WebAssembly and I collaborate with a merry band of systems researchers on our custom LLVM frontend and edge serverless runtime.” -- Sean McBride, M.S. 2021

"During my time at GW, I’ve been able to figure out my career path. I have participated in research at the GW Usable Security and Privacy Lab, worked as a Resident Advisor, and was able to intern at a consulting firm here in Washington, D.C. I am beyond grateful that I was surrounded by like-minded and supportive people. At GW, I’ve been presented with a lot of opportunities that I wouldn't have been able to find anywhere else. As a co-president of the Women in Cybersecurity Chapter at GW, I hope more women will join our community." -- Darika Shaibekova, B.S. 2021, Current M.S. Student

"While earning my master’s degree in computer science at GW, I enrolled in a mobile development course and obtained project-based experience that helped kick-start my career in app development. I've now been building apps for over a decade and currently lead mobile teams in building out a Top 10 finance app on the App Store and Google Play!" -- Jared Alexander, M.S. 2013

Doctoral programs

“My research focuses on human factors in security. Under the direction of Dr. Adam Aviv, I investigate how understudied populations use or misuse security tools in order to design better solutions for them. It is exciting to conduct this research in the heart of Washington, DC, which has a diverse and multicultural nature.” -- Collins Munyendo, current PhD student

"Doing my Ph.D. at GW provided me opportunities to work on cutting-edge network research problems, publish at prestigious conferences, and intern at world-class research labs. These opportunities together shaped my vision for future software-based networks and prepared me to continue tackling research challenges to fully achieve this vision as a professor."-- Dr. Guyue (Grace) Liu, PhD 2019, Assistant Professor, NYU Shanghai

drawing of the science and engineering hall

Learn more about our degree programs