Deadline & Decision Information

The online Ph.D. application is available through the Graduate School starting September 1. The Information Science Ph.D. application deadline is December 1 for consideration for the fall term. We do not consider applications for the spring term. 

No application materials will be accepted, and no submitted applications will be updated after the deadline.

Students should expect to hear, via email, of the decision on their application no later than mid-February. 

Apply

Requirements

To apply to the Information Science Ph.D. program, you must complete the online application through the Graduate School. No preadmission application is required. To complete the online application, you will need the following materials - including letters of recommendation - submitted on or before December 1:

  • All Transcripts from current and previous institutions.
  • Three letters of recommendation, which must be received by December 1.
  • A Statement of Purpose
  • A Personal Statement
  • International applicants will need an official TOEFL or IELTS score.

  • A nonrefundable application fee of $105 is required at the time you submit the application unless you qualify or request a fee waiver. Information about fee waivers is located on the Graduate School’s website. You will also find a link to the fee waiver request form on the payment page of the online application. If you plan to request a fee waiver, be sure to plan ahead.  Fee waiver requests are reviewed and approved within 1-3 business days by the Graduate School. 

Optional Materials

The following are optional and are not required for admission into the Information Science Ph.D. program.

Cornell IS Student-Applicant Reading Program (SARP)

This program is an initiative created by the Information Science Graduate Student Association (ISGSA), which is composed of elected IS graduate students. The primary goals of this program are to advance diversity and broaden access to graduate education in Information Science. Open to scholars from all backgrounds, this program has a particular focus on engaging scholars who through their lived experiences have navigated significant barriers in their pursuit of higher education.

To be considered for this opportunity, please use this Google Form to submit your draft(s) of your Statement of Purpose, Personal Statement, and/or CV that you intend to use for your application for the Fall 2025 admission cycle.

The SARP program opens September 23 and closes on October 31 for the Fall 2025 admission cycle. 

Feedback will be returned in approximately 2 weeks, and at the latest will be returned by November 14. This program comes at no cost to the applicant and support is provided by volunteers in the IS Ph.D. program. This program matches prospective applicants’ draft materials with current graduate students in the department who will offer their suggested revisions to improve prospective students' materials. Participation in this program is intended to support scholars in their understanding and preparation for graduate admissions. However, it has no bearing on the admissions process for the Cornell Information Science Ph.D. program. Participants who wish to be considered for admission to the Cornell IS Ph.D. program must submit their complete application through CollegeNet by the Information Science Ph.D. application deadline (December 1, 2024).

For any questions about SARP, please email us at ISGSA@cornell.edu with the subject line [SARP25].

REQUIREMENTS OF ALL APPLICANTS

Transcripts

Your application should include complete and scanned transcripts of all previous college and university work, including any work done at Cornell. If you are submitting unofficial transcripts, the Graduate School will require that you submit official transcripts should you be accepted into the program. In this case, please make sure your transcript has your name, birthdate, and the name of the attended university.

Applicants should scan their transcripts and upload the documents into the on-line application themselves as part of the submission process. For students who are subsequently admitted and accept the offer of admission, an official paper transcript will be required prior to matriculation; students will be reminded of this requirement on the “response to offer of admission” form.

International Credentials

All transcripts or academic records must be official documents provided in the original language. If that language is not English, they must be accompanied by certified translations into English. If not issued by the college or university as original documents, they should be notarized, full-sized photocopies. They should include grades received in each subject each year, and the number of weeks and hours per week that each subject was studied. Courses must be described in detail. The general subject name (e.g., “mathematics”) is not sufficient. The particular subject (e.g., “differential equations,” “algebraic topology”) must be identified.

If you are admitted into the program and you accept our offer of admission, the Graduate School will require an official transcript. They will contact you directly about this requirement.

Grade point averages

If your school uses a GPA scale other than 0–4.0, just leave this field blank when submitting your application. If you feel you must, you may enter 0. We will review your transcript and will rate your performance on the grades you received, not the number you enter into this field.

Letters of Recommendation

Your application must include three letters of recommendation. The letters should be from professors who are familiar with your work and who can testify to your potential as a researcher in Information Science. Once you have added your recommender’s information into the application, a notification will be sent to your recommenders within 48 hours. You do not need to submit the application before the notice is sent. We recommend filling in the reference letter section immediately after you have filled in your bio information.  These letters are a very important part of your application, and you should ensure that they are submitted into the electronic application system by December 1. We do not accept mailed paper copy letters of recommendation as this delays the processing of your application.  If your recommender is having an issue with submitting their letter, please ask them to contact, Nicole Roy nicole.roy@cornell.edu, for assistance. 

Statement of Purpose

A successful statement of purpose will address the following topics:

  • Questions and Issues you're interested in exploring as a Ph.D. student and why they matter to you;
  • How your research interests relate to the work of Faculty at Cornell;
  • Your ultimate goal in pursuing a Ph.D. 

Personal Statement

Please describe within 1000 words how your background and experiences influenced your decision and ability to pursue a graduate degree. Additionally, provide insights into your potential to contribute to Cornell University’s core value to provide a community of inclusion, belonging, and respect where scholars representing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn and work productively and positively together. Within your statement, you may also include relevant information on any of the following:

  • How your personal, academic, and/or professional experiences demonstrate your ability to be both persistent and resilient especially when navigating challenging circumstances.
  • How you engage with others and have facilitated and/or participated in productive teams.
  • How you have come to understand the barriers faced by others whose experiences and backgrounds may differ from your own.
  • If relevant, how your research interests focus on issues related to diversity, inclusion, access, inequality, and/or equity.
  • Details on your service and/or leadership in efforts to advance diversity, inclusion, access, and equity especially for those from backgrounds historically underrepresented and/or marginalized.
  • Additional context on any significant barriers you have navigated to make graduate education accessible to you.
  • Contextual details on any perceived gaps or weaknesses in your academic record.

Within the personal statement, you may also provide details of lessons learned from any of your lived experiences including but not limited to:

  • being a first-generation college student or graduate (no parent/guardian completed a baccalaureate degree)
  • racial, ethnic, and/or cultural background(s)
  • managing a disability or chronic health condition
  • experiencing housing, food, economic, and/or other forms of significant insecurity
  • being a solo parent
  • gender identity and/or sexual orientation
  • having served in the military
  • holding DACA, refugee, TPS, or asylee status

For International Students

TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language)

International applicants must demonstrate competency in the English language. You must have your official scores sent by Educational Testing Services to Cornell before our application deadline. It is recommended applicants schedule and send the results of a language exam no later than October 30. Scores should be sent to Institutional Code 2098, the department code is not required.

Internet-based Test (iBT) version of the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Each section (writing: 20, Listening: 15, Reading: 20, Speaking: 22) has its own minimum score as noted. Applicant scores must meet the minimums set by the Graduate school. A cumulative score is NOT the correct measure and is NOT sufficient for an offer of admission. In some cases, international students who are admitted will be required to take a remedial course in English.

​IELTS Academic (International English Language Testing System)

The Ph.D. program requires an overall band score of a 7.0 or higher on the IELTS Academic exam. 

  • When you register for the exam, you may select up to 5 institutions to which you would like to have your scores sent. Cornell University has multiple IELTS accounts so please be sure to select Cornell University Graduate Admissions when registering for your IELTS test date.

  • You may also submit a request to your test center to have additional score reports sent to institutions not originally listed on your test registration form. Scores must be sent electronically (e-delivery) to the Cornell University Graduate Admissions, Caldwell Hall e-download account. E-delivery may also be referred to as an e-TRF by your test center.

  • The IELTS score must be dated within two years of your program’s application deadline. Scores must be delivered electronically through the IELTS E-Delivery service to the Cornell University Graduate Admissions e-download account.

  • Scores must be sent electronically (e-delivery) to the Cornell University Graduate Admissions, Caldwell Hall e-download account. E-delivery may also be referred to as an e-TRF by your test center. We do not accept paper IELTS Academic test report forms.

Exceptions

The English language proficiency requirement may be waived if the applicant meets University exceptions as outlined on the graduate school's English Language Proficiency requirements page. There is no separate form needed for the waiver.

Optional Application Materials

This will be required for those interested in being nominated for a Diversity Fellowship. 

  • Your Personal Statement should provide the admissions committee with a sense of you as a whole person, and you should use it to describe how your personal background and experiences influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Additionally, it should provide insight on your potential to contribute to a community of inclusion, belonging, and respect where scholars representing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn and innovate productively and positively together.
  • Your Personal Statement provides you with an opportunity to share experiences that provide insights on how your personal, academic, and/or professional experiences demonstrate your ability to be both persistent and resilient, especially when navigating challenging circumstances. It also gives you an opportunity to provide examples of how you engage with others and have facilitated and/or participated in productive collaborative endeavors. Additionally, it provides you with an opportunity to provide context around any perceived gaps or weaknesses in your academic record.
  • Content in the Personal Statement should complement rather than duplicate the content contained within the Research Statement of Purpose, which should focus explicitly on your academic interests, previous research experience, and intended area of research during your graduate studies.

Resume, Writing Samples, and Portfolio 

Additional materials such as resume, writing samples, and portfilio are not required but may be submitted if you feel this will enhance your application. 

General Information

GRE (Graduate Record Examination)

The department of Information Science does not require nor accept the GRE test. 

Faculty Research Interests

For a list of faculty in the field of Information Science and their concentrations, please see our Faculty section of the website. Please feel free to contact specific Faculty to discuss in more detail their research interests. 

Please direct other inquiries to: Associate Director, Nicole Roy nicole.roy@cornell.edu or is-phd@cornell.edu.

Campus Locations: Ithaca and Cornell Tech

Though we have two campuses, each Ph.D. student's location is determined by the location of their advisor (Chairperson). When applying to the Ph.D. program, applicants may indicate a campus preference, but ultimately the advisor's location determines which campus the Ph.D. student will be based. Further, all applicants will be evaluated by the Field as a whole regardless of their intended location. There is no requirement for students working with Cornell Tech faculty to complete a residency period in Ithaca, or vice-versa. 

Once a student is admitted and if they consider changing their advisor, students should keep in mind that the change could mean a move to either the Ithaca or New York City campus, depending on where the advisor is based. 

If a student is interested in spending an entire semester or longer at the opposite campus than where their advisor is located; they must have a faculty person who will be their point of contact in residence at the opposite campus. It is the responsibility of the student and their current advisor to identify the point of contact faculty person. Students are not allowed to change campus location until permission has been given. Students moving from the Ithaca campus to the Tech campus must follow the policy and submit the proper documents to be consider for this move. Please review the following link for more details about moving to the Tech campus from the Ithaca campus: Cornell Tech Technical PhD Student Campus Policy – Cornell Tech Student & Academic Affairs. Students should discuss this move far in advance with their current advisor, and the DGS. Students should not assume permission will be granted. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. The student’s advisor is responsible for funding the student even if the student is temporarily residing at the opposite campus. 

Funding

Admission into the doctoral program in the Field of Information Science is based purely on academic merit. 

All Ph.D. students in Information Science are fully supported during their academic year as long as they remain in good academic standing. Support from Cornell includes tuition, health insurance, and stipend. Support is available in the form of teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and fellowships. Summer research funding will be provided through a variety of funding sources for those who will be engaging in full-time academic studies during the summer semester (external fellowships, internships, teaching and/or research assistantships). We encourage students to discuss the summer funding opportunity available to them and application deadlines for outside internships during the Spring Semester with their advisor. In order to receive Cornell assistantship, funding students must be residing within the United States during the academic year and during the summer.  

Students located at the NYC Tech Campus

Students who are in residence at our NYC Tech Campus are paid a higher stipend in order to offset the higher cost of living in the city. Teaching Assistantship (TA) or Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA) and Fellowships cover full tuition, student insurance and pay a stipend for nine months.

Teaching Assistantships

Each TA is assigned to a course and is tasked with helping the course instructor. The average time commitment is 15 hours per week. TA assignments typically involve grading homework, holding office hours, preparing assignments, or teaching recitations. Students who TA for the semester should make arrangements to arrive back to campus at least one week prior to the start of the semester.  For Fall TAs, this would be no later than August 22; for the Spring term, this would be no later than January 15. If students are expecting to TA for the following semester, they should make sure their summer/winter internships or other commitments end in time to return to campus earlier. 

TA assignments for Ithaca-based courses are assigned by the Director of Graduate Studies; and the Graduate Field Assistant at the Ithaca campus. TA assignments for the Tech Campus are assigned by the Student Service Assistant at the Tech Campus.

Research Assistantships

A GRA is given to a student whose research interests coincide with a sponsored research project. Typically, the work of a Graduate Research Assistant is an integral part of the student’s dissertation research. The faculty member in charge (your advisor) of the project grants a GRA. GRAs working 12 hours per week on the grant project but may work an additional 8 hours.

Cornell Fellowships

The Graduate School awards several one- and two-year Cornell fellowships to incoming graduate students. Your application for admission automatically serves as the fellowship application. However, your application and all supporting credentials must be received by December 1 in order to be considered for a Cornell Fellowship.

External Fellowships

Applicants are also encouraged to apply for external fellowships. Below is a sample listing of fellowships that our IS students may be eligible for. These fellowships are highly prestigious, and they free the student of the responsibilities of an assistantship. Whenever possible, the department helps students in the fellowship application process. In some instances, the department must nominate the applicant. The department will put a call out for nominations for these fellowships throughout the year. Students are also encouraged to look for fellowship opportunities and alert their advisor if they would like to be nominated for one.

Some of the outside fellowships that our students have been awarded include:

  • IBM – This fellowship is open for continuing students. The department nominates the candidates for this fellowship.
  • Facebook – This fellowship is open for continuing students. The department nominates the candidates for this fellowship.
  • Google – This fellowship is open for continuing students. The department nominates the candidates for this fellowship.
  • Microsoft – This fellowship is open for continuing students. The department nominates the candidates for this fellowship.
If you are interested in applying, and have questions not answered above, please contact
us at:  is-phd@cornell.edu.