PhD in
Ph.D. in Computer Science Saint Louis University
Introduction
Students in Saint Louis University’s Ph.D. program in computer science conduct independent, innovative research under the guidance of a member of our graduate faculty. The program prepares students for rewarding careers in industry or academia that leverage the power of computers, algorithms, and data to impact the world in a positive way.
Program Highlights
Our research groups regularly publish in top-ranked journals and conference proceedings and present results at national and international professional meetings. Research projects are often supported by government and industry grants.
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
The computer science department offers several forms of merit-based financial support for graduate students. These include possible tuition scholarships and graduate assistantships that may include full or partial tuition, health insurance, and a stipend for living expenses in exchange for the assistant’s contributions to the teaching or research mission of the department. Students may also seek their own scholarships from a variety of independent organizations that support graduate education in STEM fields.
Curriculum
SLU’s Ph.D. in computer science requires a minimum of 41 post-baccalaureate credits, with at least 29 credits of coursework and 12 credits of dissertation research.
Fieldwork and Research Opportunities
With our location in the midtown area of St. Louis, our students have access to a strong technology community, with operations for many Fortune 500 companies and a vibrant startup community. This provides outstanding opportunities for summer internships, for part-time work during the academic year, and for future jobs after graduation.
Employers in St. Louis who show great interest in computer science students include Boeing, Centene, Citi, Deloitte, Enterprise, Express Scripts, KPMG, Maritz, MasterCard, Microsoft, Bayer and World Wide Technologies. Other students have worked for smaller companies or even started their own companies.
Our campus is within walking distance of the Cortex Innovation Community, a vibrant 200-acre (and growing) innovation hub and technology district. Cortex is home to SLU's Research Innovation Group, which works on technology transfer and commercial partnerships. Cortex is also home to the weekly Venture Cafe, which is a great place for students to connect with members of the tech community in a friendly and informal setting. Also in downtown St. Louis is the T-REX Technology Entrepreneur Center, a co-working space and technology incubator.
Program Outcome
- Graduates will be able to demonstrate the use of computing systems, theory and software engineering to solve theoretical and applied problems.
- Graduates will be able to utilize state-of-the-art techniques in their research area to solve open problems.
- Graduates will be able to conduct independent, high quality, innovative research in computer science.
- Graduates will be able to communicate computer science research results effectively in both publication formats and professional presentations.
- Graduates will be able to recognize professional responsibilities and make informed judgements in computing practice based on legal and ethical principles.
Career Opportunities
Careers related to computer science are routinely found on various "best jobs" lists because of their outstanding combination of excellent pay, satisfying work-life balance and personal reward in seeing the great impact of computing throughout society. As a sample of such listings:
- U.S. News 100 Best Jobs list for 2022 named information security analyst. The top 100 also included software developer (#5), data scientist (#6), IT manager (#13), computer systems analyst (#27), web developer (#32), database administrator (#38), computer network architect (#48), and computer systems administrator (#52).
- Glassdoor's 50 Best Jobs in America list for 2022 named enterprise architect as #1. and , and many other technology positions appear within the top 25: full stack engineer (#2), data scientist (#3), devops engineer (#4), machine learning engineer (#6), data engineer (#8), software engineer (#8), java developer (#9), back end engineer (#11), cloud engineer (#12) information security engineer (#15), back end engineer (#16), automation engineer (#21), and UX designer (#24).