CMU MSCS

Program Overview

The flagship program of SCS. Course selection is extremely flexible -- you can basically take any CS course you want. You have access to all CS-related courses across SCS, with MSCS students getting priority enrollment. After admission you need to take 15-213 CSAPP, though you can defer it and take it after arriving in the US. Classmates are basically either Chinese or Indian. Deferral is allowed (the 23 Fall offer letter explicitly states deferral is possible). You need to complete nine courses over three semesters, including at least one course in each of the AI / Theory / System tracks. The courses are quite interesting -- for example, Deep Learning Systems covers GPU programming with a project building a simplified version of PyTorch. At least at my undergrad institution in mainland China, a course like this simply couldn't be offered. The course's grading system is also open to external students. There are also other well-known courses like CMU 15-445 (Database). If you arrive early, you might even get a TA who's a GitHub 3k+ star developer. 15-445 also has its grading system open to external students, and the projects change a bit each year -- worth trying.

Admission Preferences

Extremely strict on GPA, with a clear preference for US undergrads. For mainland China applicants, basically only target schools are considered (Tsinghua, Peking + C5). Outside this range, don't bother wasting the application fee. All three metrics (GPA, GRE, TOEFL) need to be exceptional. In previous years (24 Fall), the acceptance rate was only 5%. This year (2025), the acceptance rate rose to 10% due to the need to expand enrollment to fund PhDs, but it's still very difficult.

In 2023, there were 2,073 applications, 107 were admitted, and 67 enrolled.

Admission Data Points

A C5 university Class of 2022 CS undergrad, rank 1

UCSD CS undergrad, GPA 3.94, 4-month back-end internship in the Bay Area

Tsinghua Class of 2022 CS undergrad, GPA top 5%

Smith College undergrad, GPA 3.8, Goldman Sachs + ByteDance full-time experience (three years combined)

IIT CS undergrad, GPA 9.7/10

IIT CS undergrad, GPA 9.2/10, one year full-time at DE Shaw

IIT CS undergrad, GPA 9.58/10, three years full-time at Microsoft

New Grad Job Outcomes

Unbeatable. All kinds of quant firms (Citadel, Point72, Jane Street, Jump Trading). The rest can at minimum land at big tech companies (but this isn't so much because of the CMU MSCS title -- it's mainly because the students themselves have exceptionally strong backgrounds, such as GitHub 3k+ stars / Point72 QR intern / three years full-time at Microsoft).