Applying for Graduate Study

Please read this before emailing me for information about graduate work in information assurance and computer security. It may answer your questions.

We have an information security program that is part of the Department of Computer Science, so you would get a Ph.D. in computer science, not information security. Of course, you could do your thesis research in information security—we have many students who do this—and focus on computer security here.

If you’re interested in seeing how one gets the Ph.D. here, please go to this web page (http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/graduate/recruit/faqs.html). That page, as well as the other links to the left, will give you all the information you need to see how to apply and what the program consists of. You must be admitted to the Graduate Group in Computer Science to do graduate work in the Computer Security Lab.

As of now, we do not offer degrees through distance learning unless you work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. You will have to be resident on campus for some time as a graduate student (I’m not sure of the exact minimum amount of time). If you are a student through the program with Livermore, I believe you are considered resident on campus.

I am not on the admissions committee, so I can’t estimate your chances of getting in, even if you send me your GRE (or any other) scores. Sorry!

Now, if the above has not answered your questions, and you need more information specific to our computer security program, please feel free to send me mail—I’ll be happy to try to help you.

Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don’t they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth.
— Will Rogers

Last updated on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 05:37:05AM PDT