CS Doctor of Engineering Science

The Doctor of Engineering Science (officially designated Eng.Sc.D., but in practice is referred to as DES) is a variant of the doctorate with identical academic requirements to the Computer Science Ph.D. program. The Ph.D. is the Computer Science Department’s primary doctoral program.  The most significant differences between Ph.D. and DES students are:

• The DES may be completed part-time or full-time, while the Ph.D. can only be completed full-time, and
• DES students are fully funded by their employers, who cover both their tuition and other expenses. DES students are not appointed as student officers and do not receive any funding from the university. 

The Computer Science DES is an in-person, on-campus program like the Ph.D.; Computer Science DES students are not permitted to attend remotely. Computer Science DES students may enroll full-time or part-time; however, there is a maximum time to complete a degree of seven years, regardless of the student’s enrollment status. There are also some differences in registration for CS Ph.D. vs. CS DES students and in the application for defense. CS DES students should contact the department’s Ph.D. Program Administrator (phd-advising@cs.columbia.edu) for assistance in registration and filing the defense application.

The Computer Science Doctoral Admissions Committee admits very few CS DES students. CS DES applicants are admitted only if the applicant was recruited by a tenured or tenure-track member of the Computer Science Department faculty who asked to be the student’s research advisor.  CS DES students must be advised by a tenured or tenure-track Computer Science faculty member throughout the program. CS DES applicants must already hold a masters degree in Computer Science or a strongly related field to be considered for admission. 

Lasy updated December 24, 2024