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HCI Graduate Program

1620 Howe Hall

Ames, IA 50011

515-294-2089


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PhD Program

The PhD in Human Computer Interaction is an interdisciplinary degree program that prepares students for careers in business and industry as well as academia. In addition to the required HCI courses, students take electives from a wide variety of disciplines and conduct research for their dissertation under the direction of their major professor and Program of Study Committee. Specific requirements for the program are outlined below.

PhD Course Requirements

Iowa State University requires a minimum of 72 graduate credits to earn a PhD. At least 36 graduate credits, including all research credits, must be earned at ISU. Up to 36 credits from a student's master's degree can be applied to the POS.

PhD students will be required to choose any four courses, one each from the Design, Implementation, Phenomena, and Evaluation categories, plus two additional courses of their choice from the list of core courses or the list of recommended electives. PhD students will therefore be required to take a total of six courses. In addition to these courses, PhD students will be required to take four credits of the HCI 591 Seminar in HCI plus a minimum of 9 research credits.

Core Courses

Recommended Electives

 

Admission to the PhD HCI Program

Admission into the HCI graduate degree program depends on a combination of your academic qualifications, area of interest, research specialties and the current research needs of the faculty. Evidence of creative talent, the ability to speak and write English clearly, and promise for a successful career are also important considerations for entry into the HCI Graduate program.

Other admission requirements include:

In addition to the above requirements, the following conditions apply when reviewing your application for admission.

The PhD Graduate Program Application Process

Using the resources found on this web site, determine which faculty members and related fields of study departments best match your interests. You will be asked to specify up to three faculty members on the pre-admission application.

  1. Fill out and submit the online HCI pre-admission form. No costs are associated with this step. (Please complete this form and wait for notification from the HCI Graduate Program before applying to the Iowa State University Graduate College.)
  2. Send your resume to gradapp@hci.iastate.edu.
  3. Send an e-portfolio demonstrating potential for research to gradapp@hci.iastate.edu.
  4. Ask references to send their letters of reference to gradapp@hci.iastate.edu. A suggested template for letters of recommendation can be found at Applicant Recommendation Form
  5. If you are invited to enter the HCI Graduate Program, apply to the ISU Graduate College to be formally admitted to the University. This is the time that you will pay your application fee and submit your official transcripts and test scores.

Contact Pam Shill at pshill@iastate.edu or hci@iastate.edu if you have any questions about the program, Iowa State University, or any part of the process.

Deadlines

The application deadline for the Fall semester is January 15.

Faculty Notification and Review

After all of the pre-application materials are received, the three faculty members listed on the pre-application are notified of your application. If those faculty members are not able to support your admission, the application package is made available to all HCI faculty. Students are admitted for the Fall semester. Our policy is to send email notifications to those not admitted by June 1 for the Fall semester.

If you need to know if you will be admitted before those deadlines, please contact Pam Shill at pshill@iastate.edu and she will update you on your admission status.

Checklist for Admissions

  1. Fill out the pre-admission form found here.
  2. Send resume to gradapp@hci.iastate.edu.
  3. Ask references to send their letters of reference to gradapp@hci.iastate.edu. A suggested template for letters of recommendation can be found at Applicant Recommendation Form
  4. Send an e-portfolio demonstrating potential for research to gradapp@hci.iastate.edu.

If you believe that you can add value to this process by contacting the faculty member directly with additional information about yourself, please feel free to do so.

Contact Pam Shill at pshill@iastate.edu with questions about your admission status.