FAQ
The School of Communication also accepts students in the Media, Technology, and Society PhD Program. The difference is that TSB tends to attract students with more of a technical background who are interested in designing and building new technology as a component of their research, whereas MTS may be appropriate for students who are interested in studying communication technologies (but not necessarily building them). TSB is joint with and draws on expertise from the Department of Computer Science in the McCormick School of Engineering, whereas MTS is wholly a School of Communication Program.
The TSB program includes graduate level coursework in Computer Science and so incoming students should have sufficient preparation in a technical field (e.g. math, statistics, engineering, data science, information science, data science, etc) such that they have the basis for success. Such preparation can take different forms and need not be a formal course or degree provided that there is sufficient evidence in the application of technical competence.
There is no separate financial aid application; you only have to indicate in the appropriate place on the admission application that you want to be considered for financial aid. If you do not request aid, please include a separate page with your application materials explaining how you will support your graduate studies.
Admitted students are provided with 5 years of support either as research assistants, teaching assistants, or on fellowship. Please see here for more details on financial support from Northwestern.
TSB currently only admits to a PhD program. For this reason, applicants pursuing a doctoral degree should select the PhD option. All students pursuing a doctoral degree may also obtain a masters degree during their doctoral career at Northwestern University.
A masters degree is not required to apply to the TSB program.
The institution code for Northwestern University is 1565. For the TOEFL, use 99 (“department not listed”).
No. Applicants are not required to submit GRE scores, and we will not use GRE scores in our admissions process.
We receive hundreds of requests, so regrettably we cannot individually assess an applicant’s chances. If you feel strongly about your qualifications, we encourage you to apply.
You must first be accepted by the University before any visa processing work can begin. Please read details on the Northwestern University International Office page.
Direct application questions to tsb@northwestern.edu.