Requirements

Students are selected on the basis of their portfolio, which includes required and optional components. The Admission Committee may invite the applicant for an interview. 

Application Portfolio DS 2023 (PDF, 450 Kb) 

 Required:

• Application form (please read How to Apply)
• Bachelor’s (Specialist’s or Master’s) diploma and official transcripts of previous educational studies. (if you have not yet received your Bachelor’s diploma, please include an official copy of your most recent academic transcript).

You need to have a degree in one of the following fields of study: Computer Science, Computer and Information Sciences, Applied Mathematics and Computer Science or at least to have courses in Algorithms and Data Structures, Programming, Databases Theory and Advanced Mathematics (Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability Theory and, Mathematical Statistics) in your diploma or certificates.
The Admission Committee takes into consideration the number of hours, the final assessments and your university ranking.

• CV, which confirms your professional experience (please indicate your position and the list of duties) or scientific activity in the Computer Science field of study, including educational internship.
• Letter of motivation (~500 words, not more than one page of printed text), describing your reasons for applying in the context of your long-term career goals and background. The quality of your English is also evaluated.
• At least one letter of recommendation. Please provide your recommenders with HSE’s letter of recommendation guidelines.
• Exam results confirming language proficiency. Valid IELTS certificate (>= 6.0), TOEFL IBT(>=  80), TOEFL PBT (>= 500), TOEFL CBT (>= 232), CAE (grade C (pass)), CPE (grades A, B or C), BEC Higher (grades A, B or C).

Optional:

• List of articles in scientific and professional journals, conferences, collections of student work, etc., indicating the author's name and the title of the publication.
• Professional development, training, specialized online courses, etc. The list of courses in which took part, with an indication of the received document/certificate.
• Any additional academic evidence that may help the selection committee evaluate the candidate in the positive light, such as certificates of prior academic achievements, publications and conference presentations, participation in academic Olympiads. 

Criteria for Portfolio Evaluation

Component	Scores
Letter of motivation and letters of recommendation	0-20
Diploma/transcript of academic records	0-30
Articles in scientific and professional journals, conferences, collections of student work	0-10
Professional development, training, specialized online courses	0-10
English language proficiency certificates	0-10
Interview	0-20

For the period of COVID-19:
- a language certificate is not required for citizens of countries in which one of the official languages is English;
- as a language certificate can be counted the results of examinations in a foreign language at the National Research Universities of the Russian Federation;
- as an exception, by decision of the portfolio review committee, the results of the interview (in English) with the members of the commission can be counted as a language certificate.