Frequently Asked Questions
About INSC
The Interdisciplinary Information Security graduate program is a unique interdisciplinary education track for M.S. and PhD students approved by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars (OGSPS) at Purdue University, and administered through the Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs with more than 140 affiliated faculty members. Your degree is granted by OGSPS through your home academic department (usually that of your faculty advisor) with the INSC listed as your concentration.
The overall space of information security/cybersecurity challenges is not confined to one traditional topic area such as computer science but encompasses issues of (at least) software, hardware, policy, education, finance, psychology, ethics, communication, and linguistics. Many real world information security challenges require interdisciplinary approaches.
Graduates have senior positions with federal agencies including the SEC, NASA, DoD, DoE, and US Senate staff; with notable research institutions such as MITRE and Sandia; and at commercial firms such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
Admissions
Please read the INSC Graduate Program Application page.
Students without a background in computing will need to complete courses in basic computer science/technology and possibly mathematics to meet prerequisites for the core cybersecurity courses. Applicants are advised to review the prerequisite chains before applying.
You should identify potential faculty you want to work with early on in the process of applying to INSC. Make direct contact with these faculty through email and phone calls, as well as listing them on your graduate application. Students may receive assistantships through their major advisor (faculty) or by searching on their own for service type positions - a Graduate Assistantship (GA). You can use the faculty website to locate potential faculty. You do not need to have found a major advisor before applying.
If a student's GPA or GRE scores fall slightly below our requirements, we do take into consideration that student's previous research and/or work experience in admission decisions.
Funding
No. For students accepted into the program that are pursuing a Ph.D. early communication with faculty is important. The faculty may be able to provide funding support through their nominations as well as from their own funded research projects and departmental-specific teaching assistantship opportunities. Masters students usually pay their own tuition and fees, but can pursue other funding and assistantship opportunities on their own.
Master's non-thesis students normally pay their own tuition and fees. We do our best to point students toward on-campus opportunities that arise for part-time positions, and assistantships. For thesis students, we strongly encourage applicants to converse with potential faculty advisors early in the process to discover available teaching and research assistantships. In the event that you are admitted, accept enrollment, but do not receive an assistantship 1) you can later decline enrollment, or 2) register for courses and pay your first semester tuition and fees - and once on campus begin looking for an assistantship for the second semester. Again, we will assist as much as is feasible but cannot guarantee an assistantship.