Answers to Frequent Questions about Graduate Training with Dr. Murphy at Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon is one of the top places in the world to obtain graduate education in computational biology and related areas. The information below is provided due to the large number of students who contact me about graduate training.

Please note that I am not able to provide advice to students about the strength of their credentials, whether they should apply to a specific program, or the likelihood of being admitted to any of these programs. Decisions about qualifications are made by the admissions committees of the programs. I do not make commitments to accept students into my group until after they have been accepted into one of the programs.

Masters Degree Programs

M.S. students are responsible for paying their own costs (including tuition). Full fellowships are available for students students of underprivileged socioeconomic background. Partial fellowships may be given to outstanding students as part of an admission offer. Research assistantships are not given, although opportunities to receive some payment for technical, research or teaching assistance are made available to students after they have begun in a program.

The M.S. in Automated Science program combines cutting edge training in artificial intelligence and laboratory automation to enable students to become leaders in the emerging field of automated science. The program is the first of its kind in the world, with the first students enrolled in the Fall of 2019. Students receive hands on experience with robotic equipment for carrying out biological experimentation, training on machine learning methods for constructing predictive models, and training in artificial intelligence methods for allowing predictive models to iteratively direct their own experiments.

The M.S. in Computational Biology program (a joint program with the Biological Sciences Department) trains students in the fundamental approaches that have made computational biology a robust and fast-growing discipline. Computation has revolutionized the study of the life sciences, from analyzing data generated by sequencing technologies, to designing new drugs and automating diagnoses, to training machine learning algorithms to find patterns in cellular and medical images.

Doctoral Degree Programs

For students seeking Ph.D. training in computational approaches to biological questions, there are a number of choices. A M.S. degree is not required for admission to any of these programs. Both U.S. and international students may apply, and all students accepted into these programs receive full financial support (tuition plus stipend).


This page is provided to answer frequent questions and to give guidance to prospective students. The opinions expressed here are my own and are not official positions of Carnegie Mellon University.

Robert F. Murphy

Last modified: September 3, 2016