5/13/2025 Rudy San Miguel
The Siebel School of Computing and Data Science hosted its annual Graduate Visit Days from March 30 to April 1, 2025. This event allowed accepted PhD students to visit the school and meet with faculty, staff, and graduate students. Eighty-nine admitted students attended in person, and many others attended virtually.
Written by Rudy San Miguel
The Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, hosted its annual Graduate Visit Days from March 30 to April 1, 2025, allowing accepted but undecided PhD applicants to visit the school and meet with faculty, staff, and current graduate students. Eighty-nine admitted students from around the U.S. made the trek to Urbana—up from 76 last year—while numerous global candidates attended the virtual portion of Visit Days. Assisting with the event, 80 current graduate students acted as “graduate ambassadors,” guiding candidates through a multi-day visit, which gave them the opportunity to experience the Siebel School, the Illinois campus, and the cities of Urbana and Champaign.
Federico Cifuentes-Urtubey, a computer science PhD student, moderated a panel that allowed potential students to gain valuable information from the current graduate community. “The admitted students got to learn about things I wish I had known before coming to Illinois,” Cifuentes-Urtubey said. “They were eager to learn about the department culture and the journey that I took to be near completion for my PhD.”
Bakshree Mishra, computer science PhD student, recalled a conversation with an admitted student from MIT: “Even though our areas of interest were different—NLP versus computer architecture—I feel I was able to provide insights on grad school and industry versus academia.” Mishra encouraged the candidates to ask ambassadors or faculty members any questions they had about life at Siebel School.
Nancy Amato, Abel Bliss professor of engineering and Siebel School director, tipped her hat to the grad ambassadors. “We have some of the most amazing students on the planet in our graduate program, and I think that the students themselves are the best ambassadors,” Amato said. “By sharing their experiences, they help us recruit the next cohort of students to our program.” For Amato, the experience allows the candidates an insight into the opportunities available to them on and off campus. “By visiting, they realize what an awesome place it is. It isn’t an isolated little town. There’s a lot going on here, on campus and off,” Amato said.
Amato brings her own experience as a former Illinois PhD student. “I love to talk to them about the things I love about Illinois, and why I think it’s a great place to do research, from our multi-disciplinary perspective to the lack of silos to the broad spectrum of opportunities across campus,” Amato said. “These are the reasons I decided to come to Illinois for my graduate studies, and it’s just as much the case today, if not more so, given the increasingly ubiquitous nature of computing and data science.”
Viveka Kudaligama, senior assistant director of graduate programs, highlighted the importance of diversity. “We make sure they know this is a diverse campus and that diversity is important to us.”
Amato and Kudaligama agreed that one of the most common candidate questions that arose was about funding. “They had heard stories about other institutions cutting back on admissions or guarantees, and I was glad to be able to reassure them that at Illinois, we have not made any of those changes,” Amato said. “We did not modify our admissions process, and we have maintained our five-year funding guarantee for PhD students. The work we do is very important for the nation and the world, and we are confident we will be able to continue supporting them through their PhD studies.”
While trying to provide the full Illinois experience, the graduate programs office hadn’t planned on the surprise tornado warning on the first day of the event. Kudaligama said the participants sought shelter in the lower level of the Siebel School until they received the “all clear.” Even as rain poured and the sirens wailed outside, she said, “They took the opportunity to get to know one another and start asking questions of the grad ambassadors.”
The event was successful for both the Siebel School and the visiting candidates. Amato best summed up the event's mission: “We want the students to come here only if they feel it’s the best fit for them, but we also want them to feel this is the best fit for them!”