Lorrie Cranor's Information for Prospective Students

I advise students in a variety of graduate and undergraduate programs at Carnegie Mellon. These are the programs where most of my students come from:

I would be happy to answer your questions about these graduate programs. I'm also happy to talk with current CMU students about research projects.

If you are a US citizen from an underrepresented group or first-gen college student, please see if you are eligible for the GEM Fellowship Program (deadline mid-November) or the CMU Rales Fellows Program. Make sure you indicate on your CMU application that you applied for one of these programs.

Please read about my research interests before you contact me about being my student. If you write to me and tell me that you are excited about the opportunity to work with a famous cryptographer such as myself, I will delete your email without a response, or depending what sort of mood I am in, email you back and suggest you learn how to read first. Please show me that you have college-level reading skills by reading about my research interests and composing an email to me that demonstrates that comprehension.

Prospective PhD students, read this before you email me! If you are interested in working with me as a PhD student, you must first apply and be admitted to one of the Carnegie Mellon PhD programs. I cannot admit students directly. If you are interested in doing research in usable privacy and security, mention this in your application. Once you have been admitted to CMU, feel free to contact me if I have not already reached out to you.

Prospective visiting students, read this before you email me! Most of the students I supervise for research projects are Carnegie Mellon students. I do not have any funding for visiting graduate students. I occassionally take visiting graduate students who bring their own funding if their research is very closely aligned with my own. It is helpful if they have published papers in conferences I publish in and they ask their advisor to introduce them to me. I can sometimes fund visiting undergraduate summer students who are interested in doing usable privacy and security research through the CMU REUSE program.