An exploratory study of diversity among computer science graduate students at top North American universities

Although different organizations have defined policies toward diversity in academia, many argue that minorities are still disadvantaged in being admitted to universities due to biases. In this study, we collected the information of 13,936 graduate students majoring in computer science at the top 25 North American universities and used statistical hypothesis tests to realize whether there is a preference for students' gender and nationality in the admission processes. In addition to partiality patterns, we discuss the relations between gender/nationality diversity and the scientific achievements of research teams. Our findings show that there is no gender bias in graduate students' admission to research groups, but we observed partiality in students' nationality.