I did this. with this specific goal in mind I started reaching out to professors working in areas I thought were interesting. The only reason I was able to enga

I did this. with this specific goal in mind I started reaching out to professors working in areas I thought were interesting. The only reason I was able to engage with one of them were: - had an SV startup background and the professor was interested in spinning them off - someone who was friendly with the department and had a sterling reputation went out of their way to pave the way for me - had some publications in the field you're absolutely right about 'some universities'. a couple CS departments were interested, but there was just no way the graduate school would let them bring me on. still, it was a process. I worked as a paid researcher for a while, and was able to take grad classes as part of the (very generous) professional staff education policy. with a good (graduate) gpa, and a good GRE score (coming at the GRE from a graduate perspective made it a lot easier), I was accepted at that institution. sadly I never developed a good relationship with an advisor and wandered off after teaching undergrads for a couple years. but yes, its possible if you care enough (edit: thinking about it..if you do care that much, maybe its not that hard to just get a BS? or diploma-mill MS?) (edit again: I'm a systems guy, and I strongly suspect that the theory people are very different - I think if you had a really substantial publication history that might be enough?)