Data Science Masters

Prerequisite Skills

As an interdisciplinary program, the MSDS curriculum includes graduate courses taught by faculty across multiple disciplines relating to data science. Students need core skills across communication, computer science, and mathematics in order to succeed in these courses. Offers of admission will only be made to applicants who demonstrate strong competencies in these essential areas and skills. Applicants demonstrate strong, graduate school-level communication skills through short, required essays in the application.

Applicants need to document proficiency in the following math and computer science topics to show they will succeed in MSDS coursework:

Essential Math Skills

    • Partial differentiation 
    • Multiple integration 
    • Functions of several variables 
    • Matrix operations 
    • Linear systems of equations
    • Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors 

Essential Computer Science Skills

    • Basic complexity
    • Object-oriented vs. procedural programming
    • Data structures (lists, queues, stacks, trees)
    • Algorithms (search and tree traversal)

There are two ways to demonstrate your proficiency with these Essential Math Skills and Essential Computer Science Skills.

A) Completion of graded, for-credit coursework covering the topic, with a grade of at least C+/2.3 in each course. In the Essential Skills section of your application, enter the school, course name, course number, grade earned, and (if possible) a URL that links to the course webpage or syllabus. Also include the following information in the “Demonstration Text” box:

    • If the class has an official school course catalog description that lists these skills, enter the course description in the Demonstration Text box.
    • If the class required these skills as a prerequisite, enter BOTH the description of the course you took, and the description of prerequisite classes that include these skills in the Demonstration Text box.
    • If the class covered these specific skills, but the skills were not listed in the official school course catalog description, enter a list of topics covered each week in the class in the Demonstration Text box. We strongly encourage you to include a URL that links to the class schedule on a course webpage or syllabus.

B) Technical Endorsement from an experienced individual. If you have prerequisite skills that you cannot demonstrate through course descriptions or a schedule of course topics, you may submit a Technical Endorsement of these skills. In a Technical Endorsement statement, an experienced individual personally confirms your mastery of the prerequisite skill. A Technical Endorsement might come from an internship mentor, employer, boot camp instructor, course TA, or anyone else with technical expertise and first-hand knowledge of your work. 

The Technical Endorsement must contain the following information 

    • Name of person endorsing your skills  
    • Specific skill or skills they will be endorsing 
    • Summary of their expertise with the skill 
    • Description of how they have seen you use the skill 
    • Assessment of your competency with the skill 

The Technical Endorsement statement must include two demonstrations of the identity and expertise of the person endorsing your skill. These demonstrations may include contact information, a LinkedIn profile, a webpage showing the individual’s role at a workplace or school, or use of official letterhead for the Technical Endorsement statement. 

The Technical Endorsement is different from a Letter of Recommendation. Please upload the Technical Endorsement as a .pdf file in the “Essential Skills” section of your application.