MS In Data Science Degree Requirements

Projects must be completed under the supervision of a DSC faculty member, and students must enroll in DSC 550 (Master's Project). Typically, there will be one instructor per student. But there could be multiple students assigned to a faculty member in the form of a group project -- its up to your project mentor to decide this, and it ultimately up to them to determine if you have completed the project.

You can do an internship and DSC 550 (Master's Project) concurrently. An internship could in principle be "substituted" for the Master's Project, but this would have to be arranged by your project faculty mentor. In particular, you would still need to register for DSC 550 under the direction of a DSC faculty member. If would be up to you, the faculty mentor, and the internship to define the scope of the project and how it would be carried out. If you are an international student and need an CPT for internship work, you cannot perform any internship work as part of DSC 550. Instead you should enroll in EGR 500.

All students are required to engage in a capstone experience.

The Master's Project typically takes 1 semester (3 credits) and a master's thesis typically takes 2 semesters (6 credits; 6 credits is required to graduate with a thesis option). The thesis will require that you write a thesis and defend it to a committee of three faculty members of your choosing as part of a public talk. The Master's Project also requires you to give a talk, but there's no thesis or committee defense. Typically, the thesis option is intended for students who either may be considering pursuing a Ph.D. or are interested in academic research projects. 

In both cases, the first step is to find a research advisor. You should look over the list of data science faculty members and find someone whose interests match yours. The best way to survey research interests is to look over faculty profiles or the CSCVR research groups page. Students are required to find their advisor at least 2 months before the start of DSC 550.

Once you and your advisor have settled on a project, ask your advisor to have the registrar open a section of either DSC 550 (Master's Project) or DSC 690 (Master’s Thesis) under them and then you will need to enroll into that specific section of the course being taught by your advisor. Students interested in a thesis must enroll in DSC 550 for the first semester of project work, then DSC 690 in the following semester.

Students may take up to three online courses during their entire MS program. Courses designated "online" are those offered through the Online and Continuing Education (OCE) program. 

Online courses offered through the Online and Continuing Education (OCE) program may require that you fill out the Current Student Registration Request - COIN Error Received Form found here.

Congratulations on your internship offer! To get a CPT you must be enrolled in a CPT-approved course. A CPT can only be issued for EGR 500, and only 3-credits can be accrued for EGR 500. If you've already taken 3 credits of EGR 500, unfortunately you cannot get a CPT. However, you may be able to engage with an industry-driven project through MTH 540.

Graduate students who need to be considered full time (e.g. for health insurance or visa purposes) have to complete the full-time status form; Grad Studies and the Registrar will process it. All international students (undergrad or grad) who are not enrolled full time also have to submit a completed reduced course load form via ISSC's webpage. Sometimes there's overlap: an international student with an assistantship who is enrolled part time would need to complete both forms. 

Congratulations on finishing the program! You should be on the lookout for an email from the registrar for instructions on applying to graduate. You should also fill out the DS Master’s Check Sheet form (DS course checklist for graduates) and send it to one of the program co-directors. This form will list all 10 classes you intend to use towards your MS degree. Students enrolled in the accelerated BS/MS program should denote which classes were also used towards the BS degree (up to 9 credits can be double-counted towards both the BS and MS). 

International students can take at most 1 online class per semester during the academic year. During the summer students can take 2 online classes. 

These rules change if you are in your final semester, in this case:

3 classes left: student can take 1 online,  2 face-to-face

2 classes left: student can take 1 online, 1 face-to-face – Student needs to file for RCL application to ISSC

1 classes left: student must take this class face-to-face – Student needs to file for RCL application to ISSC

If you are completing your degree over the summer or winter, you must take at least one face-to-face class.

Depending on the kind of error, it might be most efficient to contact either the instructor or the data science help desk (datascience-helpdesk@umassd.edu).

Here are some common errors:

CIS-OGP OR OGC only: Data science students are allowed to enroll in these courses, but require either an instructor permission number (please email the instructor) or assistance from the data science help desk (see above).