The Master of Science program in Data Science (MSDS) prepares graduate students for career-oriented jobs around the world. Its curriculum is designed to ensure that students can study specific areas of computer science known as data science. Data science from a computing view revolves around machine learning, data mining, and dealing with big data. As data science is an applied part of computer science, students will be exposed to interdisciplinary courses such as relevant courses from mathematics and business. The School of Computing has state-of-the-art laboratories for use by its students, who are also actively sought after by local companies through the university's Cooperative Education opportunity. This provides students with invaluable job experience, financial assistance, and contacts for potential full-time jobs after graduation.

The STEM CIP code for the School of Computing's MSDS program is: 11.0199 (Computer and Information Sciences, Other).

Admission Requirements

Students may be admitted in full graduate standing to the MS in data science program if they have a bachelor鈥檚 degree in computer science or any related engineering discipline. GRE is not required.

Degree Requirements

The MSDS program is a 30 total credit hour program with a capstone project.

 Apply to the program

Filing your plan of study

Soon after completing all background deficiency courses (if any) and 9 credit hours of MSDS degree courses, students should file a plan of study, in which they state their choice of elective and discipline elective courses. The semester in which a successful plan of study was filed determines the catalog year applicable to the student.

Once a plan of study is received by the school, the graduate coordinator is going to review it. If the plan is incorrect the graduate coordinator will correspond with the student. If the plan is accepted by the graduate coordinator, then the SoC will email a signed version to the graduate school (and copy the student). In some rare circumstances the graduate school may reject plans, and inform the student of the reason.

Submitting Your Plan of Study

In order for you to submit your Plan of Study successfully, you must submit your PoS via the 'Submit PoS' button found at the bottom of the form. In order for this to work:

  • You must have downloaded Adobe Reader onto your computer, which is free.   
  • You must download the PoS template onto your hard drive and edit it there using Adobe Reader.
  • You must set your default email to Outlook. You need to use the application rather than the web version of Outlook. Make sure you are using the Classic version, NOT the new version of Outlook. 

Only forms sent from your WSU email address will be accepted.

Please come in to see us at our office in Room 249, Jabara Hall if you are having difficulties with this process.

If you do not submit your PoS this way, the PoS will be returned to you, delaying your submission.  Please note that a PoS may take up to 6 weeks to process.

 

File Name Format

The plan of study pdf file name should be lastname, firstname WSUID Term PoS.pdf (e.g., Smith, Jack A123B123 Fall23 PoS.pdf).

The Major Code for MSDS is G35G. The Completion Code should be: coursework.

Plan of Study Template