Information and Data Science: MIDS

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2021-22 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

About the Program

The Master of Information and Data Science (MIDS) is an online, part-time professional degree program that prepares students to work effectively with heterogeneous, real-world data (ranging from tweet streams and call records to mouse clicks and GPS coordinates) and to extract insights from the data using the latest tools and analytical methods. The program emphasizes the importance of asking good research or business questions as well as the ethical and legal requirements of data privacy and security.

The Fifth Year Master of Information and Data Science (Fifth Year MIDS) is a full-time variant of the MIDS program that is designed for students who have just completed their undergraduate education at UC Berkeley. 

Students attend weekly live ("synchronous") sessions with classmates and instructors via an online platform as well as engaging with online ("asynchronous") videos and assignments on their own time. 

The curriculum includes research design and applications for data and analysis, storing and retrieving data, exploring and analyzing data, identifying patterns in data, and effectively visualizing and communicating data. MIDS features a project-based approach to learning and encourages the pragmatic application of a variety of different tools and methods to solve complex problems.

Graduates of the program will be able to:

  • Imagine new and valuable uses for large datasets;
  • Retrieve, organize, combine, clean, and store data from multiple sources;
  • Apply appropriate data mining, statistical analysis, and machine learning techniques to detect patterns and make predictions;
  • Design visualizations and effectively communicate findings; and
  • Understand the ethical and legal requirements of data privacy and security.

The I School also offers a master's in Information Management and Systems (MIMS), a master's in Information and Cybersecurity (MICS), and a Ph.D.

VISIT PROGRAM SITE

Admissions

Admission to the University

Minimum Requirements for Admission

The following minimum requirements apply to all graduate programs and will be verified by the Graduate Division:

  1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
  2. A grade point average of B or better (3.0);
  3. If the applicant has completed a basic degree from a country or political entity (e.g., Quebec) where English is not the official language, adequate proficiency in English to do graduate work, as evidenced by a TOEFL score of at least 90 on the iBT test, 570 on the paper-and-pencil test, or an IELTS Band score of at least 7 on a 9-point scale (note that individual programs may set higher levels for any of these); and
  4. Sufficient undergraduate training to do graduate work in the given field.

Applicants Who Already Hold a Graduate Degree

The Graduate Council views academic degrees not as vocational training certificates, but as evidence of broad training in research methods, independent study, and articulation of learning. Therefore, applicants who already have academic graduate degrees should be able to pursue new subject matter at an advanced level without the need to enroll in a related or similar graduate program.

Programs may consider students for an additional academic master’s or professional master’s degree only if the additional degree is in a distinctly different field.

Applicants admitted to a doctoral program that requires a master’s degree to be earned at Berkeley as a prerequisite (even though the applicant already has a master’s degree from another institution in the same or a closely allied field of study) will be permitted to undertake the second master’s degree, despite the overlap in field.

The Graduate Division will admit students for a second doctoral degree only if they meet the following guidelines:

  1. Applicants with doctoral degrees may be admitted for an additional doctoral degree only if that degree program is in a general area of knowledge distinctly different from the field in which they earned their original degree. For example, a physics PhD could be admitted to a doctoral degree program in music or history; however, a student with a doctoral degree in mathematics would not be permitted to add a PhD in statistics.
  2. Applicants who hold the PhD degree may be admitted to a professional doctorate or professional master’s degree program if there is no duplication of training involved.

Applicants may apply only to one single degree program or one concurrent degree program per admission cycle.

Required Documents for Applications

  1. Transcripts: Applicants may upload unofficial transcripts with your application for the departmental initial review. If the applicant is admitted, then official transcripts of all college-level work will be required. Official transcripts must be in sealed envelopes as issued by the school(s) attended. If you have attended Berkeley, upload your unofficial transcript with your application for the departmental initial review. If you are admitted, an official transcript with evidence of degree conferral will not be required.
  2. Letters of recommendation: Applicants may request online letters of recommendation through the online application system. Hard copies of recommendation letters must be sent directly to the program, not the Graduate Division.
  3. Evidence of English language proficiency: All applicants who have completed a basic degree from a country or political entity in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This applies to institutions from Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, most European countries, and Quebec (Canada). However, applicants who, at the time of application, have already completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better at a US university may submit an official transcript from the US university to fulfill this requirement. The following courses will not fulfill this requirement:

    • courses in English as a Second Language,

    • courses conducted in a language other than English,

    • courses that will be completed after the application is submitted, and

    • courses of a non-academic nature.

If applicants have previously been denied admission to Berkeley on the basis of their English language proficiency, they must submit new test scores that meet the current minimum from one of the standardized tests. Official TOEFL score reports must be sent directly from Educational Test Services (ETS). The institution code for Berkeley is 4833. Official IELTS score reports must be sent electronically from the testing center to University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Division, Sproul Hall, Rm 318 MC 5900, Berkeley, CA 94720. TOEFL and IELTS score reports are only valid for two years.

 

Where to Apply

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page

Admission to the Program

Applications are evaluated holistically on a combination of prior academic performance, work experience, statement of purpose, and letters of recommendation.

The UC Berkeley School of Information seeks students with the academic abilities to meet the demands of a rigorous graduate program.

To be eligible to apply to the Master of Information and Data Science program, applicants must meet the following requirements:

  • A bachelor’s degree or its recognized equivalent from an accredited institution.
  • Superior scholastic record, normally well above a 3.0 GPA.
  • A high level of quantitative ability as conveyed by significant work experience that demonstrates your quantitative abilities, academic coursework that demonstrates quantitative aptitude, or scores in the top 15 percent in the Quantitative section of either the GRE or GMAT.
  • A high level of analytical reasoning ability and a problem-solving mindset as demonstrated in academic and/or professional performance.
  • A working knowledge of fundamental concepts including: data structures, algorithms and analysis of algorithms, and linear algebra.
  • Programming proficiency as demonstrated by prior work experience or advanced coursework. (For example: Python, Java, or R.)
  • The ability to communicate effectively, as demonstrated by academic performance, professional experience, strong essays that demonstrate effective communication skills, or strong scores in the Verbal and Writing sections of either the GRE or GMAT.
  • A Statement of Purpose that clearly indicates professional career goals and reasons for seeking the degree.
  • (Optional) Official Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test or Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores.
  • Official Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores for applicants whose academic work has been in a country other than the US, UK, Australia, or English-speaking Canada.

Note: Admission to the Fifth Year Master of Information and Data Science program requires that the applicant complete their undergraduate education at UC Berkeley in the year prior to starting the program. Consequently, applicants are not required to submit GRE or GMAT scores. However, applicants are required to submit three letters of recommendation and additional short answer essays.

For more information and application instructions, please visit the datascience@berkeley Admissions Overview.

Master's Degree Requirements

Unit Requirements

The Master of Information and Data Science is designed to be completed in 20 months, but other options are available to complete the program. You will complete 27 units of course work over an average of five terms, taking a maximum of 9 units each term. Courses are divided into foundation courses (15 units), advanced courses (9 units), and a synthetic capstone (3 units). You will also complete an immersion at the UC Berkeley campus.

The unit and coursework requirements for the Fifth Year Master of Information and Data Science are identical. However, as the program is full-time, it is intended to be completed in 12 months or three terms. 

Curriculum

Foundation Courses
DATASCI W200Course Not Available3
DATASCI W201Course Not Available3
DATASCI W203Course Not Available3
DATASCI W205Course Not Available3
DATASCI W207Course Not Available3
Advanced Courses
DATASCI W209Course Not Available3
DATASCI W231Course Not Available3
DATASCI W233Course Not Available3
Not Available to Fifth Year MIDS
DATASCI W241Course Not Available3
DATASCI W251Course Not Available3
Not Available to Fifth Year MIDS
DATASCI W261Course Not Available3
Not Available to Fifth Year MIDS
DATASCI W266Course Not Available3
DATASCI W271Course Not Available3
Not Available to Fifth Year MIDS
Capstone Course
DATASCI W210Course Not Available3

Immersion

As a Master of Information and Data Science (MIDS) student, the immersion is your opportunity to meet faculty and peers in person on the UC Berkeley campus. You will have the opportunity to gain on-the-ground perspectives from faculty and industry leaders, meet with data science professionals, and soak up more of the School of Information (I School) culture. Offered three times a year, each three- to four-day immersion will be custom-crafted to deliver additional learning, networking, and community-building opportunities.

Please refer to the datascience@berkeley website for more information.

Courses

Please note: DATASCI courses are only available for Information and Data Science (MIDS) students.

Information and Data Science

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

Morgan Ames, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Science and technology studies; computer-supported cooperative work and social computing; education; anthropology; youth technocultures; ideology and inequity; critical data science. .

Daniel Gillick, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Natural Language Processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistics, speech recognition.

Douglas Alex Hughes, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Experiments and Causal Identification, Social Networks, Political Behavior and Outcomes.

Paul Laskowski, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Information economics, telecommunications policy, network architecture, innovation.

Deirdre Mulligan, Professor. Privacy, fairness, human rights, cybersecurity, technology and governance, values in design.
Research Profile

David H. Reiley, Adjunct Professor. Field experiments, advertising, auctions and other pricing mechanisms, charitable fundraising, and electronic commerce.

Michael Rivera, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Research design, political science, voting and political behavior, technology and politics, civic participation and social media. .

Steven Weber, Professor. Political science, international security, international political economy, information science.
Research Profile

Lecturers

Zachary Alexander, Lecturer.

Brooks Ambrose, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Fereshteh Amini, Lecturer.

Daniel Aranki, Lecturer.

Sahab Aslam, Lecturer.

Prabhakar Attaluri, Lecturer.

Gerald Benoît, Lecturer.

Amit Bhattacharyya, Lecturer.

Katayoun Borojerdi, Lecturer.

Clinton Brownley, Lecturer.

Mark Butler, Lecturer.

Felipe Campos, Lecturer.

Daniel Cer, Lecturer.

Shiraz Chakraverty, Lecturer.

Kevin Crook, Lecturer.

Kim Darnell, Lecturer.

Vinicio De Sola, Lecturer.

Ryan DeJana, Lecturer.

Brad DesAulniers, Lecturer.

John-Peter Dolphin, Lecturer.

Micah Gell-Redman, Lecturer.

Nathan Stanley Good, Lecturer.

Peter Grabowski, Lecturer.

Annette Greiner, Lecturer.

Scott Guenther, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

John Alexis Guerra Gómez, Lecturer.

Ramki Gummadi, Lecturer.

Kyle Hamilton, Lecturer.

Darragh Hanley, Lecturer.

Conor Healy, Lecturer.

Daniel Hedblom, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Todd Michael Holloway, Lecturer.

Tracy Wei Huang, Lecturer.

Richard Huntsinger, Lecturer.

Cornelia Ilin, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Corey Jackson, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Gerard Kelly, Lecturer.

Stanislav Kelman, Lecturer.

Gunnar Kleemann, Lecturer.

Jari Koister, Lecturer.

Zona Kostic, Lecturer.

James Kunz, Lecturer.

Bum Chol Kwon, Lecturer.

Mark Labovitz, Lecturer.

Christopher Llop, Lecturer.

Sushovan Majhi, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Alex Marrs, Lecturer.

Taylor Martin, Lecturer.

Jared Maslin, Lecturer.

Mark Mims, Lecturer.

Lee Moore, Lecturer.

Emanuel Moss, Lecturer.

Esteban Arias Navarro, Lecturer.

Majid Maki Nayeri, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Fred Nugen, Lecturer.

Fred Nugen, Lecturer.

Eric Penner, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Elena Petrov, Lecturer.

Michael Pritchard, Lecturer.

Joachim Rahmfeld, Lecturer.

Andy Reagan, Lecturer.

Sid J Reddy, Lecturer.

Dmitry Rekesh, Lecturer.

Carlos Rivera, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Mahnaz Roshanaei, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Yacov Salomon, Lecturer.

Doris Schioberg, Lecturer.

Uri Schonfeld, Lecturer.

James Shanahan, Lecturer.

Joyce Shen, Lecturer.

Neha Singh, Lecturer.

Paul Spiegelhalter, Lecturer.

David Steier, Lecturer.

Michael Tamir, Lecturer.

Alberto Todeschini, Lecturer.

Puya H. Vahabi, Lecturer.

Luis Villarreal, Lecturer.

Jeff Yau, Lecturer.

James York-Winegar, Lecturer.

Todd Young, Lecturer.

Anna Zaitsev, Postdoctoral Scholar and Lecturer.

Contact Information

School of Information

102 South Hall

Phone: 510-642-1464

VISIT PROGRAM SITE

Senior Director of Student Affairs

Siu Yung Wong

studentaffairs@ischool.berkeley.edu

Admissions

Phone: 855-678-MIDS

admissions@datascience.berkeley.edu

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