The Data Science program offers an accelerated Bachelor's to MS degree program for current undergraduate students. Ordinarily, students must have a 3.000 or higher GPA and should apply for the MS program during their junior year through the Office of Graduate Admissions.
To apply for the accelerated MS program, a student is expected to have taken the following undergraduate courses: CS 151 /IS 352 , MA 251 , and ST 210 /ST 265 /EC 220 /PY 292 . Students are strongly encouraged to take additional mathematics courses, for example, MA 295 /CS 295 or MA 395 , MA 301 , and MA 252 . Three graduate courses may be taken that apply towards both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Students must earn a grade of B or better in each of the three courses in order for the courses to advance to the graduate program. The following graduate courses apply towards both programs: CS703 (in place of DS 303 ); CS737 (in place of CS 484 ); ST710 (in place of ST 310 ); ST765 (in place of ST 465 ); DS851 (in place of IS 358 ). To be able to complete the degree in an additional year, two of the three courses taken as an undergraduate must be CS703 (or CS 701 for economics majors) and ST710. No undergraduate course can be substituted for a graduate level course; thus, prior course planning is essential.
Students majoring in Economics and accepted into the accelerated Bachelor's to MS in data science may take ST765, ST 710, and CS701 to complete the MS in one and half years. ST 710 should be taken during the spring of a student's junior year, and ST 765 the fall of their senior year. Both courses will fulfill economics electives for their undergraduate degree. Students without prior programming experience should also take CS 701 in the fall of their senior year, which will count as an undergraduate elective.
Students interested in applying to the bachelor's to MS program may do so by completing the online application with the Office of Graduate Admission. The admission requirements include two letters of recommendation (both of which must be from Loyola faculty members) and an essay. Official transcripts are automatically requested and the $60 application fee is waived for all current Loyola students.