Our Masters of Applied Statistics and Data Science (MASDS) program has continued to grow this year. We have added new courses in Deep Learning, Predictive and Generative AI, and LLM and Text Mining, and next year will offer 21 courses, a substantial increase over previous years. Our applicant pool also increased significantly, and we now have over 795 applicants per year, for just roughly 80 new students enrolling per year. I have been informed that of all the self-supporting programs at UCLA, ours is now the most exclusive (has the highest number of applicants per student enrolled) and also has the highest job placement rate.
The MASDS is a 2-year degree program with all classes meeting in the evenings and caters primarily to full-time working professionals in the Los Angeles area. Students take 7 core courses plus their choice of at least 4 of our 15 electives. The program has 22 industry partners and continues to search for more. The MASDS program, which was started in 2016-17, underwent a thorough program review from the college in 2023, including an internal self-report and an external site review, with interviews with students, alumni, staff, and faculty. The review was overwhelmingly positive, and the review praised the program’s growth and success.
The MASDS program has two large events per year, a Town Hall with students and faculty in Winter, and an advisory board and networking event with our students, faculty, and industry partners each Spring. Both events were very successful and a lot of fun.
If you work in the Los Angeles area and are looking to potentially enroll or have employees from your place of business enroll in our MASDS program, or potentially hire our students or alumni either full-time or as interns, please contact Laurie Leyden (masds-office@stat.ucla.edu) or Rick Schoenberg (masds-director@stat.ucla.edu).
- Rick SchoenbergÂ