Prospective Students

The Fall 2025 enrollment period is closed.

Please reach back to us in December.

Prospective Students Info

In the Data Science minor you will learn how to:

• Apply modern data science techniques arising in the fields of computer science and mathematics to solve real-world problems, with a special emphasis on problems arising in the context of biomedical, natural and physical sciences.
• Demonstrate critical thinking and innovation skills in the design of data science techniques as applied to data curation, analysis, modeling, visualization, or decision making, while understanding how to identify and express limitations in the application of models as analytic and predictive tools.
• Communicate and collaborate in a variety of professional contexts and in diverse environments, demonstrating the understanding of principles of effective data visualization design for data communication, as well as communicating effectively with diverse audiences.
• Understand the human and ethical implications of data science and integrate that knowledge into the design and execution of their work by applying relevant ethical and social standards to: demonstrate understanding of privacy issues; analyze and discuss social impacts in the realm of data science; advocate for ethical decision making in the use of data.

Enrolling in the Data Science minor

• Any current UMD College Park undergraduate student with at least 4 remaining semesters, GPA of 2.0 or higher, and flexibility to complete 18 credits, can enroll in the Data Science minor, provided they satisfy the DATA minor fundamental statistics prerequisite.
• DATA minor fundamental statistics prerequisite requires taking DATA100, or STAT100, or MATH135, or any 400-level STAT course (i.e., a statistics course offered by the STAT program at CMNS) as a prerequisite to enroll in the minor.
• Students with AP STAT score of 4 or 5, or students with IB Mathematics Analysis or Applications HL score of 5, 6, or 7, fulfill the DATA minor fundamental statistics prerequisite.
• Students must declare a major before enrolling in a minor.
• In situations where a student already has completed some relevant coursework, the requirement of 4 remaining semesters may be relaxed upon approval by the Program Director.
• ENEE324, DATA400, and STAT400 are considered as equivalent courses for the purposes of enrolling in the DATA minor.

Restriction:

Students in the Mathematics major Statistics specialization (1701S), the Computer Science major Data Science specialization (0701B), or the Computer Science major Machine Learning specialization (0701F) may not enroll in the Data Science minor.

Important:

• Please note that we strictly enforce the prerequisites, which are: DATA100 OR STAT100 OR MATH135 OR DATA400 OR any STAT4xx course (or their UMD recognized equivalents: ENEE324, SURV410, SURV440, BIOE372).
• Please note that we strictly enforce course prerequisites.
• Please note that Calculus is not a sufficient prerequisite for the DATA minor.
• Please note that statistics courses offered by departments other than MATH and STAT are not a sufficient prerequisite for the DATA minor. Your department may consider some of their courses as equivalent to STAT courses, but STAT department only recognizes courses listed above (ENEE324, SURV410, SURV440, BIOE372).
• Please note that we do not accept co-requisites – the prerequisite must be completed before a request to enroll in the DATA minor can be considered.

Contact:

In order to initiate the enrollment process, please email data-director@umd.edu with your request and a copy of your unofficial transcript.

Important Information for Prospective Students:

We now accept requests for enrollment in the DATA SCIENCE minor for the Academic Year 2025/26.

In order to be considered, please email data-director@umd.edu with your request, UID number, and an attached pdf copy of your unofficial transcript.

The Fall 2025 enrollment period will end on October 10, 2025.

Office Hours:

In person office hours are held in Mathematics Building, room 2105 (MTH2105) on a first come – first served basis.

For online office hours, please email data-director@umd.edu ahead of time, to receive a personalized Zoom link.