Graduation Requirements
Requirements for Advancement to Candidacy
Graduate students may submit a Petition for Advancement to Graduate Candidacy form to the Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations (GAPE) office after satisfying the following:
- achieved classified status,
- completed a minimum of nine letter-graded units with all grades “C” or higher,
- fulfilled the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) requirement,
- achieved a minimum cumulative and program 3.0 GPA, and
- completed all required courses within the seven-year time limit.
University Graduation Requirements
Students must complete all curriculum, unit, GPA and culminating experience requirements as outlined in the Graduation Requirements section of the Graduate Policies and Procedures.
MS Data Analytics Graduation Requirements
The MSDA program consists of 30 semester units of 200-level courses with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. The program has developed two specializations: Specialization in Analytics Technologies and Specialization in Data Engineering. These specializations will be offered according to industry trends, student demands and resource availability.
Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement
Graduate students may satisfy the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) in one of three ways:
- Satisfactory completion of DATA 245 Machine Learning Technologies, a designated GWAR course embedded within the degree core requirements.
- Approval by the College of Graduate Studies of a professional publication written in English for which the candidate was a primary author.
- Completion of a master’s or doctoral program with a substantive writing requirement at an accredited university in which the primary language of instruction is English unless a department requires additional documentation of writing proficiency.
Culminating Experience (Plan A or Plan B)
All students must complete one of the following culminating experience options as part of their 30-unit program requirement. Both options require a two-course sequence (totalling 6 units).
- Plan A (Thesis): Students opting to complete a master’s thesis will take the DATA 299A and DATA 299B as a two-course sequence.
- Plan B (Project): Students opting to complete a graduate project will take the DATA 298A and DATA 298B as a two-course sequence.
