Frequently asked question page for the UBC Data Science minor.
I have filled out the application form for the Data Science Minor, is there anything else I should do?
Yes. Please make sure to complete any requirements for admission into a minor program from your home faculty. For example, the Faculty of Science students must fill out the form for Science Minor: Minor in another Science specialization by May 15th.
The form my home Faculty requires me to fill in asks for the signature of the Data Science Minor advisor. How should I contact this person.
You do not need the Data Science minor advisor's signature when you apply to the minor. You can submit your application with only the signature of your major advisor (if required by your faculty). We will contact your Faculty directly after the admission process.
Who needs to sign the Primary Specialization Approval Form - Minor in Data Science form that Science students are required to fill out to apply for the Data Science Minor?
The Primary Specialization Approval Form - Minor in Data Science form needs to be signed by your Major Advisor.
I am currently a third-year student, but I will be gaining year four status in September. Can I still apply?
Probably! You need to satisfy the requirements for admission into a minor program from your home faculty. The Faculty Science, for example, allows second and third-year students to apply, even if they will be fourth-year students by the start of the program. Other faculties might not have any year requirements. In general, each faculty has their own rules. Check with a faculty advisor if you are not sure.
I am a first-year student without a specialization. Can I apply?
Depends on the restriction of your home faculty. Faculty of Science does not allow first-year students to apply to a minor. Faculty of Arts does allow. If you are unsure, check with a faculty advisor.
I read that if the minor is oversubscribed, a randomization process will be used to select candidates. Will any of the criteria in this selection process be based on GPA? Is there anything I can do in my application to stand out?
Thanks for your interest in the program. As long as you meet the minimum lower level requirements (listed on https://datascience.ubc.ca/minor), then you have the same chance getting into the minor as anyone else who meets those requirements. Our goal for the program is to make it accessible to all students who want to take the program and meet the admissions requirements. We may not be able to do this in the first couple of years of the program, due to resource limitations and program demand. If demand exceeds the spots we can make available (which are limited by our resources) that is when the randomization process will come into play.
I am a BCS student, can I apply for the minor?
Unfortunately, BCS students cannot take a minor.
I haven’t taken any of the lower-level course requirements for admission to the Data Science minor yet. Can I still apply and be accepted, contingent my grades being above 68% in those courses once I take them?
Thanks for your interest in the Data Science minor. You must have taken the lower-level requirements, and achieved the minimum GPA (listed here: https://datascience.ubc.ca/minor) in them to meet the criteria for admission into the Data Science minor by the minor application deadline (for this round of applications, this is May, 15 2022).
Can I use a different second year statistics course in place of STAT 201 as the pre-requisite for STAT 301?
To obtain the Data Science minor, you will be required to take STAT 301, and STAT 201 is a hard prerequisite for it. Thus, you will need to take STAT 201 if you want to complete the minor. There is some overlap between STAT 201 and other second year statistics courses, but they are significantly different enough to not be credit excluded. STAT 201 covers topics not found in these courses that will be needed for STAT 301, including simulation-based inference and reproducible scripting for analysis.
What are the prereqs for DSCI 310?
There was an inconsistency between UBC Calendar and our website. It is being fixed now. The correct prereqs for DSCI 310 are:
- DSCI 100 and either (a) one of CPSC 203, CPSC 210 or CPEN 221 or (b) one of MATH 210, ECON 323 and one of CPSC 107, CPSC 110
To take a course from the Data Science minor's upper-level requirements that has prereqs beyond what is required for the minor (like CPSC 304), do I actually need to take the extra prereqs?
Yes, you need the prereqs for the courses you take. Fortunately, there are paths to complete the upper-level minor requirements without taking additional prereqs, such as taking CPSC 368 rather than CPSC 304.
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