FAQs
General
Where is the Department of Applied Data Science located?
The Department of Applied Data Science is located in the Interdisciplinary Science Building (ISB) on the 7th and 8th floors. It has state of the art facilities, such as student project laboratories and applied data science research laboratories.
Who teaches the MSADI Courses?
MSADI courses are taught by both academic faculty, as well as domain experts working in Silicon Valley.
Do Applied Data Science students have access to GPU machines?
The applied data science department has 22 Alienware Aurora R15 Desktops with AMD Ryzen™ 9 7950, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4090 with 24 GB GDDR6X, 128GB memory, etc. This GPU is 3x faster than the Colab tier GPU T4, and 12 Dell Alienware Area-51 desktop with Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 5090 with 32GB GDDR6X. This GPU is 3x faster than the Colab tier GPU T4.
Application
Can I refer my admission to the next semester?
Our department does not offer admission deferral. If you would like to be eligible for admission in a future semester, then you will need to submit a new application on Cal State Apply.
What are the two specializations and how do you compare them?
The two areas of specialization are Data Engineering and Analytics Technologies. While very similar in scope, the data engineering specialization goes deeper into data warehousing, the creation of distributed web systems and building generative AI applications such as NLP, LLM, LangChain and LLM agents than the analytics technologies specialization does.
Regular and Special Session
What are the tuition differences between Regular Session and Special Session?
According to the Bursar's Office, the following table is for a MSADI student taking classes in Fall 2025. This table serves as a reference for Resident and Non-resident students. Tuition and fees are subject to change.
Regular Session Tuition Session
| California Residency | Class Units | Tuition | Campus Fees | Unit Surcharge | Total Surcharge | Total Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resident | 1 | $2,340 | $1,163 | $0 | $0 | $3,503 |
| 3 | $2,340 | $1,163 | $0 | $0 | $3,503 | |
| 6 | $2,340 | $1,163 | $0 | $0 | $3,503 | |
| 9 | $4,032 | $1,163 | $0 | $0 | $5,195 | |
| Non-Resident | 1 | $2,340 | $1,163 | $444 | $444 | $3,947 |
| 3 | $2,340 | $1,163 | $444 | $1,332 | $4,835 | |
| 6 | $2,340 | $1,163 | $444 | $2,664 | $6,167 | |
| 9 | $4,032 | $1,163 | $444 | $3,996 | $9,191 |
Special Session Tuition Session
| Class Units | Total Tuition |
|---|---|
| 1 | $973 |
| 3 | $2,919 |
| 6 | $5,838 |
| 9 | $8,757 |
Admission
Can I change my admission of Special Session to Regular Session?
Students cannot change from Special Session to Regular Session or vice versa during the whole program period.
What are admission conditions?
Admission conditions are specified in the admission letter. These conditions must be satisfied in order to change the student status from conditionally classified to classified. The specific terms and conditions are included in the admission letter.
Study Plan
What is program of Study?
The Program of Study (POS) is a plan of courses to take in sequence in order to satisfy the course requirements of the MSADI degree. After consulting with the program coordinator, a full-time student should try their best to adhere to the POS in order to complete the course requirements in time for graduation.
What is Candidacy Form?
The Petition for Advancement to Graduate Candidacy [pdf] Candidacy Form) is the university contract of your graduate degree program. An approved Candidacy Form allows you to successfully progress towards graduation.
What are Degree Required Courses and Degree GPA?
Degree Required Courses are all 10 courses included in the Candidacy Form [pdf]. Degree GPA is the grade average of all completed Degree Required Courses. Degree GPA is the same as Candidacy GPA.
Can I take classes specific for the Specialization in Analytics Technologies?
In order to optimize the allocated resources for meeting the emerging skillset needs from industry, the ADS Department is not currently offering elective courses for the completion of Specialization in Analytics Technologies. All students admitted to Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 are admitted for the Specialization in Data Engineering.
What are course corequisites?
If course A is corequisite of course B, then course A must be taken concurrently with course B, or satisfactorily completed before course B.
What are the additional requirements for a course listing Graduate Advisor Consent as one of the prerequisites?
- For DATA 297: (1) 3.000 or greater Degree GPA, and (2) an approved job offer letter for internship
- For DATA 298A: (1) 3.000 or greater Degree GPA, and (2) an approved project team
- For DATA 299A: (1) 3.000 or greater Degree GPA, and (2) an approved thesis committee form
Enrollment
Which courses will be offered in Fall 2025?
- DATA 200 - Computational Programming for Data Intelligence
- DATA 201 - Database Technologies for Data Intelligence Applications
- DATA 202 - Mathematical Foundations for Applied Data Intelligence
- DATA 220 - Advanced Mathematical Methods for Data Intelligence
- DATA 226 - Data Warehousing and Pipeline Development
- DATA 228 - Big Data Technologies and Applications for Data Intelligence
- DATA 230 - Data Intelligence and Visualization
- DATA 236 - Distributed Systems for Data Engineering
- DATA 245 - Machine Learning Technologies
- DATA 255 - Deep Learning Technologies
- DATA 266 - Generative Model Applications
- DATA 297 – Data Intelligence Internship
- DATA 298A - MSADI Project I
- DATA 298B - MSADI Project II
- DATA 299A - MSADI Thesis I
- DATA 299B – MSADI Thesis II
I am currently an MSADI student, can I take a class from another program?
You can take a class from another program if you receive the approval by the Graduate Coordinator of the other program. Unless you receive the pre-approval by the MSADI Graduate Coordinator, a course taken from another program can’t be counted toward your MSADI degree.
Can I retake a MSADI class to improve my GPA?
A student must retake the course with the lowest grade score first for the purpose of improving GPA.
Scholarship and Financial Matters
Are there scholarships available for ADS students?
Only special session students can have the opportunity to apply for the scholarship offered by the Department of Applied Date Science. For more details, please visit Scholarships.
Is financial aid available?
Please refer to the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office for information.
Can I drop my classes and receive a refund?
For information about payments and refunds, please refer to the Bursar's office Payment Refunds page.
