What is the department policy on admission conditions?

Pursuant to S16-16, “Conditional acceptance to a program is, in effect, acceptance under probation in the major. Typically, a specified set of courses or requirements must be passed prior to attaining good standing in the program. There may be time limits or unit limits established to satisfy the conditions, which, if not met, may lead to disqualification from the major degree program without an intervening term on explicit probation.

Therefore, all conditionally admitted MS in Data Analytics students are on administrative academic probation until meeting the requirements described in their conditional admission offer. Students who either pass the waiver test(s) or the remedial course(s) (CR/NC only) by the end of the first semester that they are admitted into the MS in Data Analytics program will become fully classified. The waiver test(s) is/are offered before the second week of each semester, and they can be taken only once by each student.

Students who do not pass the waiver test(s) are required to enroll in the remedial course(s) for the upcoming semester. Furthermore, students who do not pass the remedial course(s) on their first attempt, will be notified in writing that they are required to repeat the course(s) the following semester and that failure to pass the course(s) after a second attempt may lead to academic administrative disqualification.

Conditionally admitted students will have one academic year (i.e., the first fall and spring semesters following program admission) to clear these requirements unless there are documented extenuating circumstances, or the student has received a verified extension by the Department Chair. While conditionally classified, students are only allowed to enroll in the remedial course(s) and those courses pre-approved by Graduate Advisor.

What are DATA 200 and the Waiver Test?

Please refer to FAQ – What is the department policy on admission conditions? Each conditionally admitted student is required to pass either the DATA 200 Waiver Test or the DATA 200 class offered in Fall 2023. A student who fails this test can’t take another Waiver Test in a coming semester. A student who fails this test must enroll in DATA 200 in Fall 2023. Conditionally admitted students may choose to skip this test if they already know they want to enroll in DATA 200 in Fall 2023. A student who fails the DATA 200 class in Fall 2023 will have one and only one more chance to enroll and pass this class in Spring 2024. The status of a student who has passed the Waiver Test or the DATA 200 class will be changed from “Conditionally Classified” to “Classified” at the end of the Fall 2023 semester.

DATA 200, Computational Programming for Data Analytics, is a remedial course in addition to the 10 required courses of the MSDA degree. As a remedial course, DATA 200 does not count towards earning your degree. The tuition cost of DATA 200 is $2,700 for Fall 2023.

The DATA 200 Waiver Test for Fall 2023 will be held at 6:00 pm on August 24 in BBC 226. in order to take this test, a student must (1) indicate “Intent to Enroll” via Next Step, and (2) RSVP to the department test notice issued in late July 2023.

This is a closed book and close note test. Only pens and pencils and erasers are allowed to be on the table. Each student must present a government-issued identification with a photo. The scope of this test includes Python language, data structures and algorithms. This test may include some common test formats such as multiple choices, short answer questions, and coding exercises.