Capped Major Application

Capped Major Application

UC San Diego first or second year undergraduate students who would like to change from another major or undeclared into the Data Science Undergraduate Program may apply to the major via the Capped Major Application. Applications must be submitted on or before the deadline. 

At this time, transfer students are not eligible to apply to the Data Science major through the Capped Major application. If you are a transfer student interested in learning more about alternative ways to build your Data Science skills, please connect with the department through your Virtual Advising Center. 

Students are allotted only two application attempts. Therefore, if you are not admitted during your first attempt, you have one additional opportunity to apply, so long as you still meet eligibility requirements.

The Data Science Capped Major Application can be found on the UC San Diego Capped Major tool here: https://soeapp.ucsd.edu/cappedmajor/DSC 

Tentative Capped Major Application Dates:

Next Capped Major Application Cycle: FALL 2020 – Application Dates are TBD

Eligibility Requirements:

  • 1) Successful completion of 24 units (for letter grade) at UC San Diego (to ensure that students are making progress towards their degree).
    • 24 units must be must be completed and/or in progress* at the time of the Capped Major application to be eligible.
    • Please note: If you are applying while courses to meet the 24 unit minimum are still in progress and you Withdraw or Fail courses needed to reach 24 units, your application will be denied. Furthermore, this will be considered one of your allowed two application attempts. Therefore, we recommend applying with units still in progress if you are confident you can pass the necessary minimum units.
  • 2) Successful completion of the screening courses (for a letter grade): MATH 20C, MATH 18/20F, and DSC 10.
    • Courses must be completed and/or in progress* at the time of the Capped Major application to be eligible.
      • Please note: If you are applying while a screening course is still in progress and you do not ultimately pass or complete that course with a C- or better, your application will be denied. Furthermore, this will be considered  one of your allowed two application attempts. Therefore, we only recommend applying with a screening course still in progress if you are confident that you will pass the course with a C- or better.
    • Students who pursue the honors versions of MATH 18 and MATH 20C (MATH 31 AH and MATH 31 BH, respectively) will also be eligible for the Capped Major Application.
    • Spring 2020 Quarter ONLY: One screening course taken during the Spring 2020 quarter will be allowed to be taken as P/NP. Students who take one screening course during the Spring 2020 quarter must complete the other two screening courses for a letter grade to retain eligibility. 
  • 3) Students must apply by the end of their sixth academic quarter at UC San Diego.
    • Summer Quarters are not included in this total
    • At this time, students seeking Readmission who previously completed 6 or more academic quarters at UC San Diego are not eligible for acceptance. 
    • Due to the new “Time to Degree” policy, transfer students who have matriculated as a different major are unable to switch into the Data Science major through the Capped Major Application process. This is due to the additional screening process that would add to transfer students’ time to graduation, without a guarantee of acceptance into the major.

Students with 150+ units at the time of the application review wil need to have submitted a quarter by quarter (QxQ) plan for their remaining requirements to be reviewed by the DSC department and their college. QxQ plan must be emailed to dscstudent@ucsd.edu no later than the capped major application deadline.

Selection Process:

  1. Students will be ranked based on their GPA in the screening courses, MATH 20C, MATH 18/20F, and DSC 10. Grades from transfer credit will be used in calculating the GPA for the screening courses.
  2. Students with the same GPA in the screening courses will be ordered by their overall GPA.
  3. Students will be admitted according to their ranking based on the number of available seats. If there are more students at a given rank than the available seats, random selection will be made from among the students at that rank to fill in the remaining seats.