Find statistical science admissions requirements and general application information.
Undergraduate preparation for admission
The statistical science graduate program at UCSC is open to majors of any discipline that have sufficient quantitative training.
Incoming students are expected to have knowledge of the following subjects in order to be successful in the graduate curriculum:
At a minimum, students applying to the statistical science program are expected to have taken courses on the following as part of their undergraduate degrees:
- univariate and multivariate calculus (UCSC equivalent, MATH19A/B and MATH23A/B at UCSC, respectively)
- linear algebra (UCSC equivalent MATH 21)
- introductory statistics (UCSC equivalent STAT 5 or STAT 7/L)
- introductory calculus-based probability and statistical inference (UCSC equivalent STAT 131 and STAT 132)
- basic computing (UCSC equivalent CSE 5P, CSE 14, or CSE 20)
Additional courses in mathematical statistics, linear regression, generalized linear models, time series, data visualization, programming, and/or machine learning are recommended. Students applying to the Ph.D. program can benefit from taking real analysis and advanced programming courses, but these are not required.
Other useful information
Students are admitted into the statistical science program and not into a specific faculty lab or research group. Securing a faculty sponsor before your application is not required for admission.
All students admitted into the program are assigned both a first-year faculty mentor and a graduate student peer mentor. Students are not required or expected to work with their first-year faculty mentor for the capstone project or doctoral dissertation.
Designated emphases
Statistics
Students from a Ph.D. degree program, other than statistical science, who meet the following requirements can have the designated emphasis of “statistics” annotated to their degree title.
Data Science
The Data Science Designated Emphasis is a non-degree program housed in the Department of Statistics. The program aims to provide Ph.D. students from a wide swath of graduate degree programs across campus with the training required to apply state-of-the-art methods and tools from data wrangling, data visualization, statistical data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to their own research.
4+1 Pathway to STATS
The Department of Statistics offers a 4+1 statistical science bachelor’s/master’s pathway. Undergraduate students in certain majors can apply to the pathway in order to earn a B.S. degree in their own major together with an M.S. degree in statistical science. Depending on the student’s progress, the B.S./M.S. pathway can be completed in five years.
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Application materials
Application fee (domestic): $135
Application fee (international): $155
Application requirements:
- GPA (minimum 3.0)
- Resume/CV
- Letters of recommendation (3)
- Transcripts
- TOEFL or IELTS (non-native english speakers only)
- Personal history statement
- Statement of purpose
- GRE scores are no longer required