The University of Cape Town (UCT) offers both undergraduate and postgraduate options in data science, each with distinct entrance requirements and procedures.
Undergraduate Applicants:
- Applicants must have Mathematics at 70% or above, and Physical Science at 60% or above in the National Senior Certificate (NSC). The National Benchmark Tests (NBTs) in Mathematics, Academic Literacy (AL), and Quantitative Literacy (QL) are also required.[2]
- The Faculty Point Score (FPS) or Weighted Points Score (WPS) determines the likelihood of admission, with higher scores guaranteeing or favoring admission.[2]
- Applicants select two majors, with Statistics & Data Science as one of the possible options. Only one of the major streams in statistics (Applied Statistics, Mathematical Statistics, or Statistics & Data Science) can be chosen.[2]
- General Science faculty admission requirements may also apply based on the type of previous qualification (NSC, International, Transfer).[4]
Postgraduate (MSc Data Science) Applicants:
- A minimum mark of 65% in a HEQSF level 8 qualification (equivalent to a UCT Honours degree) is required in any discipline that included a substantial research component and at least a first-year Statistics and Computing course.[1][3][5][7]
- Applicants may need to register for and pass STA1000P (the summer course in Statistics) before formal registration can proceed, depending on assessment by the selection committee.[1][5][7]
- Academic transcripts are assessed by a multidisciplinary selection committee, and interviews may be required.[1][5][7]
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Application submission involves:
- Filling in both the departmental and faculty application forms.
- Submitting a full academic transcript, a CV (2-page), and an Expression of Interest Form.[1]
- For degrees involving a minor dissertation, a one-page research proposal is also required.
- The closing date for most MSc (Data Science) coursework and minor dissertation programmes is 30 September for entry the following February.[1]
Curriculum Highlights:
- Compulsory MSc courses include: Databases for Data Scientists, Visualization, Programming in Python, Multivariate Analysis, Data Science for Industry, Statistical and High-Performance Computing, Supervised Learning, Unsupervised Learning, and Exploratory Data Analysis.[3][5][7]
References
- [1] Apply MSc – Data Science Program at UCT
- [2] admission guidelines – UCT Science – University of Cape Town
- [3] Masters Programmes in Data Science | University of Cape Town
- [4] Admission Requirements – UCT Science – University of Cape Town
- [5] Data Science M.Sc. at University of Cape Town
- [7] MSc – Data Science Program at UCT | University of Cape Town
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