Data Science Undergraduate Studies

Already ranked #1 in the country by U.S. News and World Report, UC Berkeley’s Data Science major has recently become the largest on campus. 

This latest milestone reflects the Data Science Undergraduate Studies’ (DSUS) programmatic commitment to breaking down barriers to entry. Students in data science courses have access to free textbooks, tutoring, and cloud computing resources, ensuring that anyone—regardless of financial resources or prior experience—can explore and have tools to excel in data science. 

In the mission to treat and cure cancer, data is plentiful—x-rays, appointment notes, trial results, and more. But when that data exists as billions of pieces of paper scattered across offices and filing cabinets, progress slows to the pace of manual labor. Critical information falls through the cracks, directly impacting patients' access to care.

Jhinuk Barman, B.A. ‘19, is tackling that problem. As a data scientist at UC Davis Cancer Center, Barman is automating the management of data to support researchers, doctors, and patients.

“I think a lot of times, we focus on data science as a tech thing, right? Oh, you're going to go work for Meta. You're going to go work for Google. You're going to go work for insert tech company here or AI startup here. And for a lot of students, especially a lot of my students, they really want to contribute to their communities and give back, right? They're thinking about how to make their community stronger. [...] You can use it in ways that actually serve the community, serve the world, from helping develop algorithms that can read MRIs or other medical imaging data, to help diagnose some sort of disease or cancer, or to identify human rights violations by being able to search massive amounts of documentation.”

—Judith Canner, professor of statistics at California State University, Monterey Bay

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Fatima's parents left loved ones behind in Mexico in pursuit of the educational opportunities a life in the U.S. could provide for their children. This past fall, their dreams were exceeded as they watched their daughter teach a course at UC Berkeley. 

Fatima was one of 200 students who served as course staff in Fall 2024 and is an example of how the personal experiences and perspectives of student instructors shape the culture of data science at UC Berkeley. 

UC Berkeley’s undergraduate data science program retained its No. 1 spot in the 2025 U.S. News and World Report rankings released late Monday. The university also held its No. 2 ranking in computer science at the undergraduate level. It shared that spot with Carnegie Mellon University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Berkeley was also acknowledged in the rankings for its excellence in other undergraduate programs across campus.

UC Berkeley experts received a $1.5 million grant from the California Education Learning Lab (Learning Lab) to launch a first-of-its-kind computing technology hub for the state’s public colleges and universities. The hub will provide access to students across the state to course materials built on the JupyterHub platform, a cloud-based, open-source system widely used in scientific and industrial workplaces. It will be staffed and run by Berkeley for several California higher education institutions, saving money, aligning curricula and facilitating transfer pathways for STEM students.