Master of Science in Data Science and Machine Learning
Frequently Asked Questions
1. ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
The class schedule for full-time and part-time students are the same. Classes are typically held on weekday evenings and Saturday during the day.
Starting from AY2025/2026, some core courses will also be conducted on weekdays during the day, providing students greater flexibility in selecting their classes.
The candidature period for full-time students is from 1 year to 2 years, whereas the candidature period for part-time students is from 2 years to 4 years.
Full-time students who wish to complete the programme in one year would have to take 5 courses in each semester.
To successfully graduate from the programme, students are required to complete and pass five core courses and five elective courses from the approved course list. They must also obtain a minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.00.
2. requirements
Yes, you are welcome to apply during the application period. All applications will be assessed based on their relevant background knowledge and work experience (if any) in relation to the programme. However, successful enrolment into the programme will depend on the strength of your application and the competitiveness of the applications received.
In general, applicants are required to have an honours degree or a 4-year bachelor’s degree to apply to our programme.
However, you may still submit an application if you have strong academic grades that demostrates your capability for further studies. Please note that admission into our programme is highly competitive.
Relevant work experience is advantageous but not mandatory. If you have relevant work experience, you are encouraged to detail this in your resume/CV for the review committee’s consideration.
Having programming experience is advantageous but not a requirement.
3. Finance
The financial statement can be either a bank statement or a recent payslip.
If a parent or relative is sponsoring your education, you will have to provide a sponsorship letter from them and a copy of their bank statement.
If you are sponsored by an organisation, you will need to provide a letter from the organisation with details of the sponsorship.
The amount of money in the bank account should be sufficient to cover the tuition fees, miscellaneous fees and living expenses for your entire candidature in Singapore. Please refer to the programme website at https://www.math.nus.edu.sg/cdsml/ms-dsml/dsml-prospective-students/ to find out more about the application, tuition and miscellaneous fees charges.
The sponsorship letter should state the relationship between the sponsor (parent or relative) and the applicant, along with the sponsor’s consent to fund the applicant’s education. Additionally, it must include the sponsor’s signature.
Yes, you can provide a certificate of deposit instead as the purpose of the financial statement is to prove if an applicant has sufficient funds to finance his/her entire candidature at NUS.
Students enrolled in the MSc in Data Science and Machine Learning are not eligible for CPF Education Scheme (CELS) as it is only applicable to full-time undergraduate students. For more information, please visit the CPF website.
The PSEA Scheme is administered by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and is open to all eligible Singaporeans. Please refer to the MOE website to check your eligibility for PSEA.
For more information on using your PSEA funds to pay for tuition fees, please visit the NUS Graduate School’s website, available at this link.
4. IELTS/TOEFL TEST SCORES
You do not need to submit a valid IELTS or TOEFL report if the mode of instruction for your postgraduate degree education was conducted entirely in English.
Yes, a valid TOEFL/IELTS report will still be required in this case as the mode of instruction of your entire education (undergraduate or postgraduate) will need to be conducted in English.
5. ACADEMIC DOCUMENTS
If the results for the second semester of your 3rd year is out before our application deadline, please submit the 3-year academic transcript. Otherwise, you may submit the current academic transcript. Please note that we will check whether you have taken some core courses in Computer Science and Statistics during the admission review process.
Yes, applicants should submit their transcript in their original language as well as its English translated version. Translated copies of the documents must be certified true copies. In particular, translated copies of the transcript(s) and degree scroll(s) must be certified by the issuing institution(s).
Applicants who have not yet graduated from their undergraduate studies at the point of application are to provide a Student Status Letter from their university. The letter should contain their enrolment status and candidature period.
If you receive an offer from the programme, please note that the offer will be conditional and you must submit your official degree scroll before commencing the programme.
6. ADMISSIONS
The programme has only one intake annually, starting in August.
The main difference is the application period. Please note that all applicants who receive and accept the offer during the early admission cycle or regular admission cycle will begin the programme at the same time.
Generally, there are no interviews unless otherwise informed by the programme.
For the August 2025 intake, all applicants will be informed of the outcome by latest 30 June 2025.
The programme may roll over unsuccessful applications from the Early Admission round for further review at the Regular Admission round.
All applicants are strongly encouraged to ensure that all the required documents are uploaded to their application at the point of submission.
In the event that you wish to update the documents submitted, please email the document(s) in PDF format to us at AskMDSML@nus.edu.sg, and we will assist to upload the documents to your application on your behalf. In your email, please also state your full name and application number.
7. OTHERS
Referee Reports and GRE Reports are not required for admission into the programme.
Please refer the Office of Student Affairs for more information on accommodation matters: https://osa.nus.edu.sg/accommodation/
If you have any further queries regarding our MSc in Data Science and Machine Learning programme and you are unable to find the answers on our website, you may also check the FAQ provided by the Faculty of Science.
Alternatively, you may email us your question. Please indicate your full name and application number in the email as well.