Our 36 credit, STEM-OPT approved, terminal master’s degree program prepares students to collect, interpret and communicate the results of data analysis across a wide berth of social science fields.
Students are first introduced to basic/intermediate statistics courses and computation programming/data manipulation. They will then take research courses both within and outside of their preferred discipline, culminating in a research project or thesis on a topic of their choice (in conjunction with an advisor).
Additional academic and pre-professional opportunities include:
Prospective DASS students should select a faculty member in their specialty department for thesis or project guidance. A faculty advisor must be selected at the time of admission.
Students in the program will meet with their faculty advisor each semester. At this meeting, in consultation with the program coordinator, the advisor should provide academic advice to students on every relevant matter, including the students’ course schedule for the upcoming semester.
Students must secure a faculty advisor as part of the admission process. Below you will find the area director for each specialization in the social sciences. Please review the faculty profiles in your department of interest and work with the area director to discuss potential faculty mentors.
Department of Political Science:
The 36 credit program requires:
Each student will be required to take at least 9 credit hours in a department other than their specialty discipline to increase familiarity with the methods of adjacent fields.
The MS project or thesis will be submitted to two faculty members from two distinct departments (including the student’s project advisor), who have the sole responsibility for its review, revision and acceptance. Each committee member must be in one of the participating social sciences departments and hold membership in UB’s graduate faculty. In exceptional cases (and if the project warrants), one member of the MS committee might be from a non-social science department.
A master's project takes an applied approach to developing a practical solution or solving a specific problem in your chosen field in the social sciences. The structure of a project can be more flexible and may include a project report, design documentation or a prototype, with the goal of demonstrating your ability to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical setting. Examples of master's project topics include:
The purpose of writing a Master’s thesis or capstone is to showcase the scholarship a student has mastered as a result of their training. Key elements of this scholarship are:
The UB Data Analytics in the Social Sciences (DASS) program adheres to the ethical standards of the University at Buffalo (UB). Academic Integrity policy of the UB Graduate School states,
Work that is generated by text or image generation tools, including but not limited to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, or Grammarly, is work that derives from the collective work of hundreds of thousands of authors. As such, the application of automatically-generated text and the presentation of it as your own work is fundamentally incompatible with the University at Buffalo’s statement on Academic Integrity. Stated more clearly, misrepresentation of the output of an artificial intelligence system as your own work constitutes academic dishonesty, on the same level as asking someone else to write a research paper for you. This holds for all aspects of producing a thesis or capstone project, including but not limited to brainstorming ideas, generating research questions, surveying relevant literature and methodologies, producing written content, editing original writing, and data analysis. There are a small number of circumstances where use of generative AI tools may be appropriate, but students must obtain full written permission for these uses in advance from their advisor(s) – and from other members of their committee as soon as those members have been selected – and be transparent about whether and how they have used AI in their final products.
Documentation/acknowledgement of approved AI use can be incorporated into the research design, footnotes, or a note at the start of the project. Any questions about what needs to be disclosed and how to disclose it should be directed to your advisor. Any use of generative AI for which the student does not obtain prior written approval from their advisor(s)/committees or which they do not adequately document and acknowledge constitutes a violation of the Academic Integrity policy of the UB Graduate School and will be handled in accordance with UB’s Graduate Academic Integrity Procedures:
In cases of uncertainty, students should consult with their faculty advisor(s) to obtain greater clarity on the specific applications.
Fall: May 1
Spring: November 1
Admissions guidelines for the program are as follows:
After you submit your UB graduate application, you’ll be prompted to make your payment online by credit card or ACH through Nelnet.
U.S. citizens or current permanent residents may request a fee waiver through the application portal after completing the graduate application and uploading all required materials.
International applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early to allow time for student visa processing, which can take 1 to 4 months depending on your country of origin.
Please submit the following in addition to standard program requirements.
For admission review: (uploading unofficial versions is acceptable)
After admission (for visa processing):