The one story

Every online program sells convenience. We sell depth.

Most data science masters are a login screen. This one is a room: the same fifteen people, the same professors, four semesters, and real work for real organizations before the degree is done.

01 · Beginning

You are known

A small in-person cohort where faculty work with you directly, not a lecture hall or a discussion board.

02 · Sequence

You are trained hard

Statistics, data engineering, machine learning and AI in one deliberate progression, with a project in every course.

03 · Practicum

You do real work

The required Industry Practicum fills your final semester inside a real organization.

04 · Ending

You go far

Our people include a planetary scientist at NASA, an AI scientist at Argonne, a Berkeley Lab researcher, and a quantum photonics scientist at Quantinuum.

Curriculum

The sequence is the education.

Thirty-six credits, one cohort, four semesters. Each builds on the last, and every course ends in applied work you can show.

Semester 1 · Fall

Foundations

Applied Statistics I
Data munging and exploratory analysis
Programming for data science
Databases for data science
January: industry workshops

Semester 2 · Spring

Modeling and systems

Applied Statistics II
Data visualization and communication
Applied machine learning
Distributed and cloud computing

Semester 3 · Fall

Depth

Advanced statistical modeling
Deep learning and AI
Practical data science

Semester 4 · Spring

Industry Practicum

Full-time placement in a real organization
Professional supervision and faculty oversight
Portfolio-grade deliverable

"Yes, I can process terabytes of data because I know Spark. I can train models and evaluate their results; and the list goes on. The program is rigorous, and the cohort taught me how to work in a team."

Kyle Rodriguez · Class of 2023 · Data Scientist, Elutions

The practicum

Your final semester is a job, not a class.

Every student completes the Industry Practicum: a required, full-time placement inside a real organization in the final semester, doing accountable professional work with faculty oversight.

Where other programs end in a classroom capstone or an optional internship, the practicum is built into the degree. Placements have spanned environmental science, medicine, finance, insurance, and national defense.

Bring us a hard data problem. Organizations bring us their real questions, and faculty-mentored student teams work them. That is how most practicum partnerships start. Write to us; the first conversation costs nothing.

Recent corporate and research partners

Allen Institute for Brain Science · LexisNexis Risk Solutions · USDA Agricultural Research Service · HPCC Systems · Riff Analytics

A seminar circle on the bayfront lawn at New College of Florida

Faculty

Professors who know your name, and the industry.

The program faculty have worked and consulted at organizations including Goldman Sachs, IBM, Bank of America, Novartis, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and they teach every course themselves.

Gil Salu

Director of the Master's in Data Science; databases and modern cloud computing; IBM and Charles River Development; advisor to AI and quantum computing agencies.

Rohan Loveland

Computer and Data Science; machine learning and anomaly detection; formerly Los Alamos.

Andrey Skripnikov

Applied Statistics; sports analytics and time series; builds dashboards with students.

Toby Wade

Data Science and AI; quantitative finance, cryptocurrencies; twenty years in industry.

Tyrone Ryba

Bioinformatics; genomics and computational biology across the data lifecycle.

Bernhard Klingenberg

Professor of Statistics; co-author of a standard statistics text; drug-development methods.

New College students and founders beside the college bus in the 1960s

Since 1960

Great endings begin here.

New College is Florida's designated honors college: a teaching college where education is a conversation, evaluations are written in narrative, and every student defends original work.

The proof is where our people end up. Our very first graduating class produced a Fields Medalist. Ninety-two students have won Fulbright awards since 1968, from a college of about 700.

Fields Medal

William Thurston, Class of 1967, won mathematics' highest honor.

92 Fulbrights

Since 1968, across 36 countries, from a college of about 700 students.

No. 1 public

Among liberal arts colleges in Washington Monthly's 2025 ranking.

Where our people work now

Planetary scientist

NASA

AI scientist

Argonne National Laboratory

Researcher

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Quantum photonics scientist

Quantinuum

Statistics doctorate

Carnegie Mellon University

Agentic AI engineer

United Nations

Senior software engineer

Akamai

Lead data scientist

YouGov

The numbers

Small by design.

Students in a cohort

Small enough that every seminar is a conversation.

Credit hours

Eleven courses, industry workshops, and the practicum.

No. 11

Fortune affordability rank

2025; Florida residents pay $11,384 in first-year tuition and fees.

100%

In person

Campus, cohort, and faculty, on Sarasota Bay.

Bring your questions. Leave with a profession.

Applications are open now; the final deadline is in June. No specific major is required, and there is no GRE.

Ready to apply Ask a question

Questions · datascience@ncf.edu