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Application Process

Graduate admission forms can be obtained online. These forms, in addition to USF's Deferment of Admission Form, Financial Statement Form and 91ÉçÇø Residency Classification Forms can be found at the USF Graduate Admissions site.

Students are admitted to the program for the fall and spring semesters of each year. All Application materials, including completed application form, official transcripts of all previous college work and GMAT or GRE scores, are due no later than the dates listed in the table below.

Program Admission Requirements

Students are admitted to the Master of Science in Business Analytics & Information Systems program based on the evaluation of their application in its entirety, including

• Bachelor's degree with a 3.00 GPA
• GMAT, GRE or other standardized scores for graduate programs (e.g. MCAT, LSAT).  There are only 2 waiver options available:
  
  • Applicants who graduated from USF’s Muma College of Business with a GPA of 3.5 or higher can request a GRE/ GMAT waiver. 
  • Applicants with 3 years or more of relevant full-time work experience in Information Technology/ Information Systems/ Business Analytics in the region the program is offered, can request a waiver.
  • Students requesting waivers should provide information justifying such waivers based on the above criteria. Additional documentation may be sought when deemed appropriate by the program.
• Language proficiency scores (for international students only) (e.g. TOEFL with a minimum score of 79) using TOEFL, Duolingo, IELTS or other standardized English tests as accepted by Graduate Admissions.
• Letters of recommendation,
• Statement of purpose, and
• Relevant work experience.

Application Deadlines

Spring: August 1 (international students) or November 1 (domestic students) for all applications. As spring seats are very limited, please apply as early as possible.

Fall:  February 1 (international students) or  July 1 (domestic students) for all applications.

Additional information for international students, such as language requirements, tracking an international application, university-wide financial resources for international applicants, issuance of an I-20, and request forms for a USF ID number can be found online from .

Prerequisites

Incoming students are expected to have the following as prerequisites:

• One semester of a high-level, object oriented programming language (e.g., C#, C++, Java) or substantial programming experience
• One semester of Information Systems Analysis and Design or equivalent experience
• One semester of Database Systems or equivalent
• a course in statistics
• a course in economics
• a course in financial accounting.

These required prerequisite courses may be taken concurrently with courses in the Master of Science in Business Analytics & Information Systems program. Prerequisite courses do not count toward the 33 credit hours of course requirements.

Admission Process

We get thousands of applications, which are reviewed first by our Office of Graduate Admissions and then by our MS-BAIS program on a first come, first served basis. The entire process may take us up to two months, and admissions will close whenever we reach our intake capacity for the academic year. Please contact us if you don’t hear back from us in two months. Our admissions process is as follows:

1. Submit your application, complete with GRE/GMAT scores, college transcripts, and other necessary details to USF Office of Graduate Admissions.

2. The graduate admissions office will notify you the receipt of your application, assign you a U number, review your application, and if complete, will refer your application to the MS-BAIS program. This process takes one month.

3. The MS-BAIS program will notify you by e-mail our receipt of your application and ask you to provide us some additional supplemental information via an online form. Note: If you did not receive this e-mail, your application is likely still pending at our Graduate Admissions Office. Contact them at 813-974-3350 or GradAdmissions@usf.edu (and not the MS-BAIS program director) for status on your application.

4. The MS-BAIS program will review your complete application and notify you the final decision on your application. Expect this process to take another month.

5. If you are an international student, you will then have to provide proof of funds for our Office of International Students to issue you an I-20. This may require a bank statement or a bank loan. Domestic students may skip to Step 7.

6. Upon receiving your I-20, schedule a visa appointment at your closest US consulate or embassy. Depending on applicant volume, it may take months to get a visa appointment. If you don’t get your visa appointment in a timely manner, you may have to defer your joining date. If you change your mind about USF and want to join another university, you will have to restart your I-20 process with your new school and get a new visa, which may further delay your arrival to the USA by several more months.

7. Inform us via e-mail when your visa is approved, so that we can register you for classes for your first semester. Your first semester classes are Data Mining (using Python), Analytical Methods in Business (using R), and Advanced Database Management Systems (using Oracle), if you meet program prerequisites.

8. Plan to arrive to our campus at least one week before the start of the semester. This is the time when we do orientation sessions and conduct free workshops (bootcamps) on R and Python – the two programming languages you must know for your first day of class. If you miss these bootcamps, it will be your responsibility to learn these tools on your own. Our professors don’t teach programming in class; they assume that you attended the bootcamps, are conversant in these tools, and are ready to use them to build statistical models and machine learning models in your first semester. This extra week will also help you find an apartment to stay, which are quite difficult to get at the start of any semester.

9. Upon arrival to the USF, apply for a USF ID card and NetID. NetID is your single sign on (SSO) access for USF computer systems, including our library, Canvas learning management system where all our class information is hosted, Student Self-Service system, Banner grade system, and so forth.