The 10 Best AI And Data Science Master’s Courses For 2021 Posted on : Jul 20 - 2020

This article is a follow-up to my list of best data science undergraduate courses. While AI and data science make up part of most computer science undergrad degrees, it's at a post-grad level where students can really start to develop expertise.

Some of the world’s best tech-led colleges and universities offer specialized Master’s Degree courses in these subjects, and often they are also world leaders in research, partnered with Silicon Valley businesses on cutting-edge projects.

Studying data science and AI at this level will mark you out to employers as someone whose technical expertise is likely to exceed that of candidates who only have a computer science bachelor's degree. It might also be a step towards a Ph.D.

If your interest isn't technical but business-oriented, there are also MBA courses appearing with specializations in AI that may be worth considering.

MIT – Master of Business Analytics

A course focused on practical applications of data and machine learning, from one of the world's leading technology schools, would be a great place to start your advanced level education in this field. For any master's course, you will generally be expected to have either an undergraduate degree in a related field – for example, computer science or mathematics – but there is often some flexibility around these precise requirements. The other route that can qualify you is if you have gained extensive work experience in the field. MIT's Master, in line with most others, takes 12 months to complete, and aims to give students the knowledge and experience to start working with businesses and solving their problems.

Stanford University – MSc in Statistics: Data Science

Stanford is another world-leading US university with a very strong track record in AI research with global significance, as well as equipping students with strong practical skills and AI leadership potential. This course specializes in "data science with a computational focus," so could be considered more theoretical than a business-focused Master's, with courses covering advanced software development for scientists and engineers, multi-core computing, and statistical theory. However, electives can be taken in applied fields, including data-driven medicine, neuroimaging techniques, geostatistics, and social media analytics. View More