Data Science Undergraduate Studies

UC Berkeley alum Alex Nakagawa, B.A. ’20, is redefining the role of data in professional sports as the LA Clippers’ Manager of Basketball Development and Engineering. Using cutting-edge technology and analytics, Nakagawa and his team provide insights that shape game strategies, guide player development, and inform injury prevention efforts. His journey from aspiring athlete to data scientist highlights the growing impact of interdisciplinary education, a cornerstone of Berkeley’s data science program, which equips students to apply data-driven solutions across diverse fields.

“I would recommend double majoring with a different degree, because I think while data science by itself is a very, very useful and versatile degree, I think being able to apply it to a particular domain overall makes you a better statistician, or economist, or historian, right?”

—Alan Liang

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Alan Jian hadn’t always envisioned a career in government. As a data science major at UC Berkeley, he saw himself following the same path many of his peers pursued: working for a major Silicon Valley company, where he’d be surrounded by cutting-edge technology.

But Jian's perspective began to shift when he became a teaching assistant for a class on the human contexts and ethics of data. The course asked students to critically examine the ethical implications of data-driven decisions, particularly their impact on underserved communities. This experience sparked a new curiosity about how his skills could be used beyond the private sector.

UC Berkeley’s undergraduate data science program retained its No. 1 spot in the 2025 U.S. News and World Report rankings released late Monday. The university also held its No. 2 ranking in computer science at the undergraduate level. It shared that spot with Carnegie Mellon University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Berkeley was also acknowledged in the rankings for its excellence in other undergraduate programs across campus.

UC Berkeley experts received a $1.5 million grant from the California Education Learning Lab (Learning Lab) to launch a first-of-its-kind computing technology hub for the state’s public colleges and universities. The hub will provide access to students across the state to course materials built on the JupyterHub platform, a cloud-based, open-source system widely used in scientific and industrial workplaces. It will be staffed and run by Berkeley for several California higher education institutions, saving money, aligning curricula and facilitating transfer pathways for STEM students. 

When William Reed entered UC Berkeley as a first year, he never predicted starting down a pathway in STEM. He’d struggled in calculus and chemistry in high school and told himself he wasn’t good at those types of subjects. Then he took Data 8. The subject proved difficult, but when Data Scholars provided him with the mentorship and community he'd been craving, he decided to see where this could lead. 

As it turned out, it would lead to Reed teaching the very subject he was struggling in.