Bridge Course Overview

UC Berkeley’s School of Information offers bridge courses for admitted students who have demonstrated Berkeley-caliber potential on all other admissions requirements, but may lack certain skills necessary for success in the Master of Information and Data Science (MIDS) program. Students will retain access to these courses throughout the entire program and may refer back to any course materials or assignments as needed.

Designed for applicants who lack a working knowledge of fundamental concepts, including data structures, algorithms and analysis of algorithms, and linear algebra, we offer two bridge courses: Introduction to Linear Algebra and Fundamentals of Data Structures and Algorithms. Each course is approximately one-half of the workload of a regular MIDS course.

The courses are entirely asynchronous and self-paced, allowing students to get started early and complete the courses at their own convenience. A teaching assistant is available to answer any questions during regular office hours, provide feedback on assignments, and grade tests.

While the courses are available to all students as a resource to improve their skills, students who are required to take one or both of the courses will be expected to complete the course(s) prior to the start of the Applied Machine Learning course.