Last month, we welcomed the fourth cohort of the MDS Okanagan program to our campus.

It is exciting to see the program grow year-over-year. When the program began in 2018, we started with 28 students, which then increased to 35 for year 2 and our third cohort comprised of 31 students. Though Covid has had an impact on the numbers over the last 18 months, we anticipate that awe will be able to welcome a full cohort size of 40 students for the September 2022 intake.

Here are some facts about the current cohort:

  • 31 new students
  • 15 domestic and 16 international students from countries such as Canada, United States, China, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Vietnam.
  • 16 women and 15 men
  • Academic backgrounds include mechanical, electrical or computer engineering, jazz studies, neuroscience, international relations, business administration, medical education specialist, air transportation, and computer science
  • Prior to joining the MDS Okanagan program, 9 of our students had completed another advanced degree (Master’s, PhD, MD).
  • 73% of the class of 2022 completed their last degree in 2020 or prior, while 27% just graduated in 2021. The age range of this cohort is 21-53, with an average age of 28.

We are extremely impressed with the students chosen from a pool of 582 completed applications and look forward to an amazing year.

As you can see, the cohorts across all 4 programs showcase how diverse the students coming into the program are. Since we welcome a new cohort every year, it also means our alumni network continues to grow. We now have over 90 UBC-O MDS alumni working in data science roles in variety of industries - from government to large tech to small start-ups. Our alumni are spread across the globe with some working in BC but also in various Canadian cities, the US, China, and India. Our alumni are working for such companies as Stats Canada, HSBC, Fintech Cadence, Providence Healthcare, Replicon, Hitachi, Electronic Arts, Plenty of Fish and the BC provincial government.

Should you be interested in joining the program, the application process for the 2022-2023 cohort will open November 5, 2021 on the MDS Okanagan website.