Information Management and Systems: MIMS

University of California, Berkeley

About the Program

The Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) program is a two-year full-time program, designed to train students in the skills needed to succeed as information professionals. Such professionals must be familiar with the theory and practice of storing, organizing, retrieving, and analyzing information in a variety of settings in business, the public sector, and the academic world. Technical expertise alone is not sufficient for success; I School graduates will be expected to perform and manage a multiplicity of information-related tasks.

Graduates of the MIMS program will be able to:

  • Identify and address user and stakeholder information and resource needs in context.
  • Make and assess information design decisions iteratively.
  • Intentionally organize collections of information and other resources to support human and/or machine-based interactions and services.
  • Understand and apply foundational principles and debates of information law, policy, and ethics.
  • Analyze complex relationships and practical choices at the intersection of technical design, policy frameworks, and ethics.
  • Understand and apply fundamental principles and debates of information economics.
  • Understand and apply architectural, computational, and algorithmic thinking and principles of concurrency to the design of information systems.
  • Scope, plan, and manage open-ended projects, both individually and in teams.
  • Present findings and conclusions persuasively.

Such a profession is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring aspects of computer science, cognitive science, psychology, sociology, economics, business, law, library/information studies, and communications.

The I School also offers a master's in Information and Data Science (MIDS), a master's in Information and Cybersecurity (MICS), and a doctoral degree (PhD) program in Information Management and Systems.

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Admissions

Admission to the University 

Applying for Graduate Admission

Thank you for considering UC Berkeley for graduate study! UC Berkeley offers more than 120 graduate programs representing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary scholarship. A complete list of graduate academic departments, degrees offered, and application deadlines can be found on the Graduate Division website.

Prospective students must submit an online application to be considered for admission, in addition to any supplemental materials specific to the program for which they are applying. The online application can be found on the Graduate Division website.

Admission Requirements

The minimum graduate admission requirements are:

  1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;

  2. A satisfactory scholastic average, usually a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale; and

  3. Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in your chosen field.

For a list of requirements to complete your graduate application, please see the Graduate Division’s Admissions Requirements page. It is also important to check with the program or department of interest, as they may have additional requirements specific to their program of study and degree. Department contact information can be found here.

Where to apply?

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page.

Admission to the MIMS Program

The I School’s Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) program welcomes students from a diverse set of backgrounds; some will be technically educated, some educated in the humanities and social sciences. Our goal each year is to bring in a talented class of students from a broad range of academic and professional backgrounds.

Applications are evaluated holistically on a combination of grade point average, GRE/GMAT score, work experience, statement of purpose, and letters of recommendation. As much as possible, applicants are judged on a combination of these factors. A minimum of two years of job experience is preferred, although not required. All successful applicants must have statements of purpose that demonstrate goals and interests consistent with the mission of the I School.

To be eligible to apply to the Master of Information Management and Systems program, applicants must meet the following requirements:

To Apply

For further information and application instructions, please visit the School of Information Application Instructions page.

 

Master's Degree Requirements

Unit Requirements

The Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) program requires at least 48 semester units of study. The first year of the program consists mostly of a core curriculum; the second year involves further study in core areas along with additional electives, with the expectation that the student will specialize in particular aspects of information management and systems, as well as complete a final project requirement.

Curriculum

Required Courses
INFO 202Information Organization and Retrieval3
INFO 203Social Issues of Information3
INFO 205Information Law and Policy3
INFO 206AIntroduction to Programming and Computation2
INFO 206BIntroduction to Data Structures and Analytics2
Technology Requirement
Elective: Additional two- or three-unit course, taken from an approved list of technology courses2-3
INFO 247Information Visualization and Presentation4
INFO 251Applied Machine Learning4
INFO 253AFront-End Web Architecture3
INFO 253BBack-End Web Architecture3
INFO 255Privacy Engineering3
INFO 256Applied Natural Language Processing3
INFO 258Data Engineering4
INFO 259Natural Language Processing4
INFO C262Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces4
INFO C265Interface Aesthetics3
INFO 290TSpecial Topics in Technology1-4
Social Science and Policy Requirement
Elective: Two- or three-unit course, taken from an approved list of courses.2-3
INFO 201Research Design and Applications for Data and Analysis3
INFO 232Course Not Available3
INFO 233Social Psychology and Information Technology3
INFO 234Information Technology Economics, Strategy, and Policy3
INFO 239Technology and Delegation3
INFO 241Experiments and Causal Inference3
INFO 271BQuantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 272Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management3
INFO 288Big Data and Development3
INFO 290SSpecial Topics in Social Science and Policy2-4
Electives
Further courses to satisfy the 48 unit requirement may be chosen from the school's course catalog. Up to 40 units of the 48 must be INFO courses. An additional 8 units may be used from courses in other departments, with approval from student's faculty adviser.29+
Final Project
INFO 298ADirected Group Work on Final Project3

Internship Participation

During the summer between the two years, students are strongly encouraged to participate in an internship program in order to use their newly acquired skills in real-world settings. Assistance in arranging internships will be provided whenever possible, but the ultimate responsibility of obtaining the internship will be that of the student. Past internships have been in corporate, academic, government, and nonprofit institutions.

Please refer to the School of Information website for more information.

Courses

Contact Information

School of Information

102 South Hall

Phone: 510-642-1464

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Senior Director of Student Affairs

Siu Yung Wong

studentaffairs@ischool.berkeley.edu

Senior Director of Admissions

Julia Sprague

admissions@ischool.berkeley.edu

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