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Computational Social Science CSS
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Careers in Computational Social Science

The Computational Social Science M.S. program at UC San Diego equips graduates to address complex societal challenges using data-driven insights. By blending advanced computational, statistical, and machine learning techniques with rigorous social science methodologies and approaches, the program prepares students to excel in a wide variety of industries that require expertise in analyzing human data, human behavior, social systems, and policy impacts through cutting-edge analytical tools

Why Choose CSS?

You have many choices of academic path towards your goals, so it's natural to ask why you should choose CSS over other more commonly discussed paths. 

Our Capstone Project: A key component of the CSS M.S. curriculum is the year-long capstone project, which offers hands-on experience with real data and difficult problems in the world of Social Science. Here, you'll get a chance to learn from experts in the questions you're addressing, while also acting as an expert on data analysis and quantitative methods. You'll leave this project not just with experience, but with a digital portfolio of your work, which you can show potential employers when they want to know just what a CSS graduate is capable of.

Engagement with CSS Community: Our M.S. students participate in a weekly CSS Seminar, where they have the opportunity to engage with peers, faculty, and industry professionals, fostering networking opportunities in the broader CSS community in and outside of UC San Diego. Additionally, our mentorship program offers students peer-to-peer guidance on academics, research, and career development. CSS also hosts events throughout the school year, giving students the opportunity to socialize and network outside of the classroom with students and faculty across campus.

Pathways to Ph.D: Although our program is designed to allow students immediate options in industry, the work you do here will also make you a stronger scholar in your social science field of choice. By taking electives, working with Ph.D students and faculty, and interacting in the Social Science departments which make most sense for your interests, you'll get a better sense of what doors a Ph.D might open in your field, and your CSS skills and experience in your field will make you more competitive in Ph.D applications if you choose to go that route.

Versatility: The tools we're going to teach you are useful across a huge swath of industry, and your understanding of human research will give you a competitive edge in places where purely data-focused scholars may leave employers feeling cold. Sure, you can apply for one of the increasingly many positions looking directly for computational social scientists, but between your work in your social science fields and your strong computational/quantitative background, you can also apply for positions seeking social scientists, data scientists, analysts, or to offer your unique background to the many jobs where they know they need a uniquely skilled person for their unique problems, but aren't quite sure what to call that person. 

Standing out: As more and more people see meaningful futures in computation and data, the field of applicants to relevant jobs is growing ever more crowded with computer scientists, data scientists, and analysts. As a computational social scientist, your application will stand out from the crowd, you'll get an easy opportunity to talk about your interests, and savvy employers will see your dedication to and interest in the human aspects of data from the moment they put eyes on your application.

In short, CSS prepares you for many positions, whether in classical data science, in computation and machine learning, in social science focused positions, and even as a stepping stone to even more in-depth study in your field. CSS is not the path most traveled, but it's often valuable to stand out from the crowd, and the flexibility of skills and knowledge you'll have will open a great many doors for you.

Explore Career Opportunities

One of the joys of CSS is the wide variety of doors it opens, so you can always build your own path, graduates from our program would be well-qualified for jobs titles such as:

  • Computational/Quantitative Social Scientist
  • Computational Behavioral Scientist
  • Social Science Analyst
  • Quantitative Social Science Consultant
  • Research Scientist
  • Recruitment Research Manager
  • Data Scientist
  • Quantitative User Experience Researcher
  • Experimentation and Analytics Researcher
  • Quantitative Analyst
  • Machine Learning Engineer
  • Behavioral Data Scientist
  • Scholarly Communication Specialist or Science Writer

Students with a master’s degree in computational social science may find employment opportunities in a wide variety of settings, including:

  • Non-Profit Organizations (e.g. Environmental Defense Fund, EFF, the Gates Foundation, Unicef) 
  • Social Media Companies (e.g. Twitter, TikTok, Instagram/Facebook)
  • Tech companies (e.g. Amazon, Google, Netflix, Apple, Leidos, Meta)
  • Consulting firms (e.g. McKinsey, Accenture)
  • Governmental agencies (e.g. National Archives, Library of Congress, United Nations, County- and State-level agencies)
  • Defense agencies and Contractors (e.g. DoD, CIA, NSA, Booz Allen Hamilton)
  • Cybersecurity and Cybersecurity Training (e.g. Leidos, Dragos)
  • Hospitals and Healthcare (e.g. SHARP, Kaiser Permanente, Gilead Pharmaceuticals)
  • Start-ups
  • Educational Institutions (e.g. UC San Diego, local school districts)
  • Education Technology Companies (e.g. ETS, Macmillan, Pearson, TurnItIn)
  • Natural Language Processing Companies (e.g. Nuance, Grammarly, Infinitus, Sensory Inc)
  • Analytics Firms (e.g. Gallup, PeopleAnalytics)

Where are our students?

Our CSS M.S. graduates are finding success in many places. See our alumni page to check out what they're up to!