Once you’ve been admitted to the Bachelor of Science in Information program, your coursework will consist of a set of core courses that are required of all BSI students, an individual pathway in Information Analysis or User Experience Design, and a pair of pathway-specific capstone courses in your final year. You will also choose elective courses that interest you, rounding out your academic experience.

Altogether, the BSI degree includes 120 credits (half of which are upper-level credits), and 54 of those credits come from courses offered by the School of Information. This page will guide you through the degree requirements — and how to select a pathway toward a career in the field.

These degree requirements are for prospective BSI students. Current BSI students: Please make sure to refer to the BSI Academic Advising Resource Site for your cohort's specific degree requirements.

Core courses 

• SI 110: Introduction to Information Studies
• SI 206: Data-Oriented Programming (counts as upper-level credit)
• SI 250: Information Statistics (counts as upper-level credit; coming in fall 2025)
• SI 300: Career and Internship Studio: Design Your Success 
• SI 302: Ethics and Information Technology

Pathways of study

A pathway is an area of concentration in advanced courses. It allows you to claim a specific identity or career opportunity. The BSI currently consists of two pathways, Information Analysis and User Experience Design, with additional opportunities to focus in areas like social media, entrepreneurship, digital humanities and consulting.

Information Analysis pathway

If you choose Information Analysis, you’ll complete courses that teach you to identify and ask questions that matter to stakeholders, gather essential data to answer these questions, find answers that are grounded in empirical evidence and present those answers in a convincing way.

Information Analysis students take the following courses:

• SI 301: Models of Social Information Processing
• SI 305: Introduction to Information Analysis
• SI 325: Math for Information Analysis
• SI 330: Data Manipulation
• SI 370: Data Exploration
• SI 425: Introduction to User Modeling

In your final year of the IA pathway, you will complete a pair of capstone courses that allow you to apply your knowledge and skills: 

• SI 405: Information Analysis Capstone I
• SI 485: Information Analysis Capstone II

User Experience (UX) Design pathway

If you choose User Experience Design, you’ll complete courses that teach you to design, build and evaluate compelling interactive systems. The philosophy of the pathway is user-centered design — that is, that designers of computing systems need to take account of, and even prioritize, the needs and experiences of any system’s users.

User Experience Design students take the following courses:

• SI 307: Introduction to User Experience Design
• SI 364: Building Data-Driven Applications
• SI 388: Putting the H in HCI: Human Perception, Cognition and Mental Processes
• Your choice of SI 305: Introduction to Information Analysis OR SI 422: Needs Assessment and Usability Evaluation 

You will choose two of the following advanced courses:

• SI 482: Advanced Interaction Design
• SI 467: Advanced Development* 
• SI 423: Advanced Qualitative Methods/Research: Interviews* 
• SI 433: Advanced Quantitative Methods/Research: Surveys* 
• SI 443: Advanced Qualitative Methods/Research: Participatory Design* 
• SI 453: Advanced Quantitative Methods/Research: Experiments* 
• SI 473: Advanced Quantitative Methods/Research: Server Analysis* 

*Coming in winter 2026

In your final year of the UX Design pathway, you will complete a pair of capstone courses that allow you to apply your knowledge and skills:

• SI 407: User Experience Design Capstone I
• SI 487: User Experience Design Capstone II

Electives

The BSI program is designed to provide plenty of flexibility for selecting additional courses that interest you. Visit our course catalog to browse the complete list of undergraduate course offerings (100-400 level courses).

Minors

The School of Information recognizes most minors offered by the University of Michigan. While enrolled in the BSI program, if you discover that you would like to pursue a minor, please work with your academic advisor.

Dual degrees

Students who wish to pursue two degrees, one from the School of Information and the second from a different college at U-M, should plan to meet with both academic advisors. UMSI currently has dual degrees approved with the College of Literature, Science and the Arts; the Ross School of Business; the College of Engineering; the School of Music, Theatre & Dance; the School of Kinesiology; and the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design.