What Major for Career in Data Science/Analytics?

[Anonymous]

The one person I know in the field was a math major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the few areas where I think an MPH could make sense.

I would not agree with this. Most hiring manager looks at a health degree and think you want to go into health and would not interview them. Unless it is health analytics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For PP, what fields are you recommending to your high schoolers?

Different people will have different views and opinions these day.
I think it's one of the best path for now.
This is a field that also can easily transition to AI/ML field

Besides of CS, name of the major is not as important as the actual curriculum.
You can go more technical (CS) to less such as business analytics.
However make sure to have good foundation on solid programming and other tech skills such as Python, SQL/Database, Data visualization, etc.

[Anonymous]

Math or statistics majors tend to become data scientists. There is already more competition, especially among people who don't have a math background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work with data scientists and the best ones have physics backgrounds, or computational biology. I would choose a field like that rather than data science.

The person who posted about AI is right. We use a ton of AI and it is a threat to these jobs—not just in the future, in the next few years.

Super helpful to know. Can you provide a little more context? What industry are you in and/or how do data scientists help you/your organization? What's their function/role? How does their work get utilized?

We've been talking about this at home a lot lately - considering how AI currently can (and can not) engage data and analytics more effectively than skilled labor, and how that's likely going to evolve over time. Our sense is that there will always be a need for skilled people in this space, but it would be helpful to hear how they distinguish themselves.

Thanks.

It’s a large multinational that sells data. The field is changing so fast. I would encourage kids to study something substantive like a science in addition to stats. Every standout in my department except one has a PhD in science (physics mainly). To me it’s a little akin to majoring in journalism just as the newspapers go under. Yes, you can study it and maybe you’ll get lucky and make it work, but odds of landing a job will be better, you’ll be more useful, not to mention being better poised for whatever the future brings, if you know about something else too.

[Anonymous]

My son recently graduated from a T20 with a degree in Applied Computational Math and Statistics and he is working for a top consulting firm as a data scientist. I think there are other paths one could take to get the same sort of job, but he was very intentional of getting into this field.

[Anonymous]

It really doesn't matter. Just take classes relevant to interest, as challenging as advanced as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another piece of info for considering paths at VT -- in their first destination report you can see what jobs different majors get -- CS vs CMDA vs Statistics.
https://fds.career.vt.edu/EmployerList/ChoiceN?cohort=2021-2022

CS major job titles (there are a lot more of these) are heavily in software engineer or software developer jobs. CMDA and Statistics job titles include some of that but also a lot of data scientist, data engineer, data consultant, analyst.

This. OP, As you can see, opinions are all over the place. Look at the Outcomes or First Destinations reports and see if that's what your kid wants to do and go with that program. Your kid should do the CS program at Tech and add a CMDA minor (it's called something else for a minor).

Every job is at risk with AI. In general, the smarter kids go for the hardcore majors. Do you honestly believe they are less likely to have the ability to pivot compared to the less smarter kids who select softer majors? I don't think so. One could argue that all of the content taught in a History program are on the internet (and have been for a couple of decades). Hasn't stopped kids from going to school for History and getting jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is becoming very interested in a career in the data science field. The colleges that he will likely choose between do not offer a "Data Science" major.

Should he major in Computer Science and minor in Statistics? Or should he major in Statistics and minor in Computer Science? Does anyone have any knowledge or career experience to share?

Not giving you a bad time, but why would your child consider a school that may not have the field of study related to career goals?

OP here. We live in VA, and he got into VA Tech College of Engineering and was waitlisted at UVA. I suppose there is still a chance that he could get accepted at UVA and apply for the Data Science major, but it seems to be a slim one.

I appreciate all of the different opinions. The CMDA major sounds perfect on paper, but the courses on the published flowchart do not look very rigorous to me when compared to CS/Stat majors/minors. He already taken a lot of those classes already through AP and post-AP. The idea of CMDA with CS minor might need to be explored by him.

He could apply rolling admission to Penn State for their Data Science major, but is it worth an extra $15,000 per year?

Penn State has Data Science in their EECS school (Computational Data Science) and also within their School of Information Science and Tech (Applied Data Science). Which program are you talking about? The latter is more applied than the former and there's not a lot of programming involved according the students and teachers at the department. I see the former as being comparable to Virginia Tech's CMDA. Also, unless you have merit aid or need-based aid, the tuition+fees alone are about $25K more at Penn State for a total of about $100K. Of course, it's a larger school, more established, Big 10, etc. but your son is already in at CS at Tech. Why bother going OOS?

[Anonymous]

Another option at VT is BIT in Business school

https://bit.vt.edu/academics/current-prospective-students/curriculum-option.html

This is one of the high ROI majors.

Again if you look at the curriculum
- Programming in Python
- Business Analytics
- Database Management
- Web tech
- Data Visualization
- AI
- Data governance.

A major that can easily translate to data analytics/science field. Outcome for this specific major is actually pretty good.

[Anonymous]

If you are VA instate and in for CS at VT, no need to look at Penn State whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are VA instate and in for CS at VT, no need to look at Penn State whatsoever.

OP here. This is what I am thinking as well. Especially when some folks are commenting that an actual degree in Data Science is not as truly useful as CS/Stats.

It looks like there is value in both Stat (minor in CS) and CS (minor in Stat) paths. I am leaning toward the CS major as the best path, but my DS thinks he might prefer the Stat major, which has quite a bit more flexibility with electives and such. He'll have to switch out of the College of Engineering at VT, but I think that should be easy to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are VA instate and in for CS at VT, no need to look at Penn State whatsoever.

OP here. This is what I am thinking as well. Especially when some folks are commenting that an actual degree in Data Science is not as truly useful as CS/Stats.

It looks like there is value in both Stat (minor in CS) and CS (minor in Stat) paths. I am leaning toward the CS major as the best path, but my DS thinks he might prefer the Stat major, which has quite a bit more flexibility with electives and such. He'll have to switch out of the College of Engineering at VT, but I think that should be easy to do.

In general, CS major + Stat minor is the way to go if the kid can handle it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are VA instate and in for CS at VT, no need to look at Penn State whatsoever.

OP here. This is what I am thinking as well. Especially when some folks are commenting that an actual degree in Data Science is not as truly useful as CS/Stats.

It looks like there is value in both Stat (minor in CS) and CS (minor in Stat) paths. I am leaning toward the CS major as the best path, but my DS thinks he might prefer the Stat major, which has quite a bit more flexibility with electives and such. He'll have to switch out of the College of Engineering at VT, but I think that should be easy to do.

I shared this in another VT thread but adding here too...Whichever major/minor/double-major combo he settles on, if he's interested in data analytics/data science he should look into joining VT's Databridge program. It teaches analytics tools and then connects students with professors throughout the university who need analytics help with their research. DS (junior CMDA major/CS minor) has done a few semesters with it and felt it really helped his resume. He has a great internship for next summer. Databridge is mostly staffed with CMDA students but any major can join.
https://www.databridge.dev/
https://www.arl.org/databridge-prepares-stude...ers-in-data-science/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are VA instate and in for CS at VT, no need to look at Penn State whatsoever.

OP here. This is what I am thinking as well. Especially when some folks are commenting that an actual degree in Data Science is not as truly useful as CS/Stats.

It looks like there is value in both Stat (minor in CS) and CS (minor in Stat) paths. I am leaning toward the CS major as the best path, but my DS thinks he might prefer the Stat major, which has quite a bit more flexibility with electives and such. He'll have to switch out of the College of Engineering at VT, but I think that should be easy to do.

I shared this in another VT thread but adding here too...Whichever major/minor/double-major combo he settles on, if he's interested in data analytics/data science he should look into joining VT's Databridge program. It teaches analytics tools and then connects students with professors throughout the university who need analytics help with their research. DS (junior CMDA major/CS minor) has done a few semesters with it and felt it really helped his resume. He has a great internship for next summer. Databridge is mostly staffed with CMDA students but any major can join.
https://www.databridge.dev/
https://www.arl.org/databridge-prepares-stude...ers-in-data-science/

^^^Clarification on that, I thought DS said it was for any major but that link says only certain majors can do it for course credit and the "undergraduate research" class you register for is CMDA. So, he'd need to investigate. But, really can't say enough good things about the program.