What Major for Career in Data Science/Analytics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Financial Econometrics
Actuarial Science
Nuclear or materials engineering

Please do not study actuarial science if you want to be a data scientist. That is for becoming an actuary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Financial Econometrics
Actuarial Science
Nuclear or materials engineering

Please do not study actuarial science if you want to be a data scientist. That is for becoming an actuary.

Also what schools offer majors in Financial Econometrics? That is so specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can any folks in the field weigh in here?(I am reviving an old post because it has some focus on VT). Which would make sense for a kid that wants to maintain flexibility with their options after graduation:
1. CMDA major + CS Minor
2. CMDA major + Statistical Data Science double major

I would think CMDA+CS minor. Statistical Data Science is a new major and I don't know how much it overlaps with CMDA. You could compare them by looking at the major check sheets on the VT website.

FWIW, DS graduates in May as a CMDA major, cryptography/cyber security track (no minor ) and has accepted a data scientist job at a defense contractor. He had multiple job offers.

[Anonymous]

Two of the key skills are:

- Knowledge of R programming language and its tools.

- Knowledge of which statistical test to apply when.

[Anonymous]

Computer science w math minor or the reverse. The problem is the “data science” label is being co-opted in some spheres to be less rigorous. I think unless your child is at an extremely well known program another major and relevant coursework would be better and more versatile.

[Anonymous]

My kid is a data science major. At her school the major is actually data science and statistics. There is a heavy emphasis on programming. She has learned R and Python. Based on that, I'd say to major in statistics and minor in comp sci.

The advice above to check the requirements for data science majors was spot on.

[Anonymous]

At VT there is lots of overlap so it might be possible to double major in CMDA and Statistical Data science and a minor in CS with minimal extra time.
CMDA: https://catalog.vt.edu/undergraduate/college-science/computational-modeling-data-analytics/computational-modeling-data-analytics-bs/
Statistical Data science: https://catalog.vt.edu/undergraduate/college-science/statistics/statistical-data-science/
Computer Science Minor: https://catalog.vt.edu/undergraduate/minors/computer-science-minor/

[Anonymous]

Mathematics and Computer Science combo major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At VT there is lots of overlap so it might be possible to double major in CMDA and Statistical Data science and a minor in CS with minimal extra time.
CMDA: https://catalog.vt.edu/undergraduate/college-science/computational-modeling-data-analytics/computational-modeling-data-analytics-bs/
Statistical Data science: https://catalog.vt.edu/undergraduate/college-science/statistics/statistical-data-science/
Computer Science Minor: https://catalog.vt.edu/undergraduate/minors/computer-science-minor/

Or just CMDA + minors in stats and cs. I don't really see the point of doing two data science majors. Or just SDS + CS minor if you want a greater stats emphasis. But I'd look into the major more. It's new vs CMDA being one of the earliest data science programs. CMDA has a well established capstone project program that works with industry partners. One of my son's job offers came from his capstone company.

Do one major and invest more time on projects via clubs, competitions, and Databridge to work with professors across the university on research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a data analyst transitioning to management (unrelated to analytics or IT). I would not recommend this path, personally - it's one of the first fields that will be largely taken over by AI. The tech field is not really friendly to newbies anymore, IMO, and I don't see that changing.

LOL this is ridiculous.

Layoffs are not only going to be in business analyst fields or comp science.

Everything works off. the web currently. Every single company needs these people.

BA cost way less than CS people do.

And AI is not going to take this over. LOL

NP. Actually you are wrong. This field will be totally taken over. Humans won't be writing code any longer. Actually my son uses AI to write most of his code. He majored in Applied Computational and Mathematics Statistics and he is a data scientist. My husband is in the field and is already guiding DS on how he can avoid the inevitable. It's about staying ahead of the curve, and you aren't able to access that knowledge in a university. It is all on the job. The PP is right about newbies to the field. They won't find work.

How do you navigate from AI taking over your entire profession?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a data analyst transitioning to management (unrelated to analytics or IT). I would not recommend this path, personally - it's one of the first fields that will be largely taken over by AI. The tech field is not really friendly to newbies anymore, IMO, and I don't see that changing.

I would expect AI will slow the growth in job demand but "being taken over by AI" is a huge overstatement. What is happening is people in the field will need to know how to use all the AI tools that are being developed.

I asked ChatGPT if it could improve my code the other day. It gave me some bad suggestions that only made it worse, and when I pointed this out, it gave me back exactly what I had given it in the first place. I don't think there's much danger in ChatGPT taking over anytime soon.

+1. AI for coding is possibly useful to spark ideas or give a starting point, but it's not beating humans yet. Maybe eventually, the way we all gave up on writing everything in assembly because computers became fast enough that it wasn't needed any more. But it's going to take time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a data analyst transitioning to management (unrelated to analytics or IT). I would not recommend this path, personally - it's one of the first fields that will be largely taken over by AI. The tech field is not really friendly to newbies anymore, IMO, and I don't see that changing.

I would expect AI will slow the growth in job demand but "being taken over by AI" is a huge overstatement. What is happening is people in the field will need to know how to use all the AI tools that are being developed.

I asked ChatGPT if it could improve my code the other day. It gave me some bad suggestions that only made it worse, and when I pointed this out, it gave me back exactly what I had given it in the first place. I don't think there's much danger in ChatGPT taking over anytime soon.

+1. AI for coding is possibly useful to spark ideas or give a starting point, but it's not beating humans yet. Maybe eventually, the way we all gave up on writing everything in assembly because computers became fast enough that it wasn't needed any more. But it's going to take time.

It's not beating experienced, seasoned humans in senior positions. It is absolutely beating what junior hires can do. At my own workplace we have gotten rid of the junior people, either by firing the or via attrition, and have no plans to fill those spots.

A very good question is how will we have seasoned, experienced people in ten or fifteen years if we don't hire and train junior people now? That comes up in conversation but we're kicking that can down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a data analyst transitioning to management (unrelated to analytics or IT). I would not recommend this path, personally - it's one of the first fields that will be largely taken over by AI. The tech field is not really friendly to newbies anymore, IMO, and I don't see that changing.

I would expect AI will slow the growth in job demand but "being taken over by AI" is a huge overstatement. What is happening is people in the field will need to know how to use all the AI tools that are being developed.

I asked ChatGPT if it could improve my code the other day. It gave me some bad suggestions that only made it worse, and when I pointed this out, it gave me back exactly what I had given it in the first place. I don't think there's much danger in ChatGPT taking over anytime soon.

+1. AI for coding is possibly useful to spark ideas or give a starting point, but it's not beating humans yet. Maybe eventually, the way we all gave up on writing everything in assembly because computers became fast enough that it wasn't needed any more. But it's going to take time.

FWIW people using AI for coding aren't using ChatGPT.

[Anonymous]

Business Analytics with CS minor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a data analyst transitioning to management (unrelated to analytics or IT). I would not recommend this path, personally - it's one of the first fields that will be largely taken over by AI. The tech field is not really friendly to newbies anymore, IMO, and I don't see that changing.

I would expect AI will slow the growth in job demand but "being taken over by AI" is a huge overstatement. What is happening is people in the field will need to know how to use all the AI tools that are being developed.

I asked ChatGPT if it could improve my code the other day. It gave me some bad suggestions that only made it worse, and when I pointed this out, it gave me back exactly what I had given it in the first place. I don't think there's much danger in ChatGPT taking over anytime soon.

+1. AI for coding is possibly useful to spark ideas or give a starting point, but it's not beating humans yet. Maybe eventually, the way we all gave up on writing everything in assembly because computers became fast enough that it wasn't needed any more. But it's going to take time.

It's not beating experienced, seasoned humans in senior positions. It is absolutely beating what junior hires can do. At my own workplace we have gotten rid of the junior people, either by firing the or via attrition, and have no plans to fill those spots.

A very good question is how will we have seasoned, experienced people in ten or fifteen years if we don't hire and train junior people now? That comes up in conversation but we're kicking that can down the road.

+1 this is the big problem with AI across many fields. The low-level, time consuming tasks that junior people do to learn the basics of a profession are the ones AI can most easily replace.

IMO this makes it critical to get all the experience you can while you are in school so you have a lot of meaningful experience when looking for that "entry level" job. I mentioned above my son is graduating from VT's CMDA major and has a data scientist job. The job is with the company he interned at last summer. He felt the biggest factor in getting that internship was that he'd been getting real experience with a variety of data problems and data tools via their undergrad research program. That's what the hiring manager wanted to talk about.