What is a Bachelor of Science in Data Science?
An exciting and rewarding degree program, the Bachelor of Science in Data Science trains students to use scientific methods, algorithm development, and technology to extract knowledge and insights from data to solve analytically complex problems. This interdisciplinary field lies at the intersection between domain knowledge, math and statistics, and computer science. Students will learn domain-based knowledge to understand the data and the patterns/questions that they will be looking to analyze. Mathematical modeling and statistics are at the core of the algorithms used for data analysis. Computer programming and machine learning execute these algorithms and visualize the results. Students will learn specialized skills including data mining, data wrangling, machine learning, data visualization, and distributed computing. Data science professionals are rewarded for their highly specialized skill set with competitive salaries, great job opportunities, and unusual flexibility, at both big and small companies across many industries.
What are some traits of a person who will do well in this field?
A successful data scientist displays intellectual curiosity combined with skepticism and good intuition. She is a perpetual problem-solver who creatively seeks to discover new information and a good storyteller who can present her data insights to others.
Where can I work with this degree?
With the exponential growth of big data over the past few years, the need for data scientists becomes more and more pronounced. Companies seeking this talent represent virtually every industry. Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, GE, State Farm, Walmart, Facebook, AT&T, Intel, IBM, Nielsen and numerous others all show up prominently in job postings for data scientists.
When searching for job postings, there are a number of related job titles, including data analyst, data scientist, data mining engineer, machine learning engineer, data architect, commercial intelligence manager, and competitive intelligence analyst.
Will I be able to work remotely?
Data scientists are often able to work from home because most of the work takes place on a personal desktop or distributed system that can be accessed remotely. In fact, the position of data scientist is considered one of the most remote-friendly jobs. The roles of data scientist, data analyst, data architect, machine learning engineer, data mining engineer and data engineer are often in such high demand that companies are willing to invest in the best talent, regardless of their location.
What is the expected salaries for an entry level data scientist?
The average salary for a data scientist in the United States is approximately $120,000 (Indeed.com). Other popular entry level position salaries in the field include:
- Business intelligence analyst (average salary $100,000)
- Data analyst (average salary $78,000)
- Data mining engineer (average salary $100,000)
- Data warehouse architect (average salary $133,000)
- Machine learning engineer (average salary $140,000)
