Data Scientists

High School

Take as many computer science classes as possible—especially those in programming, data analytics, and database management. Sign up for English and speech classes to build your communication skills. Mathematics (including statistics), history, social studies, and philosophy will help to develop your analytical and critical-thinking skills, which you’ll use frequently as a data scientist.

Postsecondary Education

To work as a data scientist, you’ll typically need a minimum of a master’s degree in data analytics, data science, computer science, mathematics, or statistics, although some people have degrees in engineering, economics, econometrics, business, operations research, neuroscience, or computational psychology. Some employers require applicants to have a doctorate in one of the aforementioned fields.

Typical classes in a data science or data analytics degree program include Introduction to Data Science, Statistical and Mathematical Methods for Data Science, Machine Learning and Computational Statistics, Big Data, Inference and Representation, and Capstone Project in Data Science.

Certification

Many colleges and universities offer undergraduate and graduate certificates in data science, data analytics, business intelligence, and related fields. For example, Georgetown University awards a certificate in data science to those who have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent; have completed of at least two college-level math courses (e.g., statistics, calculus); are familiar with Python, a general purpose programming language used for data analysis; and complete the following courses: Foundations of Data Analytics and Data Science, Software Engineering for Data, Data Sources & Storage, Data Ingestion & Wrangling, Data Analysis I: Statistics, Data Analysis II: Machine Learning, Visual Analytics, and Applied Data Science. Harvard University, Syracuse University, Indiana University at Bloomington, and other colleges and universities offer similar programs. Contact schools in your area for more information.

Other Education or Training

Professional development opportunities are provided by associations, for-profit and nonprofit schools (such as Global Knowledge Training LLC, Coursera, edX, and Udacity), and information technology companies (such as IBM). For example, the Association for Computing Machinery offers many online courses on topics such as Big Data, business intelligence, data management, data mining, data visualization, data warehousing, database design, SAS, SQL, and business skills. The IEEE Computer Society offers online courses on management, project management, and other topics. The American Mathematical Society, American Statistical Society, INFORMS, and DAMA International also offer continuing education opportunities. Contact these organizations for more information.