Data Science Industry...after attending Washington & Lee University / liberal arts colleges...

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

Hello, CC!

I would greatly appreciate the help of industry experts here, in addition to hearing from other voices :slight_smile:

I am most likely attending Washington and Lee University this fall (turning down Brown, UPenn, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Bowdoin, Northeastern, GW, Colby, BC, Hamilton, McGill)…to put things into perspective–all of the schools would cost roughly between 65 and 72.5K a year, with the exception of McGill (35K–canadian) and Northeastern/GW (45K USD). Washington and Lee awarded me the Johnson Scholarship (the Johnson guarantees full tuition, room, and board for four years, while also providing $7,000 for summer/extracurricular opportunities).

However, I do (perhaps preemptively) worry that Washington and Lee will not have the resources for me to study enough applied math/statistics/data science to go into the field right after graduation. I feel as though I would need an MS before I even could consider working in the field…thoughts? Anyone working in the industry/planning to work in the industry after having graduated from a liberal arts college with little applied math/stats/data science offered? DO you necessarily need a stats/applied math/data science major//core classes?

At W&L, I can absolutely explore interests such as Quantitative Biology (a minor), econ, comp sci, or math…but will I be prepared for a data science career? Is, perhaps, the debt of an ivy league worth it (about 120-150K in my situation), because of the career prospects and starting salaries without an initial graduate degree, that, perhaps, my employer would finance…

and please feel free to chime in about majoring in math at LACs vs. large research universities that allow me to take a broader range of courses!

MANY THANKS :slight_smile:

2

I think your concerns are justified. After taking a quick look, it doesn’t seem as if Washington & Lee has much in the way of data science. If you want to get into the field and still attend Washington & Lee, you could go for a CS degree and take every statistics class you can fit in. The problem will be that you need to learn how to tie CS and statistics together, and I don’t see a class at the university that lets you do that.

With a CS degree and lots of statistics classes, you should at least be able to get your foot in the door at a company that does data science. Then you could get on-the-job training about data science.

You might want to talk to a CS or statistics professor at the school and let them know what your goals are, because I’m hardly an expert in the details of the classes there.

3

No, an MS is not required to begin working as a data scientist. Just do a quick search and you’ll find lots of entry-level openings; example: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/careers/jobdetails?id=00441343_en

It’s quite common to get some work experience and then pursue your MS/PhD. I’d recommend a CS or Stats major supplemented with as many CS/Stats classes in the non-major field as you can fit. Research projects and internships in the field will also be very helpful to landing your first job.

Finally, it’s very, very common for students’ major/career plans to change once they start college. Go to W&L, follow your passions, and graduate without debt. You’ll be well on your way to wherever you land career-wise.

Good luck!

4

$120,000+ debt is generally a bad idea in any case.

The main issue at W&L appears to be that it offers only a few statistics courses (MATH 309, 310, see http://catalog.wlu.edu/content.php?filter%5B27%5D=MATH&filter%5B29%5D=&filter%5Bcourse_type%5D=-1&filter%5Bkeyword%5D=&filter%5B32%5D=1&filter%5Bcpage%5D=1&cur_cat_oid=15&expand=&navoid=1199&search_database=Filter&filter%5Bexact_match%5D=1#acalog_template_course_filter ). CS offerings are better (see http://catalog.wlu.edu/content.php?filter%5B27%5D=CSCI&filter%5B29%5D=&filter%5Bcourse_type%5D=-1&filter%5Bkeyword%5D=&filter%5B32%5D=1&filter%5Bcpage%5D=1&cur_cat_oid=15&expand=&navoid=1199&search_database=Filter&filter%5Bexact_match%5D=1#acalog_template_course_filter ).