I know BIG DATA is a board topic but i want to know what things i should learn in college to best prepare for future jobs.
I suggest trying to find a program in Data Analytics like this one: http://majors.osu.edu/pdfview.aspx?id=329 .
Statistics, math, and computer science are going to be the most important things in that area. You’ll probably want to major in math, applied math, or statistics. Then you’ll want to learn quite a bit of computer science - at least one computer programming language (Python and Ruby are popular in big data positions), machine learning, and data mining particularly.
[url=<a href=“http://i1.wp.com/blog.datacamp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/How-to-become-a-data-scientist.jpg%5DThis%5B/url”>http://i1.wp.com/blog.datacamp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/How-to-become-a-data-scientist.jpg]This[/url] is the best infographic I’ve seen on data science. Data science is brand new, so data scientists are all over the place - some were engineering majors, some math/statistics, some computer science, some physical sciences like physics, and some were even quantitative social science majors like psychology. I think in the next 5-10 years, data science will firm up as a field and there will be more…actual requirements (as opposed to this squishy, free-formed idea of what “data science” is).
I also just want to say - don’t feel overwhelmed by the infographic. I don’t know any data scientists who actually know ALL of the things on it - but knowing a good chunk is a good way to get started. Different companies and industries use different tools, too, so not every company is going to want you to know Cassandra or Spitfire. However, I do very commonly see requests for SAS, R, Tableau, SQL, Hadoop, MapReduce, so if you could at minimum get some exposure to those it’s probably best.
If you go to a school with a data analytics major like OSU, that’s great, then you can pick that. But you don’t have to go to a program like that because all those majors are is a hybrid of statistics, math, and computer science. Similar courses are offered at schools without a data analytics major - so you could major in stats and minor in CS, or you could create your own major using the other schools’ as a guide. I’m looking at the OSU requirements and I happen to know that, for example, every single one of those classes is offered at Columbia despite them not having a data analytics major at the undergrad level.
Oh, and plan on grad school - eventually. Most of the data scientists and advanced statisticians I know have master’s degrees at least. (Could be selection bias on my end, though, since I have a PhD.)