Hi i am a transfer student from a cc and got accepted to UCLA for pre-Statistics. I recently found out Data Theory is offered as a major. What is the difference between the two majors?
I am considering changing to Data Theory however I am not sure because it is a new major in UCLA and I couldn’t find much info about it. Is it for Data Science? If I stay in Statistics, I could get more priority to get statistic classes. Both seem to have similar prerequisites.
thanks
probably best to make an appt to talk about it with the Math Undergraduate Counselor as explained in https://www.math.ucla.edu/ugrad and also, since it is a joint offer with the Statistics dept, with their counselor at http://directory.stat.ucla.edu/active_staff/single-page2/?smid=1509
@mathcoral . . . I’m way out of my depth in being able to competently speak of the two, but that’s never stopped me before. 
I read a UCLA math professor’s take on the difference between Data Theory, UCLA’s offering, and Data Science. He said it was like the difference between UCLA’s Program In Computing (“PIC”) classes and the Computer Science (“CS”) major. When he says theory in CS, he’s referring to math and physics courses along with programming theoretical concepts, and building upon them by applying them to program/problem sets; but the PIC classes are just programming classes and pounding out program/problem sets. UCLA felt that Data Science in itself would not be able to fulfill a full major; therefore they’ve added the theory which is, of course, the basis of UCLA’s teaching.
Stats and Data Theory are completely related perusals. Stats is stats: the study of data, running statistical models of it to try to determine trends, etc. Data Theory incorporates computers into the process, and lets the computer manipulate the data. There is some programming in Stats, also; they use primarily the R programming language.
Python is also used apparently, and you can pick that up in the PIC classes. And it seems to me that a Data Theory major would have just a bit more programming savvy; not that a statistics major wouldn’t possess at least some.
People somehow associate Data Analysis with Data Theory/Science, but that doesn’t seem to be the correct. The analysis part apparently comes as an outflow from the data collection (the theory or science part), when, say, consulting with a client about implementing changes and programs into his/her business.
Perhaps if analysis is your end goal, then you can probably take some management courses also to be able to read financial statements.