UCLA’s Statistics major, which up to now has been short major, is soon to be Statistics & Data Science, with no immediate changes in coursework. Economics is also a short major, and both are intended to be combined with other studies.
UCLA has a major called Data Theory (DT), which is as its name states more of the theoretical side of DS, and combines Mathematics and Statistics, including having some proof-based math reqs. There’s a gpa threshold of 3.3 in prereq courses, and as the following writeup states, there’s a senior project, a Capstone with an outside company. It’s placing very well in various fields, but it’s a bit more intended to prep a student for a MSDS, MSCS, MSBA (Business Analytics), MSFE (Financial Engineering), and other grad programs. Here’s a writeup from the following video:
The Data Theory major at UCLA joins the strength of UCLA’s Mathematics department with the innovation of its Statistics department to offer undergraduate students a world-class education in the foundations of Data Science. This capstone major is the first in the world, both in name and content. One key academic difference from the Data Science majors proposed by peer universities is the presence in our major of substantial upper division proof-based mathematics. The major is strong, perhaps stronger than some Masters degrees, in Machine Learning, which is at the core of Data Science. Most Data Science programs focus on teaching students the methods of data modeling, analysis, and engineering. What is missing is a rigorous understanding of the statistical and mathematical foundational concepts that underlie these methods. Without these, data scientists lack the understanding to deal with the plethora of problems they will face. UCLA’s Data Theory major fills this need.
In a better likelihood of adding on to his Music Performance major, UCLA also has minors in Data Science Engineering (DSE) and Social Data Science (SDS), the latter of which is intended for Social Science majors. The former is for all majors, and is more CS-based. But if he were to add on DSE at UCLA, it’d be recommended that he add the full Math 31-33 A-B courses as well as take the CS 31, 32, 33, & 35L courses.
There are lots of performing arts majors at UCLA who are combining things like Dance to the premed curriculum, and majoring in Piano and Economics or Data Science wouldn’t be unusual.
A caveat is that UCLA is more theory-based than most other universities so that is something to consider, but Statistics and Mathematics both have built-in programming in its classes.
Let me add that competitive does not mean grade deflation at UCLA .