Java Programming or Data Mining Certificate?

College Confidential Community
1

Hello Everyone,

I am currently a jr in college as a double major in finance and accounting with minors in economics and info systems. I aspire to be a financial analyst at an investment bank or at a tech fortune 500. I am on track to graduate on time but I have room in my schedule to complete a certificate in java programing or data mining from UCSD but I’m not sure which one to pursue. With my career aspirations in mind which would be a better fit? Any advice helps :slight_smile:

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Data Mining will be much more useful, all the way. That said, you need to have some good CS experience before doing either unless the certificates are incredibly basic, which in that case won’t have much effect on your career. If you have never worked in CS, the Java certificate will probably be better for you as to your capabilities, but Data Mining will be much more useful to your career. Can you link to the certifacates/programs?

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Thanks for your opinion pengsphils, I appreciate it :slight_smile:

Data Mining Certificate

http://extension.ucsd.edu/programs/index.cfm?vAction=certDetail&vCertificateID=128&vStudyAreaID=14

Java Programming

http://extension.ucsd.edu/programs/index.cfm?vAction=certDetail&vCertificateID=55&vStudyAreaID=14

4

Well, the good news is that both certificates seem to actually cover enough where they would matter in a job interview and would also give you the skills to work with the field on the surface. I don’t think either is a bad choice. That said, a few questions:

Do you have the prerequisite statistics for Data Mining?
Have you ever programmed before?

If you have the prereq, go Data Mining: the downside is that if you haven’t programmed before, the effect of the certificate will be less. If you have, then you probably only need Data Mining. If you haven’t programmed before, I would consider making an effort to do both - is that possible? The combination would show that you know data practically and how to use it, know how to program at some level, and know finance/accounting/economics. That’s a very good recipe for Wall Street and the like.

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Well in regards to meeting the stats prereq for data mining I’ve taken business stats as part of my lover division coursework but I’m not sure if it’s equivalent. For the programming certificate I’ve tried an intro java class at a jr college but the curriculum and grading were weak so I should probably retake it but at a more rigorous level. After thinking about your advice I think I should first focus on completing the java programming certificate and then work on the data mining after. Thanks again for your advice PengsPhils!