I am a high school senior in the midst of the college application season. So far I’ve been accepted into a few SUNY’s, UPitt, and Case Western ($30K/year merit scholarship). I was deferred from ED1 at WashU. Some other schools I’ll hear from in the spring are Emory, Boston University, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Michigan, and Johns Hopkins. I plan to double major in physics and data science. It seems that the physics programs are very consistent across these schools, more so than the data science programs. Out of the schools I listed which one is best for data science? At each of these schools, is the data science program more engineering heavy or statistics/analytics heavy? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
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What are your financial restrictions?
If you have financial restrictions, those will determine which program is the best. All of the schools on your list a pretty good.
At the present, Data Science is like CS. Career-wise, you don’t need a degree from “The Best” university, you need a degree from a good university, and those are generally good universities, though Vanderbilt is really not worth the tuition for data science, nor is Emory.
If you have any financial restrictions, U Michigan will likely not be affordable, since it is public, and does not have much financial aid for OOS students. Northwestern and Johns Hopkins are full need met.
If you are OOS for UPitt, it also may not be affordable.
If you do not have financial need, you should also consider OSU for Data Science.
Northwestern data science major requires a good number of statistics courses.
My impression is UMichigan has two data science major from two schools.
If you were my student, I would suggest that you visit the official website of each university on your list, find the major requirements as well as degree requirements, and run a comparison. You may want to create a big chart (in Excel or google sheet) with column(s) for each university. The rows will be arranged in sections for foundational courses, major courses, electives, degree requirement courses, etc. You can then color code the courses for math, stats, programming, and other categories. Once you complete the chart, the similarities and differences will be much clearer.
Here is the northwestern data science major requirements Data Science Major Requirements: Department of Statistics and Data Science - Northwestern University
I forgot that your want double major, so the requirements for physics major should go in the chart as well, just so that you can get an idea of what it takes to complete both majors in each university.
Personally, I’d put off all of the “which program is best” questions until you’ve received all of your decisions.
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You ask this: At each of these schools, is the data science program more engineering heavy or statistics/analytics heavy?
Look at curriculums. It should be easy for you to figure out. Some will be more math, some even in the b school. Others engineering
Then what can you afford ? Any budget needs? Do all come in at the right price if so?
For all the ones that have a preferred curriculum and budget, then where are you most comfortable after visits.
Good luck.
Look at the curriculum at each school. Do you want to do data engineering (CS), analytics/ML (math) or analysis (business)?
Physics is fine for analytics. All the schools on your list will work. Find the best fit that’s affordable. Having a math background is always helpful.
For comparison I think this is one of the better programs. Plenty of math and CS classes.
https://www.isye.gatech.edu/academics/undergraduate/degrees/analytics-data-science
There are - currently - four-ish types of data science programs.
- Comp Sci degrees with concentrations
- data science degrees that have a distinct curriculum that diffes from comp Sci
- social data science/analytics degrees (PSU SoDA, UMd)
- business or other data analytics
Generally, regardless of traditional CS or DS, you will take some version of the four classic CS core courses (prog1&2, data structures, algos). But a CS degree that has a focus on DS probably gets into traditional advanced CS requirements around programming language design/fundamentals and networks (Java, C++, etc) while the dedicated DS degree will add more stats and focus almost exclusively on the scripting languages for data science (R, Python). So, (1) is more flexible provided you like CS but (2) probably has more useful DS training. Compare Nortwesterns or Pitts CS vs DS for example.
The social data science and business degrees are heavy on domain knowledge and can be lighter on programming fundamentals if they are more data than DS
One other factor: you’ll get a job out of your BS degree from these programs for sure, but some more advanced DS jobs will require a masters in something technical like DS, CS, Stats or Econ. So, if you spend all you money on undergrad, you may not be able to go back to get a masters to help your career later. So, think about that.
Compare Northwestern
Data Science in stats dept
CompSci in CS Dept - see the breadth electivess which differ from DS
https://catalogs.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/engineering-applied-science/computer-science/computer-science-degree/
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Thank you for the explanation of the different types of path I can potentially go down in college. It really helped!
Congrats on the good options you have already!
Have you looked at the Engineering Physics major at CWRU? Students in that major choose an engineering concentration, which can be in Computer & Data Sciences. So maybe you could tailor that major to your interests. Question is whether you want a more applied/engineering emphasis to your physics program, or whether you want more pure/theoretical physics but also data science.
Since you like BU, did you also consider the combined major at Northeastern? Data Science and Physics, BS | Northeastern University Academic Catalog (Deadline in January 1st, but the supplement is easy.)
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Thank you for your response! I visited Northeastern and I didn’t fall in love with the campus. I am interested in physics, but not so much engineering. More so, I’m interested in pure physics with data science as applied to business/economics etc.
Did u look at u of Arizona ? One of the tops for physics, and has data science but in the stats/math side vs cs.
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In general terms, data science combines statistics and computer science with application toward an “applied domain” (of a student’s choosing). Engineering is not ordinarily emphasized in this field. In any case, you have a few good choices for data science on your list, such as the University of Michigan, Boston University and CWRU. Since you already have gotten into CWRU, your results are off to a good start.
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