You Probably Shouldn’t Major in Data Science…

In this video I'm going to discuss the question, "Should I major in Data Science". As someone who would like to eventually become a Data Scientist, I think the answer to that question is no...

[stephenbernardo]

Perfect timing! Thiis sounds about right as I just started doing my research for my other masters degree, preferably quant-heavy and related to Data Science, as you said. Thank you for the insights! I may or may not end up in a data science degree but at least I know what to look for in a curriculum.

[cuesee.psyche]

When I search through data science/analyst jobs around me, I notice that usually the degree is not that important; that they are more focused on practical skills in SQL, Python and/or R.

[knewzi]

Hey Chris, thanks for your input. I am going to apply to state universities specifically UCs this fall and I was debating between data science and statistics. This video resolves doubts I had about a statistics major.

[jarg]

I was in a MS computer sci program but switched to data science MS. CS is very broad and you end up taking a bunch of classes you will never use whereas data science degrees tend to focus on the core skills for on the job. I think this take is missing the mark for what a ds degree offers. If you are unsure of if you want to keep your options open go CS but if you really know you want become a data scientist it makes much more sense to do a DS MS, otherwise, you'll have to spend a lot of extra time learning the data skills that you probably would miss out on as a CS major.

[AndrewTheVikings]

Damn. And I was about to join in tripleten for data science. Thank you for your information.

[sorvex]

I majored in data science and now have 3 years of experience as a machine learning engineer. Things turned out great for me :-)

If you have passion, it really doesnt matter what degree you choose.

[manofsteel]

Agreed. Best way to become a data scientist could be to major in cs in undergrad and do stats for your masters or stats in undergrad and cs for your masters if you college allows that. This will also give you a much wider range of job options compared to getting a data science degree. I also kinda have the same issues with artifical intelligence degrees

[BiologyIsHot]

I would argue that a data science degree, if it really does a decent job of a covering math, stats, and comp sci doesn't pidgeon you in more than a stats degree does at all. Also frkm somebody who does have a PhD I can tell you 100% that these degree listings are not as literal as you make it out to be. If you are still in undergrad you might not yet understand that job listings are at best wishlists for a hiring manager and at worst a quick writeup by an HR person with no idea about the role. There are more math, stats, and comp sci grads. I am not even aware of any data science PhD programs, only masters ones. And it is far more common for these major tech companies to be looking for a PhD. There are fewer PhDs I nwuantitative fields so listing every single possible degree isn't a priority. They usually also take physics, linguistics (if focused on computational work) and other sciences with a strong quantitative degree. You might be shocked to learn also that nof all universities even attribute a strict label to the PhDs they award since there may be nuance within the field. I think in a relatively short order there will be many strong data science degrees out there and that those people will be very well positioned.

THAT said. There is nothing stopping you from doing soemthing like a comp sci/stats double major or major/minor situation. Stats degrees in my experience don't have much ML work, although there is no reason you cannot dip into a course in a comp sci dept at msot universities. I would also say that most statisticians have way too much of a hard-on for R (which is an awful language, unfortunately). For these large companies having somebody with experience in Python, SQL, and a lower level language like C, C++, or Java is something I would like to see become more commonplace. R is not at all suited to production code. It's great for one off analyses built around a statistical inference problem. But beyond a shiny app/dashboard I wouldn't ever want to touch it for production code.

[Apuryo]

As a fellow penn state student, I was going to major in applied statistics. It was a really good balance, and i was able to learn a lot more hard skills. I did decide to double major in computational mathematics as it had many things that I found useful and I realyl enjoy math. I now am a double major in computational mathematics and data science with a focus on statistical modeling because PSU doesn't let us take two degrees in the same college. I would say that the statistical modeling option at PSU is actually a pretty good major with less bs compared to other schools, but even at PSU if i was going to get a single major it would be applied statistics.

[dreaminderek]

Appreciated the realistic and thoughtful video Chris. 💖😇

[TxRogue]

Bro we’re living the same lives, possibly thousands of miles apart.
I got accepted and am between MS DS or MS STAT. I have to decide now since the semester starts 8/22.
I always had the same thought of DS degrees since university offered both Stat and DS undergraduate degrees and EVERYONE was a DS major. I was 1 of 3 from that cohort that graduated with a Stats degree. And now for my graduate studies I was thinking of switching to DS for versatility, but it just doesn’t sit with me. Now that you’ve spoken what I’ve been thinking I’ll be picking Stats.

My mentor said “A statistician can be a data scientist, but a data scientist can’t be a statistician”

[saisreekar]

Data science is growing field in industry but academically it's Unorganized. It's better to major in stats or computer science because in my country they were relying more on data science for sake of commercial benefits. I think data science course curriculum requires more revision.

[masterqz]

Very true. I completely agree with you and feel like a DS degree is too much of a pigeon hole. My school just started to offer DS as a major last term and I looked over it and it just looks like jumble of classes. We do mostly the same in statistics while also learning about other program languages and learning useful math.

[Atlas]

They say the same about masters programs.. but as time passes, the computer science masters and the data science masters are pretty much the same. Take UT Austin for example their masters of computer science and data science are nearly one and the same and it gives you choice of classes, so if I end up taking 6/10 classes at align with the data science masters, I’d still have a computer science degree but it’s only different in title…content wise computer science would have more systems courses but the data science degree would have probability/stats based for the remaining 4 classes

[yardogyuh]

idk about this most of those companies specifically said "other quantitative fields" which would most definitely include data science.

[damonmartin]

I think you should specialise in AI and that be default opens up all data science jobs. It's just as good, if not better than a CS degree. However, in the UK the overlap in the bachelors is massive so it isn't much difference interms of content. Heck even my software engineering degree is 50% AI & Data Science and 50% regular software engineering like full stack dev in my final year.

[lnx]

I mean it depends on what schools you go to, if your data science degree is coming from schools like MIT Berkeley Umich, you’re going to be just as employable as any CS or stat majors for the same jobs

[shahariarrahat]

But why are they listing off mathematics? In math major you neither get great depth in computer science and neither get great depth in data ?

[papayavids]

I am a senior in high school wanting a job in data science in the future. Should i major in cs with a minor in stat, or a major in stats with a minor in cs? 🤔

[aryankrishnaneeli]

Hey Chris! I’m currently slated to learn data science at UTD. Could you check its course load and let me know if I should try switching into Computer Science? Also, should I consider doing a CS- Statistics double major?