Certificate in Data Science

The Certificate in Data Science option allows undergraduate students to receive recognition for completing coursework that provides an understanding of the discipline of data science including exposure to data structures and data sources, statistical principles, computing and analytics, data management, and data science applications. Courses on the Approved List under Interdisciplinary Data Science include subject matter courses and courses that require substantial interpretation of data and report writing. Students completing the Certificate will be presented with an official certificate document and will be free to use this credential on a CV, resume or application for advanced study.

Students pursuing an X+DS Major or Data Science Minor are ineligible for the Certificate in Data Science.

Data Science Course Requirements

For completion of the Certificate in Data Science, students must complete at least four courses from the Approved List of Data Science Courses below. No course substitutions will be approved.

All courses applied to the certificate may also be counted toward the requirements of the student's declared major or minor. Students are not guaranteed a seat in a course required by the certificate, but are welcome to enroll in courses where seats remain available after any restriction that may have been placed has been removed. Many of the interdisciplinary course options will require additional prerequisites. All prerequisites should be completed as noted in the Course Explorer.

Approved List of Data Science Courses

1. Introduction to Data Science

  • STAT 107: Data Science Discovery (4 hours)
    (Equivalent to CS 107 and IS 107)

2. Intermediate Data Science

  • STAT 207: Data Science Exploration (4 hours)

3. Linear Algebra (Choose 1 course*)

  • MATH 227: Linear Algebra for Data Science (3 hours)
  • MATH 257: Linear Algebra with Computational Applications (3 hours)

4. Interdisciplinary data science (Choose 1 course*)

  • STAT 385: Statistics Programming Methods (3 hours)
  • STAT 420: Methods of Applied Statistics (3 hours)
  • STAT 428: Statistical Computing (3 hours)
  • STAT 430: Topics in Applied Statistics (must be a DS-focused section as approved by the Statistics Department) (3 hours)
  • STAT 432: Basics of Statistical Learning (3 hours)
  • STAT 437: Unsupervised Learning (3 hours)
  • STAT 440: Statistical Data Management (3 hours)
  • STAT 447: Data Science Programming Methods (3 hours)
  • STAT 448: Advanced Data Analysis (4 hours)
  • STAT 480: Big Data Analytics (3 hours)
  • CHBE 413: Data Science for Chemistry and Engineering (3 hours)
  • CS 225: Data Structures (4 hours)
  • CS 277: Algorithms and Data Structures for Data Science (4 hours)
  • CS 307: Modeling and Learning in Data Science (4 hours)
  • ECON 471: Intro to Applied Econometrics (3 hours)
  • GGIS 224: Environmental Data Science (3 hours)
  • GGIS 379: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (4 hours)
  • GGIS 407: Foundations of CyberGIS & Geospatial Data Science (4 hours)
  • IS 467: Ethics and Policy for Data Science (3 hours)
  • IS 477: Data Management, Curation & Reproducibility (3 hours)
  • LING 402: Tools & Tech Spch & Lang Proc (3 hours)
  • LING 406: Introduction to Computational Linguistics (3 hours)
  • MCB 432: Computing in Molecular Biology (3 hours)
  • PS 230: Intro to Pol Research (3 hours)
  • SOC 380: Social Research Methods (4 hours)
  • SOC 488: Demographic Analysis (3 hours)

* Students who have completed MATH 415, MATH 416, or ASRM 406 do not have to complete MATH 227 or MATH 257 as a second linear algebra course. However, those students must complete a second Interdisciplinary Data Science elective from Group 4 to satisfy Certificate requirements.

Requesting the Certificate

The certificate is sent in PDF format to those who have filled out this request form after completing all requirements. Reviews are typically completed three times per year, and request forms should be submitted by the following dates:

December 20th (when completing requirements in a fall semester)

May 20th (when completing requirements in a spring semester)

August 10th (when completing requirements in a summer semester)

Request forms submitted after the deadlines will be reviewed at the conclusion of the next applicable semester. Request forms submitted after a student’s degree has been certified will not be approved.

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