Data Analytics Minor
The data and analytical skills developed in the interdisciplinary minor in analytics can complement and enhance students’ liberal arts education in many disciplines. The proposed minor in data analytics is intended as best combined with various majors across multiple disciplines. The core skills developed in the minor include: a basic understanding of programming for acquiring and manipulating data, statistical analysis used to advance understanding of the relationships in the data, and the ability to communicate to a broad range of audiences the importance of the substantive results retrieved from the data. Students who combine the data analytics minor with their major may be able to count up to three shared courses, according to College policy. (It is possible for students to pursue the minor from an unrelated major, however, they will need to satisfy the prerequisites that accompany the upper level electives.)
The minor requires six (6) courses that are divided between a set of entry-level or basic skills courses and more advanced technical skills and applications. The Level I courses, or basic skills courses, are existing classes offered in multiple disciplines that teach introductory statistics. This allows multiple pathways for students to enter the minor from a variety of disciplines. The basic skills component also includes two required core courses that introduce students to concepts in data science including data mining and visualization.
Level II classes are advanced electives from which students may choose three classes. These are applied courses that enable students to pair their data analytics training with specific disciplines and/or develop additional data science skills. Students must complete three courses in Level II. All students must take one course in Block A which is a collection of advanced statistical courses with data applications. Students must take two other courses but have the flexibility to take them from either Block A or Block B. the courses in block B provide additional data science training and modeling.
Level II also offers the opportunity for students to finish the minor through a significant applied data analysis project. This course may be satisfied in several ways. Students may fulfill the capstone requirement through an independent study. Examples might include an Honors Degree Student or a student pursuing Honors in their major conducting a senior-level research project that includes a significant data analytics component. Likewise, a student can use an applied internship that includes a significant data applications component. The internship must be taken for a grade and approved by the program director. It is also possible that a separate capstone course is offered..
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