We live in the data century. Every field is a data science field, even the humanities now. Expertise and data science is a great path. I have never met an unemployed data scientist with a degree-- that animal simply does not exist. The program itself, it really on ramps individuals from any background-- into being data scientists. There's nine different tracks-- three are the most popular; the Business Analytics track, the Computer Science track, and the Public Affairs track. We don't care what your undergraduate degrees in. As long as you did well, and as long as you took a stat course. Then we have a math bootcamp on the very front end of their experience. We teach "R", which is the lingua franca of statistics and data science in the 21st century, and we teach it as if they've never seen it before. Students start with research methods, working with data right away, and looking at how to draw conclusions or make decisions from data and statistical inference. They then focus in a particular area of interest. It's a domain area. So things like public affairs, business analytics, computer science, environmental science, where their interests lie. They want to develop some domain expertise, and then it culminates in a data science practicum, where they get to be a data scientist for a semester. They will have the faculty supervisor, but they serve as the data scientists with a particular client. So students who come out of this program are prepared to address issues in any industry they're interested in, plus they have these broad skills. Last year, there were 30 million job ads in the United States for data scientists, and they didn't all get filled. IBM is projected about a 28% increase every year in the demand for data scientists. If you care about this kind of data that we see every day in Washington, in business, in government, in academia-- this is a wonderful opportunity to combine that interest with training that's relevant. Demand for data scientists is near infinite.
