Data Analytics Major
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About the Major
Data analytics is all about answering real-world questions with data. This not only includes data analysis, but the entire data process: collecting data, managing data, making conclusions, and communicating your results. Because data is everywhere, people in business, media, biology, psychology, public health, and more have a growing need for data analysts to manage and analyze data.
Jobs in Data Analytics
- Data analyst
- Data engineer
- Data scientist
- Business analyst
- Marketing analyst
Related Majors
A data analytics major can bring problem-solving to any field
When Clayton McLamb was in high school, he was drawn to computer science and statistics but found that he didn’t quite excel in the subjects. He was better at classes like sociology, which focused on solving society’s problems. Still, he decided to pursue science and math in college.
At Elon University, with its smaller classes and “more guidance, more resources and more personal attention,” McLamb found that his enjoyment of computer science could be merged with his talent for problem-solving. Elon had just launched a data analytics major, and he decided to pair it with a major in computer science.
I consider myself a problem solver. With computer science, you have the traditional problem-solving, the general algorithms, but data analytics brings in building data-driven solutions, trying to solve puzzles with data. That’s what drew me to it.
While the incoming junior isn’t sure what kind of career he’ll pursue after graduation in 2025, his summer internship working as an undergraduate researcher for the National Science Foundation has piqued his interest.
Based at Salisbury University in Maryland, McLamb is working with a team to develop deep-learning models for flood detection in NASA radar imagery, looking specifically at 2018’s Hurricane Florence, which caused catastrophic damage in North Carolina.
“We’re developing models to detect which areas were flooded so it can help first responders and disaster-relief programs,” McLamb said. “I really like what I’m doing at this internship, and I definitely want to keep doing that (kind of work).”
The career possibilities for a data analytics major are endless: Because the major is interdisciplinary, students are required to either have a second major or a minor in a different department.
“If you were interested in political science, you could take policy analysis,” McLamb said. “If you were interested in business, you could take management information systems, which lets you develop specific skills that are taking your knowledge about your business degree and knowledge of statistics and putting them together.”
Those looking to major in data analytics should “have an interest in something else and want to use data in that field,” he said.
Did You Know?
- The data analytics major is a flexible degree designed to help students learn how to deal with data in their field.
- The major is interdisciplinary in nature, so students can choose electives for data analytics in a variety of disciplines, including business, management, computer science, media analytics, economics and policy studies.
- A required capstone helps students interweave their data skills with data applications. There are many ways to complete the capstone: internships, a statistics practicum class, research or even a capstone in another discipline.