20 Best Online Bachelors of Data Science Programs

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• SNHU and Great Basin Col­lege have two top online bach­e­lor’s in data sci­ence degree pro­grams.
• Data sci­en­tists are high­ly sought after due to the increas­ing amount of data gen­er­at­ed glob­al­ly. They are essen­tial for ana­lyz­ing, orga­niz­ing, and man­ag­ing data.
• These pro­grams offer cours­es in math­e­mat­ics, sta­tis­tics, com­put­er sci­ence, eco­nom­ics, and busi­ness man­age­ment.
• Spe­cial­ized cours­es include data min­ing, pre­dic­tive mod­el­ing, and data visualization.
• The degree titles vary, such as BS in Data Sci­ence, BS in Data Ana­lyt­ics, and BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, reflect­ing dif­fer­ent emphases with­in the field.

There is no doubt that our world is chang­ing. Today, we are a glob­al econ­o­my with the abil­i­ty to be con­nect­ed to any­one in the world in a mat­ter of sec­onds. Books and the print­ed word are becom­ing obso­lete. Data and infor­ma­tion are stored online where easy access and unlim­it­ed stor­age pre­vail. IBM esti­mates that 90% of the world’s data was gen­er­at­ed in the past two years alone. With this explo­sion of online infor­ma­tion comes the need for a new type of pro­fes­sion­al — a pro­fes­sion­al who can ana­lyze, orga­nize, and man­age the vast amounts of data now avail­able. Referred to by Har­vard Busi­ness Review as “The Sex­i­est Job of the 21st Cen­tu­ry,” Data Sci­en­tists are in high demand. In fact, the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment now has a Chief Data Sci­en­tist, and com­pa­nies all over the world are look­ing to fill the posi­tion of Data Scientist.

Earn­ing a Bachelor’s Degree in Data Sci­ence is the tick­et into this explod­ing field. An online bachelor’s in data ana­lyt­ics pro­grams pro­vide stu­dents with an under­grad­u­ate degree that pre­pares them to use the tools, tech­nolo­gies, and method­olo­gies used by data pro­fes­sion­als. In addi­tion to gen­er­al edu­ca­tion require­ments, these pro­grams include course­work in math­e­mat­ics, applied sta­tis­tics, com­put­er sci­ence, eco­nom­ics, account­ing, and busi­ness ethics and man­age­ment. Addi­tion­al­ly, a bachelor’s degree in data ana­lyt­ics con­tains tar­get­ed course­work in sub­ject areas includ­ing IT data sys­tems, data pro­gram­ming lan­guages, pre­dic­tive mod­el­ing, data min­ing, and data visu­al­iza­tion. Actu­al class­es and require­ments vary depend­ing on the pro­gram, but they all con­tain these sim­i­lar com­po­nents. Com­plet­ing your degree online is an excel­lent option for the work­ing adult. We have tak­en away the guess­work and com­piled a list of schools that offer an online Bach­e­lors in Data Science/Data Analytics.

Along with the vari­a­tion in course­work, schools refer to this degree with a vari­ety of titles and emphases. Some pro­grams are ori­ent­ed toward the busi­ness appli­ca­tions of ana­lyt­ics, while oth­ers delve into the tech­ni­cal aspects of data sci­ence. The list below includes some of the more com­mon names for bachelor’s degrees in data analytics:

• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Science
• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Analytics
• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Analytics
• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Sci­ence and Analytics
• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Ana­lyt­ics and Technology
• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Man­age­ment and Data Analytics
• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Com­put­er Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence with a Data Ana­lyt­ics Track
• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Dig­i­tal Infor­ma­tion Technology

Methodology

The fol­low­ing rank­ing was gen­er­at­ed by col­lect­ing a list of all the schools who offered online under­grad­u­ate degrees in the field of data sci­ence. Please note that some of the schools on the list pro­vide some form of an under­grad­u­ate cer­tifi­cate in data sci­ence, and aren’t full degrees. Once the com­pre­hen­sive list was com­piled, schools were ranked using a for­mu­la com­par­ing the cost per cred­it, stu­dent to fac­ul­ty ratio, and a rep­u­ta­tion score. Cal­cu­la­tions were made based on the fol­low­ing percentages:

• Cost per cred­it — 50%
• Stu­dent to fac­ul­ty ratio — 25%
• Grad­u­a­tion rate — 25%

1. Southern New Hampshire University

The Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Ana­lyt­ics degree at South­ern New Hamp­shire Uni­ver­si­ty offers the best of every­thing: afford­abil­i­ty, flex­i­bil­i­ty, and high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion. The cur­ricu­lum is designed to edu­cate stu­dents who are ready to deal with the mod­ern world of data over­load. Stu­dents learn to com­bine data min­ing and struc­ture with mod­el­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and upon grad­u­a­tion, are pre­pared to make a dif­fer­ence in their orga­ni­za­tion. Because class­es are offered entire­ly online, the degree is tai­lored for stu­dents who are work­ing while going to school. Stu­dents will be trained in how to dis­sect and com­pile infor­ma­tion and then ana­lyze the data to make it more applic­a­ble to the busi­ness world. South­ern New Hamp­shire Uni­ver­si­ty is known for its online cours­es and goal to make high­er edu­ca­tion pos­si­ble for the work­ing adult. The low cost, low fac­ul­ty to stu­dent ratio, and high grad­u­a­tion rate earned South­ern New Hamp­shire a spot at the top of the list.

• Cost per Cred­it: $320
• Pro­gram Website

2. Great Basin College

Great Basin Col­lege offers the most afford­able tuition of any pro­gram on the list. At only $161 per cred­it, there is no doubt that this pro­gram pro­vides a col­lege degree at an easy price. The Bach­e­lor of Applied Sci­ence pro­gram is one of most prac­ti­cal degrees offered at the col­lege. Stu­dents can choose from four emphases, includ­ing a focus in Dig­i­tal Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy. Although the degree title is not specif­i­cal­ly Data Sci­ence, the degree out­come oper­ates as such. Grad­u­ates of the pro­gram will have learned skills in dig­i­tal infor­ma­tion pro­duc­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, infor­ma­tion man­age­ment, net­work­ing, and office tech­nol­o­gy. Addi­tion­al­ly, stu­dents will learn busi­ness skills designed to enhance the resume fur­ther. Eas­i­ly an all-around degree, Great Basin Col­lege is cer­tain­ly worth consideration.

• Cost per Cred­it: $161
• Pro­gram Website

3. Azusa Pacific University

The Data Ana­lyt­ics pro­gram at Azusa Pacif­ic Uni­ver­si­ty is designed as a 15-unit area of empha­sis. It may pairs with the fol­low­ing degrees: B.A. in Applied Psy­chol­o­gy, B.A. in Applied Stud­ies, B.A. in Lead­er­ship, B.A. in Man­age­ment, B.S. in Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, B.S. in Health Sci­ences, and B.S. in Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems. Grad­u­ates go on to work as busi­ness ana­lysts, data ana­lysts, data­base admin­is­tra­tors, IT project man­agers, as well as oth­er posi­tions in the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors. For those who desire more train­ing in Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems, pair­ing a Data Ana­lyt­ics empha­sis with the Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems degree is the per­fect match. Stu­dents will receive ample train­ing in man­ag­ing infor­ma­tion, com­put­ers, data­bas­es, sys­tems analy­sis, and busi­ness prin­ci­ples. Regard­less of the under­grad­u­ate degree, one choos­es, the Data Ana­lyt­ics pro­gram will pre­pare stu­dents to orga­nize and ana­lyze data in today’s workforce.

• Cost per Cred­it: $450

4. Liberty University

Deliv­ered entire­ly online, Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty’s Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, Data Net­work­ing, and Secu­ri­ty equips stu­dents with crit­i­cal knowl­edge in the field of data secu­ri­ty. The pro­gram incor­po­rates hands-on projects, men­tor­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties with indus­try lead­ers, and prac­tice apply­ing skills in the real world. Stu­dents take class­es in net­work secu­ri­ty, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, infor­ma­tion secu­ri­ty plan­ning, and web archi­tec­ture and secu­ri­ty. As a Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­si­ty, Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty is inten­tion­al about incor­po­rat­ing a Bib­li­cal world­view into all of their cours­es. Upon grad­u­a­tion, stu­dents will be pre­pared to meet the grow­ing demand for data net­work and secu­ri­ty admin­is­tra­tors. The pro­gram requires 120 total cred­it hours, 30 of which must be tak­en through Lib­er­ty. Addi­tion­al­ly, 50% or 30 hours of the major must be tak­en through Lib­er­ty. With afford­able tuition and ulti­mate flex­i­bil­i­ty, the Data Net­work­ing and Secu­ri­ty degree at Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty is one of the best.

• Cost per Cred­it: $390
• Pro­gram Website

5. Ohio Christian University

Ohio Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­si­ty offers a Data Ana­lyt­ics pro­gram that pre­pares stu­dents for a career in data ana­lyt­ics with­in the infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy are­na. Upon com­ple­tion of the pro­gram, the stu­dent will be able to iden­ti­fy the var­i­ous analy­ses avail­able from dif­fer­ent data sets, com­mu­ni­cate mul­ti­ple aspects of analy­sis to IT and non-IT stake­hold­ers, eval­u­ate eth­i­cal issues in data analy­sis while inte­grat­ing Chris­t­ian prin­ci­ples in their deci­sion mak­ing. There are approx­i­mate­ly 20 required cours­es to com­plete the degree, cul­mi­nat­ing in a cap­stone project. The course­work is set up slight­ly dif­fer­ent than the aver­age degree, each class is worth three cred­its, and can be com­plet­ed in as lit­tle as five weeks instead of the usu­al semes­ters or terms. This arrange­ment pro­vides the work­ing adult with more flex­i­bil­i­ty. Upon com­ple­tion of the pro­gram, grad­u­ates will be pre­pared to enter the world of data ana­lyt­ics and pur­sue any career in the field.

• Cost per Cred­it: $423
• Pro­gram Website

6. Colorado State University-Global Campus

The aver­age salary for a Com­put­er and Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Man­ag­er is $135,000. Not only is the pay attrac­tive, but the demand is also con­sis­tent and grow­ing. The Online Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems and Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics at CSU-Glob­al can get you into the field of Data Ana­lyt­ics. Com­bin­ing foun­da­tion busi­ness knowl­edge and skills with the emerg­ing field of Big Data, includ­ing data ware­hous­ing, min­ing, and analy­sis, the pro­gram leads to jobs. Addi­tion­al­ly, stu­dents may con­tin­ue into a grad­u­ate pro­gram. With 12 three-cred­it core cours­es required, the spe­cial­iza­tion is a small part of a full 120-cred­it bachelor’s degree, pro­vid­ing room for spe­cial­iza­tion. Also, the school has a gen­er­ous trans­fer pol­i­cy that may make CSU-Glob­al the per­fect fit for you. Also worth not­ing, there is both a cap­stone and practicum as part of the degree at CSU-Global.

• Cost per Cred­it: $350
• Pro­gram Website

7. Ottawa University

Ottawa Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate, non-prof­it, Chris­t­ian lib­er­al arts uni­ver­si­ty locat­ed in Ottawa, Kansas. In addi­tion to the main, res­i­den­tial cam­pus, there are five dif­fer­ent phys­i­cal branch­es of the uni­ver­si­ty, as well as an online school. The online school offers a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy degree, which has been avail­able since Fall 2014. Adding this degree to its reper­toire gives Ottawa stu­dents the oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­pete in the data-dri­ven world. The degree includes essen­tial data sci­ence com­po­nents, includ­ing data­base man­age­ment, sta­tis­ti­cal mod­el­ing, net­work secu­ri­ty, big data, and infor­mat­ics. Stu­dents will grad­u­ate with a com­pre­hen­sive skill set in com­put­er sci­ence, data intel­li­gence, ana­lyt­ics, secu­ri­ty, and math­e­mat­ics. Offer­ing the best fac­ul­ty to stu­dent ratio on the list, stu­dents can rest assured that they are get­ting the per­son­al atten­tion only a small school can provide.

• Cost per Cred­it: $499
• Pro­gram Website

8. Thomas Edison State University

Thomas Edi­son State Uni­ver­si­ty offers a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents who wish to pur­sue a degree in data sci­ence. They have part­nered with the Insti­tute of Sta­tis­tics Edu­ca­tion at Statistics.com to pro­vide an online Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Sci­ence and Ana­lyt­ics. The degree is geared towards the work­ing adult. The uni­ver­si­ty offers the cours­es, exams, and cred­it-earn­ing options while Statistics.com offers the data sci­ence and ana­lyt­ics cours­es. All class­es have been eval­u­at­ed and rec­om­mend­ed for cred­it by the Amer­i­can Coun­cil on Education’s Col­lege Cred­it Rec­om­men­da­tion Ser­vice. This cre­ative way of offer­ing a degree using a well-known web­site pro­vides stu­dents with the most rel­e­vant and up-to-date data while pur­su­ing their degree at an estab­lished insti­tu­tion. All gen­er­al edu­ca­tion require­ments and elec­tives are com­plet­ed through Thomas Edi­son State Uni­ver­si­ty. The degree requires 120 cred­its for grad­u­a­tion; 33 are com­plet­ed in the area of study.

• Cost per Cred­it: $499
• Pro­gram Website

9. Saint Louis University

The School for Pro­fes­sion­al Stud­ies at Saint Louis Uni­ver­si­ty offers an online Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Com­put­er Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems; the pro­gram requires the com­ple­tion of 120 cred­it hours. The pro­gram is offered in an accel­er­at­ed for­mat with the class­es avail­able in eight-week terms, mak­ing the degree attain­able for the work­ing pro­fes­sion­al. Stu­dents in the pro­gram can choose to spe­cial­ize in one of three tracks: Data Ana­lyt­ics, Infor­ma­tion Secu­ri­ty and Assur­ance, and Health Care Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems. For the sake of this arti­cle, we will focus on the Data Ana­lyt­ics spe­cial­iza­tion. Grad­u­ates with a spe­cial­iza­tion in Data Ana­lyt­ics will be pre­pared to work as a mar­ket research ana­lyst, data ana­lyst, or in busi­ness intel­li­gence. Cours­es include Data Min­ing, Ana­lyt­ics and Mod­el­ing, and Cyber Secu­ri­ty. This degree is high­ly com­pet­i­tive in the work­force, as it cou­ples com­put­er infor­ma­tion sys­tems with a focus on data. Grad­u­ates have a broad base of skills and knowl­edge that employ­ers are look­ing for.

• Cost per Cred­it: $640
• Pro­gram Website

10. Washington State University

Wash­ing­ton State Uni­ver­si­ty offers an online Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Ana­lyt­ics where stu­dents com­plete an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary cur­ricu­lum. The cur­ricu­lum includes cours­es in data ana­lyt­ics, com­put­er sci­ence, sta­tis­tics, math, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion. This par­tic­u­lar degree not only focus­es on data and ana­lyt­ics, but grad­u­ates will have more in-depth exper­tise in busi­ness. One of the goals of the depart­ment is for the stu­dents to be able to bring their knowl­edge to com­pa­nies in a wide range of indus­tries to assist them in mak­ing bet­ter busi­ness deci­sions. Class­es are taught by the same fac­ul­ty that teach­es on WSU’s phys­i­cal cam­pus­es, ensur­ing stu­dents they are learn­ing from the best. All stu­dents must com­plete the Uni­ver­si­ty Com­mon Require­ments (UCORE) in addi­tion to com­plet­ing the 24 cred­its required for a Data Ana­lyt­ics major. It should be not­ed that the pro­gram states stu­dents must have strong math skills to be successful.

• Cost per Cred­it: $567
• Pro­gram Website

11. Western Governors University

The Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Data Management/Data Ana­lyt­ics at West­ern Gov­er­nors Uni­ver­si­ty is one of the most com­pet­i­tive in the indus­try. The afford­able tuition at only $290 per cred­it hour makes this pro­gram worth con­sid­er­ing. Not only does the pro­gram offer afford­able edu­ca­tion, but there are also sev­er­al addi­tion­al perks built into the pro­gram. Stu­dents will grad­u­ate with mul­ti­ple indus­try-rec­og­nized cer­ti­fi­ca­tions from such orga­ni­za­tions as Ora­cle, Comp­TIA, and CIW. There is no extra time or cost for these cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, and they are guar­an­teed to boost your resume. Grad­u­ates earn a “Udac­i­ty Nan­ode­gree.” Udac­i­ty Nan­ode­gree hold­ers enjoy ongo­ing sup­port from Udac­i­ty that includes employ­ment place­ment, résumé sup­port, net­work­ing and LinkedIn guid­ance, etc. Earn­ing a Udac­i­ty Nan­ode­gree is part of the B.S. Data Management/Data Ana­lyt­ics pro­gram and enti­tles stu­dents to all the ben­e­fits offered by Udac­i­ty, also with­out addi­tion­al time or cost. There is no doubt that a degree from West­ern Gov­er­nors Uni­ver­si­ty has many perks!

• Cost per Cred­it: $290
• Pro­gram Website

12. Arizona State University

One of the best uni­ver­si­ties in the nation in many areas, Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty, doesn’t dis­ap­point with their online Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Data Ana­lyt­ics. This pro­gram trains stu­dents in data ana­lyt­ics and busi­ness prac­tices. Stu­dents will excel in a vari­ety of careers. The 120-cred­it degree includes cours­es in Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems, Busi­ness Data Ana­lyt­ics, Data Ware­hous­es and Dimen­sion­al Mod­el­ing, and Data Min­ing to name a few. Careers acces­si­ble to grad­u­ates of the pro­gram can earn from $70,000 up to six-fig­ure incomes; jobs include Clin­i­cal Data Man­agers, Research Coor­di­na­tors, Com­put­er and Infor­ma­tion Research Sci­en­tist, Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Man­agers, Data­base Archi­tects, and more. One of the most attrac­tive aspects of ASU is their sol­id rep­u­ta­tion, espe­cial­ly the W. P. Carey School of Busi­ness. The online grad­u­ate busi­ness pro­grams are ranked #2 by U.S. News and World Report. If you meet the admis­sion require­ments, the pro­gram con­ve­nient­ly starts every 7.5 weeks, mak­ing it eas­i­ly acces­si­ble for the work­ing professional.

• Cost per Cred­it: $619
• Pro­gram Website

13. Bellevue University

With a rapid­ly emerg­ing field, data ana­lyt­ics pro­grams are high­ly sought after and can pay big div­i­dends through last­ing and high-pay­ing careers. At Belle­vue Uni­ver­si­ty, the BS Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics degree equips stu­dents to under­stand foun­da­tion­al busi­ness knowl­edge and prac­tices such as finan­cial account­ing and sta­tis­ti­cal meth­ods, com­bined with data man­age­ment, min­ing, and ware­hous­ing. This com­bi­na­tion answers pre­cise­ly the cur­rent demand. With an afford­able cost per cred­it of $410 and the flex­i­bil­i­ty of being online, the ROI is favor­able. Hands-on learn­ing and fac­ul­ty with real job expe­ri­ence in data ana­lyt­ics equip stu­dents to move from the­o­ry to the real world. The pro­gram is 127 cred­its divid­ed into three areas: busi­ness, infor­ma­tion sys­tems, and busi­ness ana­lyt­ics. Grad­u­ates can enter the job field or move right into Bellevue’s out­stand­ing Mas­ters in Busi­ness Analytics.

• Cost per Cred­it: $410
• Pro­gram Website

14. California State University — Fullerton

If you find your­self attract­ed to the pos­si­bil­i­ty of being a data detec­tive and dis­cov­er­ing trends that lead to new poten­tial, Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty, Fullerton’s Cer­tifi­cate in Data Sci­ence can get you into the field quick­ly and con­ve­nient­ly. Offered online, you can com­plete the 117-cred­it pro­gram in as lit­tle as ten months. Cours­es in foun­da­tion­al data analy­sis, sta­tis­tics, and mod­el­ing help advance you in the data ana­lyt­ics world. There is also a cap­stone project that com­bines the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge with prac­ti­cal skills in a real-world sce­nario. The cer­tifi­cate pro­gram is espe­cial­ly suit­ed for data ana­lysts and com­put­er sci­en­tists want­i­ng to take the lead or learn data ana­lyt­ics, grad­u­ates with degrees in math or nat­ur­al sci­ences who wish to enter the field, and pro­fes­sion­al ana­lysts or man­agers seek­ing to advance in their careers. If you are not from Cal­i­for­nia, please note that you can only enroll in CSUF online cours­es when your state has autho­rized CSUF as a provider.

• Cost per Cred­it: $275
• Pro­gram Website

15. University of California, Irvine

Since 1965, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Irvine has proven itself as a place where research and inno­va­tion thrives. The UCI Divi­sion of Con­tin­u­ing Education’s Pre­dic­tive Ana­lyt­ics Cer­tifi­cate is a case in point. The online pro­gram is designed for work­ing adults and cov­ers all the major areas need­ed to become suc­cess­ful at Big Data: web ana­lyt­ics, busi­ness analy­sis, and data min­ing. The Cer­tifi­cate is award­ed after the min­i­mum com­ple­tion of five required cours­es and six elec­tive units for a min­i­mum of 16 units. Class­es for the cer­tifi­cate include Big Data, Risk Ana­lyt­ics, Pre­dic­tive HR and Work­force Ana­lyt­ics, and Effec­tive Data Prepa­ra­tion. A notable aspect of UCI’s pro­gram is their part­ner­ship with Pre­dic­tive Ana­lyt­ics World, “the lead­ing cross-ven­dor event for pre­dic­tive ana­lyt­ics pro­fes­sion­als, man­agers, and com­mer­cial practitioners.”

• Cost per Pro­gram: $6,625
• Pro­gram Website

16. Marist College

Sim­i­lar to Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty and the Col­lege of William and Mary, Marist Col­lege was found­ed as a sem­i­nary and has since become a pow­er­ful insti­tu­tion of research and learn­ing. With a rep­u­ta­tion for excel­lent pro­grams, Marist Col­lege offers the Advanced Cer­tifi­cate in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics to work­ing pro­fes­sion­als, grad­u­ates seek­ing to enter the field of Big Data, and those try­ing to change careers. The glo­ry of the Advanced Cer­tifi­cate is the speed and flex­i­bil­i­ty in which you are trained and can, in turn, enter the job field. The pro­gram is taught by expe­ri­enced fac­ul­ty and fea­tures indus­try lead­ers in the field. The com­bi­na­tion of hands-on skills and real-world prob­lem solv­ing is a win­ning com­bi­na­tion. Cours­es con­tain grad­u­ate-lev­el Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems cours­es and are applied to the Marist Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems (MSIS) pro­gram, should you wish to tran­si­tion into a grad­u­ate pro­gram. To com­plete the Cer­tifi­cate, stu­dents are required to com­plete four cours­es for a total of 12 credits.

• Cost per Cred­it: $800
• Pro­gram Website

17. Seton Hall University

Seton Hall Uni­ver­si­ty offers two cer­tifi­cate options. The Cer­tifi­cate in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics pro­gram is com­prised of four required class­es: Busi­ness Sta­tis­tics, Busi­ness Intel­li­gence, Big Data Ana­lyt­ics, and one elec­tive among four choic­es. Class­es are taught by full-time and expe­ri­enced fac­ul­ty giv­ing stu­dents the qual­i­ty and per­son­al edu­ca­tion Seton is known for. In addi­tion to qual­i­fied fac­ul­ty, SHU is a mem­ber of the New Jer­sey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA). The NJBDA fos­ters part­ner­ships among indus­try, acad­e­mia (there are eleven uni­ver­si­ties involved) and gov­ern­ment to advance com­put­ing inno­va­tion and edu­ca­tion. The Cer­tifi­cate in Data Visu­al­iza­tion is anoth­er flex­i­ble and fast way to enter into the excit­ing and grow­ing field. This pro­gram pre­pares stu­dents to ana­lyze, store, and com­mu­ni­cate com­plex data using visu­als. At only $444 per cred­it, Seton Hall Uni­ver­si­ty is both flex­i­ble and affordable.

• Cost per Cred­it: $444
• Pro­gram Website

18. University of Washington

At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton, the dri­ve to inno­vate is strong. As part of the new­ly launched “Career Accel­er­a­tor,” which is cer­tifi­cate pro­grams with four learn­ing for­mats for work­ing adults, the Cer­tifi­cate in Data Sci­ence can be online, accel­er­at­ed, self-paced, or in the class­room. It is designed for tech­ni­cal­ly ori­ent­ed pro­fes­sion­als and requires only three cours­es. UW also offers two oth­er cer­tifi­cates in the emerg­ing field of Big Data: The Cer­tifi­cate of Data Ana­lyt­ics: Tech­niques for Deci­sion Mak­ing, and the Cer­tifi­cate of Busi­ness Intel­li­gence: Build­ing the Data Ware­house. For every cer­tifi­cate, there are essen­tial admis­sion require­ments that need to be met. For exam­ple, they require you know SQL (Struc­tured Query Lan­guage) to some extent. If you do find you meet the require­ments, there’s no doubt, with train­ing like this, jobs as a Data Ana­lyst will be avail­able at the end.

• Cost per Cred­it: $444
• Pro­gram Website

19. California University of Pennsylvania

Ranked by Mon­ey mag­a­zine as the No. 1 most valu­able career-focused skill in today’s job mar­ket, the SAS Data Sci­ence Cer­tifi­cate deliv­ers. Cal­i­for­nia Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia offers both under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate cer­tifi­cates in this emerg­ing field. The pro­gram is con­duct­ed through a unique part­ner­ship with Cal U and SAS, an orga­ni­za­tion employ­ing 14,000 peo­ple who make soft­ware for Big Data. In fact, 94 of the top 100 For­tune 500 com­pa­nies use SAS soft­ware. With this kind of real suc­cess and expe­ri­ence, the Cal U cer­tifi­cate offers the best in this for­mat. With four class­es and a cap­stone project that uti­lizes SAS soft­ware, stu­dents will com­ple­ment any bachelor’s degree, move into grad­u­ate work, or take it as a stand-alone cer­tifi­cate and enter the job mar­ket. Cal U is look­ing for those with SAS skills. With the cer­tifi­cate stu­dents will also be eli­gi­ble to sit for two SAS exams to qual­i­fy as a SAS Cer­ti­fied Big Data Pro­fes­sion­al. There is also the pos­si­bil­i­ty to receive a 50 per­cent dis­count on SAS test­ing fees. Cal­i­for­nia Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia is an excel­lent choice to enter into the grow­ing SAS field.

• Cost per Cred­it: $381
• Pro­gram Website

20. Bellevue College

If you are inter­est­ed in data sci­ence and the health­care indus­try the Health­care Data Ana­lyst cer­tifi­cate from Belle­vue Col­lege is an excel­lent choice. The Cer­tifi­cate con­sists of three main areas: spe­cif­ic reg­u­la­tions, stan­dards and trends, and a sur­vey of ana­lyt­ics. Stu­dents learn to ana­lyze both the stan­dards and trends, as well as the study of ana­lyt­ics. They also have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work hands-on, prac­tic­ing skills in data min­ing, visu­al­iza­tion, and analy­sis. These skills are trans­form­ing the way we under­stand busi­ness and are invalu­able. To be admit­ted at Belle­vue Col­lege expe­ri­ence and cost are vital to know. Stu­dents must have a bachelor’s degree or asso­ci­ate’s with at least two years of applic­a­ble expe­ri­ence, includ­ing SQL Lev­el 1, Excel train­ing, and col­lege alge­bra. Please note, the cost must be paid in full and is $1950.

• Cost per Cred­it: $350
• Pro­gram Website

Why Get a Bachelor’s in Data Science?

We hope this list has helped you in your jour­ney to choos­ing a degree in data sci­ence. Because this pro­fes­sion is new, stu­dents may not be entire­ly aware of the many career pos­si­bil­i­ties that come with being a data sci­en­tist. Those in the field can look for­ward to a promis­ing career and excel­lent com­pen­sa­tion. In fact, payscale.com cur­rent­ly lists states that a Chief Data Sci­en­tist earns $128,011 annu­al­ly. Get­ting cer­ti­fied is a good strat­e­gy that helps build a com­pet­i­tive resume that will be appeal­ing to the best names in the industry.

You’ll learn key fun­da­men­tals from a data sci­ence degree, such as:

• machine learn­ing
• algo­rithms
• python
• arti­fi­cial intelligence
• data struc­tures
• soft­ware development

As a high­ly in-demand area of exper­tise, data sci­ence gives online stu­dents a way into a lucra­tive career. Build your crit­i­cal think­ing skills, get a minor in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion, go on to a master’s degree — they sky is the limit.

Before you choose an online bachleor’s degree data sci­ence pro­gram, though, make sure it pro­vides finan­cial aid oppor­tu­ni­ties, accepts trans­fer cred­its, and meets all oth­er qualifications.

Whether you com­plete a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram or a full degree, there are sure to be open doors in this bur­geon­ing field. Career options abound across pub­lic, pri­vate and non­prof­it sec­tors, includ­ing mar­ket researcher, sta­tis­ti­cian, data min­er, ana­lyst and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy spe­cial­ist. Accord­ing to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, demand for math­e­mati­cians and sta­tis­ti­cians tops the list at 33 per­cent growth through 2026.* The need for oper­a­tions research ana­lysts is pro­ject­ed at 27 per­cent, and mar­ket research ana­lyst growth is pro­ject­ed to see 23 per­cent growth.* Your hard work, time, and mon­ey are cer­tain to yield a high ROI. Good luck!

Relat­ed:

25 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Data Science

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Data Science

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Analytics

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Analytics

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Analytics

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Analytics

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics

15 Best Online Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics Programs

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics