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Start a Rewarding Career in Data Science

The world runs on information. We are surrounded by huge amounts of data, and businesses, governments, and NGOs must be able to analyze this data effectively. The Graduate Certificate in Data Science will provide you with the core technical proficiencies to visualize and analyze data, building on your current knowledge to help you become a data scientist.

The program provides a standalone data science certification. Credits from the program can also be applied to many graduate degrees offering a data science track or the new MS in Data Science.

Courses are offered in the evenings to accommodate working professionals. You can earn data science credentials to increase your contributions in your current job and position yourself for advancement. American University's Graduate Certificate is your key to an exciting and lucrative career in data science.

Earn your data science certificate in just two evenings per week.

In this 12-credit hour program, you will learn to use R programming language and other leading-edge technologies to visualize, analyze, categorize, and build prediction models for data. The coursework covers data science, statistical programming, statistical machine learning, and regression.

Review the program requirements.

Knowledgeable Faculty Dedicated to Your Success

Courses are taught by the same knowledgeable, innovative, and widely published professors who teach our master of arts, master of science, and undergraduate courses. You will learn the theories of data science and practical skills from respected experts in the field: Data Science Faculty.

Make a Difference in the Nation's Capital

Consistently ranked as one of the best cities for job seekers, Washington, DC, offers data scientists unparalleled access to private– and public–sector opportunities. AU's campus is minutes from industry giants such as Deloitte Consulting, Amazon, Booz Allen Hamilton, National Institutes of Health, BNY Mellon, Cambridge Associates, Lockheed Martin, and the Peace Corps. Our graduates start with a foot in the door, thanks to the Data Science Center and university's institutional relationships with government agencies, locally-based companies, and nonprofit organizations.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks DC as the area having the nation's highest concentration of data science positions and annual mean wage in surrounding areas of $122,740.

Respected Positions in a Growing Field

Data scientists use their skills to find critical patterns and link them to business goals. They provide employers with such valuable insights. As a result, demand for data scientists is growing in nearly every sector. Data scientists are highly sought after and well paid. In fact, Forbes and Glassdoor ranked Data Scientist as the number one job in America for the last three years with a median base salary of $120,931. By 2020, it is predicted that there will be a 28% increase in data science jobs.

In this program, you will develop the skills to visualize and analyze data in any field. There are limitless applications for the skills you will gain from studying Data Science.

FAQ

You need to have taken at least one statistics course or Calculus I.

No. If you have not taken either intermediate statistics or STAT 514, you may take STAT 514 concurrently with Statistical Programming in R (STAT 612).

The certificate program is designed to be completed in 9 months. If you need STAT 514, you should take it over the summer so you can complete your coursework during the following school year.

Yes. The courses all apply to a Master of Science in Statistics and other degrees.

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Student Spotlight

Laura C. Blevins, CAS/PhD

Behavior, Cognition and Neuroscience

AU’s Data Science Certificate empowers developing scientists.

Laura C. Blevins entered the data science certificate program while pursuing her PhD. Her doctoral work focuses on methods in neuroimaging and neuromodulation. Because the ability to read, write, and interpret big data is vital in her chosen field, she finds the data science program has broadened her statistical background and empowers her to perform sophisticated analyses with rich data sets.