Data analysis is the science of correctly collecting data, assessing it for trustworthiness, extracting information from it, and presenting it in a comprehensible informative way. These skills are vital to institutions such as government, business, or health care where sound decisions must be made based on data and the way it is interpreted.

Students will acquire the skills needed to extract reliable information from large data sets. With carefully designed courses taken in both computing and statistics, students will gain the data-base skills needed to house, extract, manipulate, and maintain data, and will learn the statistical techniques needed to collect data correctly, assess its quality, analyze it, and present the information effectively to decision makers. The industry standard statistical software environments SAS and R will be used throughout.

Please note: The program begins in the Fall semester. Applicants who do not have an introductory computer and/or statistics course in their undergraduate degree as per the entrance requirements will be conditionally admitted to the Summer semester to complete these courses.