Should You Get A Masters in Data Science? 

Glad to hear the videos are helpful!!! Thank you for contributing so much to the comments on my channel!

@@KenJee_ds my pleasure

I generally recommend a masters over another bachelors. I did my masters in CS without having any coding experience, so it can be done (for data science)!

I think that in data science it is more about what you have done than the certificate or degree that you have. I would much to see a really strong project portfolio from a candidate than a masters degree with very little work to show for it. I think this applies to top uni's as well, if you have the degree, but don't have the work to back it up, you probably won't get many looks either way. The benefit of the Universities is the networking opportunities and the structure that should let you build out your portfolio. I hope this helps!

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Thanks for watching! I think this is a reasonable motivation for going through one of the degree programs. I would make sure that you do a program that gives you the opportunity to do an internship in the field. This serves two purposes: you get experience and you can see how data science is applied in industry. I hope this helps!

I think they would likely have the same amount of opportunities! I would choose the one that has the classes that you find most interesting!

I agree with you! I think your time is far better spent on projects in this case.

I recommend getting as much work experience as you can. It is good that you already have some internships in a related field. This should help you land another one!

I would! I think that projects and work experience are the main barriers, education is rarely one.

Thanks for watching! Honestly, I don't have direct experience with this. I think it may be difficult to do that, but it should be possible. I hope this helps!

Thanks for watching Isabelle! I think that really depends on what you want to do! If you majored in math in college, I think CS would make a bit more sense for the DS route. On the other hand, if you were looking to something in the pure math domain CS wouldn't make much sense haha

Hi Soyeon, while the coursework may not be what you expected, I think you can still likely leverage the university admissions office. I would try to get an internship, research, or a co-op while you still have access to those resources. Sorry to hear the program is lacking though, it is frustrating to hear they are charging so much for a product that isn't meeting your needs.

This sounds like a great opportunity! Since you already have an undergrad in CS, I don't think it really matters which path you choose (CS or DS degree). I would do the one you are most interested in. The thing that matters more than the degree is the internship experience. I would focus as much effort as you can into that.

It really depends what you're most interested in. Business analytics will be mostly focused on business intelligence and descriptive analysis, while data science will likely have more model building and production. I think you could get into a data analyst role without the need for going back for a masters if that is what you're aiming for. I hope this helps!

I don't generally recommend taking on debt to make this career transition. If you have free time, I recommend going the certificate + projects + volunteer work route. This can be enough to break into a role!

For about half of the programs it would be possible!

Really good question! I would say that most of the content is largely the same; however, a MS in data science probably has more focus on programming and math implementations and the MS analytics has a bit more business knowledge. I think the job prospects for a Data Analyst position are almost identical, but there might be a slight edge to a MS in DS or Predictive analytics for a pure data science position. I hope this helps!

Thanks for your great insight! I really appreciate it.

I have quite a few resume reviews on my channel that I would check out (Should be in my playlists). The resume for a ms in data science should be the same as one for applying for jobs. Definitely show projects if you have them!

Hi - Thanks for watching the video! I think that if you are looking to work in a field that applies your knowledge of exercise science along with data science, the Masters in Data Science should be sufficient. On the other hand, if you are looking to make a full on transition into data science, leaving your other experience behind, it may be worth exploring the masters in CS further. There are very few Masters in CS programs that accept students without a CS background, you may have to look across a few different academic institutions. How much statistics did you do in your Masters in Exercise Science? You may be able to get away with doing a few of the online certifications to get up to speed with coding rather than going all in with another masters. I hope this helps!

@@KenJee_ds The masters in computer science program at my university has been known to accept students with no CS background on conditional statuses as long as they pass prerequisite courses. I would be looking at 3 years to complete prerequisites and the program itself. I would say I did a fair amount of statistics as most of our projects involved doing some sort of statistical analysis including a lot of multivariate analysis and regression analysis, a lot of projects with finding standard deviation, max, min, mode and so forth. The SPSS software we used to do our statistical analysis for our thesis does not seem to be very popular in data science. I do not want to leave health and fitness completely, but I also want to open up more opportunities to find work that involves coding and working with data. I am not a big fan of working in clinical settings, which is where most jobs are with my current degree field, as that causes my anxiety and depression to worsen hence why I am looking at going into data science. Statistics was one of my favorite courses. Plus I have been enjoying learning to code. It seems like data science is a combination of being a statistician and software engineer

@@donnelly5757 I personally believe that with your background either online certifications or the masters in data science would be sufficient. I would recommend exploring roles where you can apply some of what you learned with your masters in exercise science, and build out your data science skill-set. After establishing yourself as a data science in that role, it should be fairly easy to transition to another industry if you wanted. Regardless, I think that any of these options would work to get you where you want to go. I think that real world experience is as valuable if not more valuable than another masters degree, so I would recommend trying to accumulate that as quickly as possible. Again, I hope that this is useful!

@@KenJee_ds Thanks for your quick responses and suggestions. One question: I have you heard of Springboard? Supposedly, they have an option where you do not have to pay any tuition back until you get a job as a data scientist or if you take their analytics track, a job as a data analyst. They seem to have a high rating on the Course Report website as well as on Switchup. Who's to say though that they may have bots that are giving positive reviews. I was accepted into their analytics track, but it would be nice to actually speak with someone who has gone through the program. Essentially, I am guaranteed a job within six months of completing the program. As people say, if it seems too good to be true it probably isn't. I would be thrilled to get a job starting as a data analyst in a year's time, but I think 18 to 24 months through obtaining certifications or a degree and showcasing projects I have completed seems more realistic. The University of Washington offers a certificate in data science that takes 9 months to complete. Maybe I could get the skills to at least work on projects and build a portfolio and go that route? Getting any job working with data with the exception of data entry, typically a minimum wage job, would be like winning the lottery for me. For now, I have been using Dataquest. So far I like how you get to apply skills on real world data and they have guided projects in which I can build upon. I do feel like having official credentials is necessary though to be more competitive.

@@donnelly5757 I really like your approach here. I think that a really solid timeline is 18-24 months. I am not familiar with springboard, but I am always skeptical of places that make guarantees like that. If you are a self-starter, I think that you can learn enough to get at least a data analyst job in that time-frame from online resources alone. Doing projects like the ones I recommend in my videos will go a long way. I personally put a reasonable amount of stock in the digital certifications as long as I can see the work that the person has done on their github or kaggle. If you are not a self starter, and need more formalized education (I fall into this category), I think that a bootcamp, a certificate program, or another masters are all valid options. In terms of getting a job, I would stress networking heavily. You can go through your University and other resources. Knowing someone through a degree or two of separation can help you sidestep a significant amount of the "credentials" as long as you can demonstrate that you have the technical skills.

DePaul, Let's goooo! If you have the CS undergrad, I don't think it would matter much. I did the MS CS at DePaul, and I could essentially take all of the Data Science courses if I wanted to. I chose that because there was more flexibility. Honestly though, I think if you land a solid internship or two, you probably don't even need to do a graduate degree though.

Congrats on graduating!! Yes, an undergrad degree is sufficient. I would focus as much of your attention as possible towards internships and projects though. Those will be the most important things for landing a job. I hope this helps!

I think that is a cool program Idea! Do you mind if I ask what school that is? I would have to look at the course work, but this would likely look better to employers than a bootcamp. Having a masters degree is favorable, especially at that cost. I think that would absolutely worth doing if you got a scholarship to do it. Generally, when these programs are starting, they offer more scholarships to get people involved. I would look into that.

@@KenJee_ds Hey man, it's Ramapo College of New Jersey, thank you the response!

@@JK-xw5rn Very cool! I hope the response helped!

I definitely don't think that is a stretch. I will also say that the school you go to doesn't matter much for a masters degree. The internships & projects you do will carry quite a bit more weight!

@@KenJee_ds Thank you so much for your reply! I also have another question if you have the time. I watched videos saying that I need to know what kind of job I want and how an MS in Data Science would help me achieve my goal, because it’s very important to include this in my application essay. But I honestly don’t know what kind of job I want but I’m open to anything math/analytical and this master’s degree would seem to open a lot of doors for me and prepare me more for jobs I would want. Is this not a good enough reason to get an MS in Data Science?

Since I haven't personally taken any of the coursework at the schools, I don't think it is fair for me to recommend them. However, I have friends that did the programs at The University of Virginia and Northwestern who have been pleased with the opportunities that they have gotten.

From which subject you completed your graduation?

I think the easiest route into data science is either from data analytics or software engineering. Courses in either of those fields will be useful.

I think you definitely could with that major. Honestly, your major isn't very important, the things that matter most are internships, research, and project experience. If you wanted to do a graduate degree (not necessary), you could do data science, statistics, or cs. I think all of those can open up some doors. I hope this helps!

@@KenJee_ds Thanks for the insight. I'm only asking about whether I need a masters degree to break into management positions within data science?

I don't think you would necessarily need it, it may make more sense to switch into an analyst role and build out projects on the side. Honestly, I don't usually recommend boot camps, but you might be a good candidate for one since you already have many of the skills and could use the time to build a portfolio and network.

What type of civil engineer are you? I am civil too and I wld love to get more involved in SQL and Python

@@NIKKEWaifu environment and water resources. We atuomate lab data from public water systems. We also work with IT in application testing and troubleshooting. 2 of us are now tasked with learning Java now.

I really don't know much about the admission process for most of these schools. I will try to interview someone to talk more about this though!

Thanks for sharing !!

Really depends on your goals. I think you can break into a data science role without one

I think it could make sense! Really depends on your unique situation though. Could you get your work to pay for it?

I would generally recommend against it. If you already have a data science job, that will be all you need for your career unless you wanted to go into research or if you wanted to specialize in some domain like cybersecurity. In this specific case I would recommend against a m.s. in data science

I recommend the free kaggle.com micro courses. I think they are the best option for getting grounded in the field!

Hi Mustapha - I'm not really sure on the first one, I'm a bit removed from that process myself. For the second question, these two videos I made should be helpful! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ji7DtgUeKCI.html&ab_channel=KenJee ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-domVw8isGOI.html&ab_channel=KenJee

@@KenJee_ds alright thanks 😍

Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with it!

I think it really depends on your own situation. I recommend work experience over collecting degrees in general though!

@@KenJee_ds thank you very much.

Great points! I am only familiar with the US system.

Hi, is it possible to ask which uni you went and course you did? If not comfortable sharing do you know what unis in the UK are good for data science? Also, are satisfied with the course content/modules? I really want to do data science to expand my programming and apply statistics but I have so many doubts

I think online courses are fine if you're motivated enough to take the learnings and apply them to projects!

I think it can help with job opportunities (through the school network), but overall won't be a big difference.

That is really up to you! I think one of those programs would definitely help, but you need to do your own projects and network as well

Hi Aris, unfortunately I am not familiar with that program!

I recommend trying to land a data analyst job and learning data science on your own. Experience is the most important thing here. There are plenty of great places to learn data science on line for free (like kaggle), or places that are affordable like 365datascience.com (link for a discount description if interested). I hope this helps!

@@KenJee_ds Thank you for the recommendation..amazing

I think education is far less important than a track record. If you've done awesome data science projects that have created value for someone, that is what will get you hired. Masters degrees etc. are fine if they help you to build out your portfolio, get you internships, or volunteer experience. The degree itself, is not very valuable without the other work that you put in. I think you can break in without one, but admittedly a degree helps you to organize all the other more important stuff you have to do to break into the field. I hope this helps!

@@KenJee_ds yes . I feel I shall try my project and learn basics then spending lot of money on masters and not understanding well :) self taught with Excellent project 😀

It really depends on the path you want to take and your personal situation. I think that either way, you will want to focus most of your energy on building out a project portfolio. I would do a few projects and see if you get any traction in the job market. If you feel like you need to build more skills beyond that then it may be worth considering a masters

@@KenJee_ds Thanks for the insight. I make my mind that I have to do a master's in DATA SCIENCE and I give more energy to projects and internships.

@@praffulgupta809 Awesome!

They are all still relatively new. Honestly, not my area of expertise haha. Best advice is to ask someone who has graduated and see if they got a good experience

Yep! Probably wouldn't even need the masters if you do some self study tbh

@@KenJee_ds Thank-you for your reply! But how would I do the self study in a way that lands me a job?

@@jo8919 As many projects as you can and sharing your work!

@@KenJee_ds Thanks again!

I think that it could make sense if you are comfortable with that cash outlay. I would generally recommend pursuing a degree part time while working or trying to get some internships during the process. The work experience will be what travels the furthers in terms of career growth

Thanks I appreciate it!

In quite a few of them you can! That is what I did personally.

Can you recommend these type of college names

Hi! It really depends on your background, the roles that you are interested in, and the program. If you are a self starter, I think that you can learn everything you need to know for a fraction of the price on the internet. There are great options on Udacity, Udemy, datacamp, etc. On the other hand, if you learn best in a classroom setting and are comfortable with the price tag, go for it! I would generally lump business analytics in with data science and predictive analytics programs. If the specific program you are looking at offers something wildly different on the business education front I may recommend pursuing it as well. I hope this helps!

I think this video may help! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XWetgrNas-k.html&ab_channel=KenJee

@@KenJee_ds omg tysm man!

I think that can definitely be the case. I think if you can afford it it could be worth it, it really depends.

I don't see any problem with it! I don't think there are any age constraints related to the field!

Go for it!

@@KenJee_ds No ageism in Data Science but it’s more likely in Software Engineering I heard because they prefer tounger guys?? 35-45 are considered “old”