Perusing my LinkedIn feed today, I noticed that articles about colleges now offering “Data Science” as a major and discipline are popping up. As a founder of conDati, Inc, a company that specializes in Data Science, Big Data, and Marketing Analytics, it’s wonderful for me to see that popular universities are helping the industry develop this new breed of talent, considering the skill gap that exists within Big Data and Data Science.

All of this, of course, is driven by the increasing demand for data scientists capable of gathering insights and making accurate predictions, fueled by a colossal increase in the volume of data generated. In almost every field from e-commerce to agriculture, Big Data has gradually become even more crucial to professions from all walks of life. Companies are already seeking new talent to sift and blend the goldmine of data that now exists to deliver value in an ever-increasing competitive environment.

Thanks to schools across the US, there will soon be abundant college graduates with degrees to suffice the demands of evolving data science industries and employers. In fact, a number of US colleges have released recent announcements that they are now offering Data Science as major and minor curricula:

• UCSD to offer Data Science Major and Minor Fall 2017
• UC Santa Cruz aims to fill Silicon Valley's AI talent gap with new data science center
• Yale to offer new major in data science
• Harvard launches data science master’s degree program
• Purdue to Launch Data Science Major

Additionally, @BernardMarr wrote an article via @Forbes about “The 6 Best Data Science Master's Degree Courses In the US,” citing these 6 universities offering Data Science today:

Master of Computational Data Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Master of Information and Data Science, University of California, Berkeley
Master of Business Analytics, MIT Sloan
Master of Science and Analytics, Northwestern University
Master of Science in Data Science, New York University
Master of Science in Statistics: Data Science at Stanford University
Not on the Forbes list is Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts. They launched their program in 2013, offering a Masters and PhD program.

Finally for curiosity’s sake, I did a quick search of my alma mater - California Polytechnic State University, Pomona (aka Cal Poly Pomona) - to see if they offer Data Science degree. And to my pleasant surprise, they do offer a program; albeit, categorized as a Minor within the College of Science & Mathematics. I hope that it continues to grow and eventually become recognized as a full blown Major.

On a side note: if your alma mater has this major or about to launch it, let me know and add to the 'comments' section of this post.

So, to all the future data scientists out there, @conDati_Inc is looking for you! We are doing fun things in the area of Data Science, Machine Learning & Marketing Analytics.