100% Online MS in Data Science

8 Courses | 32 Credits | Finish in 16 Months

Program Benefits & Overview

Curriculum

Faculty Experts

Industry News

#10 – Top 25 Best Value Online Big Data Programs 2022 – ValueColleges.com

Data Driven. Industry Inspired

Competitive Tuition – $20,000! Finish in 16 months and be ready to meet the demands of a career in one of the hottest and fastest-growing fields in America.

Gain the skills needed to move into a rewarding, high-paying career. The online MS in Data Science program from Merrimack College develops well-rounded professionals with the hard and soft skills necessary to start and build a successful career in the field of data science. Designed for those beginning or advancing their career in the field of data science, graduates will leave the program with skills in coding, predictive modeling, machine learning, data storytelling, and problem formulation.

The program features an innovative curriculum that builds a strong foundation of key data science skills starting with courses in R and Python, statistics, and data visualization. Core courses emphasize creating and validating predictive models and using machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to conduct supervised and unsupervised learning. Students will apply their modeling and data analytic skills to real-life applications in areas such as the healthcare environment, social media/marketing, and sports analytics, and will complete a capstone project that takes a data set through the full data science lifecycle.

The projects and coursework in this program were designed under the guidance of faculty experts and industry professionals to develop the data science skills employers need and hiring managers seek.

Graduates of the MS in Data Science program are leading successful careers at companies such as: 

Blue Cross Blue Shield | Capital One | Cigna | CVS Health | IBM | Indeed.com| Liberty Mutual Insurance | Microsoft | Staples |  Thermo Fisher Scientific | Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Yes! Tell me more about Merrimack’s Data Science degree!

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Job openings in data science nationally
$0
median salary for Data Scientist
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Ranked Third Best Job in America

Source: Glassdoor.com, Obtained August 2022

Start Your Career

  • No background in coding or statistics required

  • Start from scratch to master R and Python

  • Benefit from career services and Merrimack’s professional networks

Advance Your Career

For those working in roles applying foundational data science methods:

  • Skip up to two of the foundational courses

  • Develop soft skills in  communication and data storytelling

  • Move into more advanced positions

What Skills Will You Develop?

To earn your Master of Science in Data Science degree, students will complete the 3 foundational courses and 3 core curriculum courses, plus one applications course and a capstone for a total of 32 credit hours. Students with prior educational achievement or work experience can request a waiver of the required courses R and Python Programming and Visual Data Exploration and replace them with additional electives. Students already working in the industry can use a real-life project to complete their capstone – approval from program director is needed.

Become a Data Scientist in 16 Months – No PRIOR experience necessary

Over 80% of our program graduates are working in the field of data science.

Foundational Courses

Students will become familiar with the field of data science, its applications, and use cases. Students will learn relevant statistical topics with applications in data science.

Students will learn to write and read Python and R programming codes for exploring, summarizing, and visualizing numerical, categorical, date, and text data.

Learn to use industry-leading software to “tell the story of the data” by creating graphical summaries using Tableau and interactive dashboards using R Shiny.

Core Courses

Fitting and validation of multivariate predictive models focused on estimation of continuous or categorical outcomes, emphasizing statistical bases of models

Automated pattern detection approaches focused on unsupervised and supervised learning, feature engineering, classification, regression, neural networks

Data capture related rights and responsibilities, data governance design and management, data security and privacy, information quality, and the ethical aspects of data access, usage, and sharing. operational and experiential aspects of data governance and differential privacy.

APPLICATIONS Courses

Use analytical techniques to convert social media data into marketing insights, benefits and limitation of social media listening, creation of monitors, discussion of standard social media metrics, market structure, consumers’ perception of brand.

Apply analytical techniques including multiple regression and discriminant analysis to predict player performance and team outcomes as well as business models for sports franchises.

This course is hands-on analytics of real-world healthcare datasets. Students will apply their modeling skills to real-life applications in the health care environment.

Capstone

In this capstone experience, students take a problem through the full data science lifecycle. The instructor provides the data set and the requirements. Students must complete six courses from the MSDS program before taking this capstone course.

In this capstone experience, students take a problem through the full data science lifecycle. Students provide their own data, or bring a data set from their employer, or complete an industry internship. Students must complete six courses from the MSDS program before taking this capstone course.

ELECTIVES

Students will learn to write and read SQL and no-SQL queries. Students will develop an understanding of the design and function of relational and non-relational databases.

This course will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the big data processing foundation and techniques. Students will understand basic concepts of parallel computing, big data, Hadoop, MapReduce, and Spark. Students will develop skills to solve big data processing problems.

Story-telling with data linked to maps, 2D and 3D spatial analysis using industry leading software ArcGIS, coordinate systems, projections, layering, raster and vector data.

Sentiment analysis with logistic regression and naïve Bayes; dynamic programming, hidden Markov models; encoding, decoding, machine translation.

Student Support Resources

Students in School of Science and Engineering benefit from a dedicated success team. Support includes: 

  • Access to Coding Bootcamps & LinkedIn Learning courses

  • Personal student success coaching

  • 1:1 Tutoring

  • 1:1 mentorship from faculty & program staff

  • Career services support for professional growth

data science career vs business analytics

Discover the Merrimack Difference

EMPLOYER ALIGNED

Industry input ensures that the skills and programs you learn in this degree match the skills employers need in candidates.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Classes are taught by experienced practitioners in the data science field who bring their experiences to your assignments and class projects.

TOP-RANKED

Merrimack College is recognized among the top universities in the country by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review, to name a few.

100% ONLINE

Combination of self-paced delivery with live, online instructor-led sessions provides an engaging learning experience without getting to a campus for your classes.

Learn from Experts
in the field of Data Science and Analytics!

Meet Our Faculty

Where Can A Master in Data Science Degree Take You?

Potential career paths for graduates of the Master of Science in Data Science include:

Data Scientist

$120,966per year

Data Engineer

$110,851per year

Data Analyst

$71,645per year

Source: Glassdoor.com, Obtained August 2022

testimonial

“As a new manager with expanding responsibilities at times I’m faced with resource constraints.  The Data Science program has given me the ability to support my team by taking on some of the analytic work when we have resource constraints.  Not only am I gaining a greater understanding of analytics, but I am able to apply my new knowledge every day in the workplace.”

WILL LINDSEY, Manager of Analytics, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

Yes! Tell me more about Merrimack’s Data Science degree!

News & Events

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Trends in Data Science

Any talk of data science trends typically features a familiar cast of characters. Articles chronicling the data science revolution explore big data, the cloud, artificial intelligence, machine learning, the internet of things, and

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MERRIMACK COLLEGE ACCOLADES

At Merrimack College, we’re proud of our long history of providing quality degrees to students entering the job market. Our faculty are more than just teachers. We are committed to helping you grow — academically, personally and spiritually — so that you may graduate as a confident, well-prepared citizen of the world.

  • #10 Top 50 Best Value Online Big Data Programs 2020 by ValueColleges.com
  • U.S. News & World Report 2022 #34 Best Regional Universities North
  • U.S. News & World Report 2022 #41 Best Value Schools
  • U.S. News & World Report 2022 #3 Most Innovative Schools
  • Money Magazine’s Best Colleges 2020
  • The Princeton Review 2021 Best Northeastern Regional College
  • Apple Inc., Apple Distinguished School
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