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Data Science

Colleges offering this major Rankings Trends

What you'll do in college

Data Science and AI sit at the intersection of computer science, statistics, and business logic. Coursework blends Python/SQL, machine learning, deep learning, algorithms, and data wrangling. You'll build recommendation engines, train models on massive messy datasets, and learn the dark art of hyperparameter tuning. It’s highly applied and incredibly fast-paced; half the libraries you learn will be updated or replaced by the time you graduate.

What you'll do after college

Grads become data scientists, machine learning engineers, and AI researchers. Despite the hype of building autonomous AI, a typical day often consists of spending 80% of your time cleaning disastrously messy data and 20% complaining about it. Starting salaries are astronomical, but you must constantly upskill to keep pace with the rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Selectivity vs. earnings

By acceptance rate

$71,904
18
100–72%
$141,136
110
7–7%
—
100–0%
Acceptance rate · bar = degree-weighted adjusted 5-year earnings

By SAT median

$71,904
18
400–1130
$141,136
110
1540–1540
—
400–1600
Combined SAT composite median (submitters + non-submitters) · bar = degree-weighted adjusted 5-year earnings

Earnings vs. selectivity rank

$0 $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 #1 #25 #50 #100 #250 #750 #1259 Selectivity rank (1 = most selective) #19 · $141,136 #1121 · $69,543 #904 · $72,377 #1–#25: median $141,136 #751–#1259: median $70,960
Each dot = a college · y = degree-weighted adjusted 5-year earnings

Majors in this category

Major Colleges Degrees ▼ Male/Female Intl 5yr Earn
Data Science 168 3,106 63% / 37% 21% $73,867
Data Science 131 2,545 62% / 38% 23% $70,960
Data Analytics 39 229 72% / 28% 10%
Computational Modeling and Data Analytics 1 158 77% / 23% 7%
Data Science and Society 1 110 63% / 37% 9% $141,136
Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science (Course 6-14) 1 39 46% / 54% 8%
Data Visualization 1 25 84% / 16% 12%