Degree Program

The Data Science minor is an interdisciplinary program consisting of at least 21 credits of courses or 18 credits of courses plus a not-for-credit Experiential Component.

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives of the Hope College Data Science minor are for students to attain proficiency in:

• Asking thoughtful questions about data
• Teamwork and interpersonal communication about data-related projects
• Writing to communicate clearly about data
• Presenting questions and results involving data
• Articulating primary ethical issues in data use and handling, employing ethical practices in data analysis

Students will also gain experience in:

• Foundational skills:
  • Computer software and languages
  • Data storage and retrieval
  • Mathematical and statistical background
• Data science techniques:
  • Data management and processing skills
  • Data visualization
  • Data modeling, statistical learning
  • Application-oriented projects involving data
• Knowledge about data science:
  • Career options
  • Opportunities for further study
  • What data scientists do on a day-to-day basis

Minor Requirements

The Data Science minor is comprised of required courses as well as electives. The list of approved electives includes a wide range of courses, each of which bears 3 (or more) credits and deals extensively with data science related content. A course which meets the content requirement but bears 2 or fewer credits will not be an approved elective, but can be considered as a part of an Experiential Component plan.

View Data Science minor requirements in the Hope College Catalog 

Experiential Component

Students may apply to do an experiential component for the Data Science minor in place of one of the elective courses. An approved experiential component will typically include a research or internship experience, but will sometimes include data science course work that doesn’t fit under the list of electives. Depending on the proposed activity, the experiential component can be satisfied on a for-credit or not-for-credit basis. The planned activity should be approved in advance by the Data Science director.

Apply for experiential component approval