Data Analysis Minor
Department website: http://www.wesleyan.edu/qac/index.html
Minor Description
The Data Analysis Minor provides students with a basic introduction to data analysis, giving them the theory and practical skills needed to collect and prepare data for analysis, explore and visualize data, build models and test hypotheses, discover insights, and communicate results meaningfully. Students will strengthen their ability to apply statistical, mathematical, and programming methods to traditional areas of empirical research within their fields. To complete the minor, five course credits are required in the following areas: Basic Knowledge, Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Foundations, and selected Applied Electives.
Minor Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Knowledge Courses | ||
| Select one of the following: | 1 | |
| Quantitative Methods for the Biological and Environmental Sciences | ||
| Elementary Statistics | ||
| Statistics: An Activity-Based Approach | ||
| Applied Data Analysis | ||
| Applied Data Analysis | ||
| Digging the Digital Era: A Data Science Primer | ||
| An Introduction to Data Journalism | ||
| Mathematical, Statistical, and Computing Foundation Courses | ||
| Select two courses from the following, each from a different group: | 2 | |
| Mathematical Foundations | ||
| Vectors and Matrices | ||
| Linear Algebra | ||
| Discrete Mathematics | ||
| Graph Theory | ||
| Applied Vectors and Matrices | ||
| Statistical Foundations | ||
| Introductory Econometrics | ||
| An Introduction to Probability | ||
| Mathematical Statistics | ||
| Computing Foundations | ||
| Bioinformatics Programming | ||
| Introduction to Programming | ||
| How to Design Programs | ||
| Computer Science I | ||
| Computer Science II | ||
| Applied Electives | ||
| Select two credits from the following: | 2 | |
| Introduction to GIS | ||
| Advanced Econometrics | ||
| Introduction to Forecasting in Economics and Finance | ||
| Empirical Methods for Political Science | ||
| Advanced Topics in Media Analysis | ||
| Public Opinion and Polling Lab | ||
| Computational Physics | ||
| Introduction to Survey Design and Analysis | ||
| Introduction to (Geo)Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization | ||
| Proseminar: Machine Learning Methods for Audio and Video Analysis | ||
| Introduction to Network Analysis | ||
| Data Visualization: An Introduction | ||
| Data Visualization: An Introduction | ||
| Exploratory Data Analysis and Pattern Discovery | ||
| Experimental Design and Causal Inference | ||
| Longitudinal Data Analysis (0.5 credit) | ||
| Hierarchical Linear Models (0.5 credit) | ||
| Latent Variable Analysis (0.5 credit) | ||
| Survival Analysis (0.5 credit) | ||
| Applied Time Series Analysis | ||
| Bayesian Data Analysis: A Primer (0.5 credit) | ||
| Advanced R: Building Open-Source Tools for Data Science | ||
| can count QAC 380 or 381, not both | ||
| DeltaLab: Computational Media Analysis | ||
| Introduction to Statistical Consulting | ||
| QAC Praxis Service Learning Lab | ||
| Applications of Machine Learning in Data Analysis | ||
| Quantitative Textual Analysis: Introduction to Text Mining | ||
| NOTE: at least one of the electives should be a 300 level course | ||
Additional Information
- There may be prerequisite courses required for some of the courses that count toward the minor, such as calculus. These prerequisites do not count toward the minor, and students attempting to complete the minor are not recused from these prerequisites.
- Mathematics majors cannot count courses in the foundations groups already covered by their major toward the minor. They must instead complete one course from the statistical foundations group and complete three applied elective courses. Alternatively to completing three applied elective courses, they can take either MATH232 or COMP212 and complete two applied elective courses.
- Computer science majors cannot count courses in the foundations groups already covered by their major toward the minor. They must instead complete one course from the statistical foundations group and complete three applied elective courses. Alternatively, they can complete both MATH231 and MATH232 and complete two applied elective courses.
- Economics majors and minors cannot count ECON300 toward the minor and must instead complete one course from each of the other two foundation groups.
- Students cannot count more than one course toward this minor that is also counted toward completion of any other of their majors or minors.
- One course taken elsewhere may substitute as appropriate for any of the above courses and count toward the minor, subject to the QAC Advisory Committee’s approval (where routine approval may be delegated to the QAC Director).
- A more advanced course can substitute for the basic knowledge course, subject to approval. Students with good quantitative skills are strongly encouraged to do this.
- Students cannot receive both the data analysis minor and the Applied Data Science Certificate.
- Only graded courses can satisfy the requirements for the data analysis minor and the applied data science certificate. Courses completed with a CR/U grading mode will not satisfy the requirements of the two programs.