

Ask HN: Thoughts on an MS in Data Science? - misframer

My university just announced an 11-month professional masters program for data science: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;people.virginia.edu&#x2F;~jjh2b&#x2F;msds&#x2F;<p>Is it worth it?
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ilovefood
I took one, and I learned more on internet than these sites. If you're
commited in learning, there is already everything online for free and you will
quickly "get the hands in the dirt", which means actually doing what is
interesting. So, imho, this subject moves so fast, that by 11 months you'll
have to learn new things.

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urlwolf
Agreed. The online material is outstanding. What worries me is how many people
went through it and still feel their data science skills are lacking (90% of
people I talked to). 'Yes, I took the Andrew Ng course; it's great, I feel
like I learned a lot. But... now what?'

Data science is such a complex skillset that to reach mastery nothing beats an
apprenticeship (sitting elbow-to-elbow with people who are world-class at it).
This is why we are launching an an intensive 12-week pair-programming-based
course called Data Science Retreat:
[http://datascienceretreat.com](http://datascienceretreat.com)

It assumes people have gone through at least one of the popular MOOCs, and
know one programming language well. Then it builds from there.

On top of that, it tries to bump up business and communication skills, which
are often lacking in many PhD-level people. We want to record presentations,
given in front of a non-technical audience, and use the recording to give
laser-targeted feedback. If you cannot convince the CEO in a 10-min. meeting,
all your predictive modeling efforts will be wasted.

Disclaimer: I'm one of the organizers.

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eshvk
So if you actually have those pre-reqs upto scratch: Linear Algebra (up to the
level of Strang/Sheldon Axler), Statistics (any undergrad book),
Algorithms/Data Structures. You can ramp up on your own time and read key
research papers. I would do it only if there are amazing people in UVa who you
want to work with.

