Data Analytics offers students the opportunity to pursue a wide range of careers in business, finance and healthcare. Jobs for Data Analysts offer starting salaries of $65,000 - $115,000, according to Glassdoor. One such example - Operations Research Analyst - offers a median salary of $85,720, and employment is projected to grow 4x the national average. This Data Analytics program is intended to prepare students for similar roles in a variety of industries or to pursue further study in Data Analytics.
Our Data Analytics curriculum was developed, in large part, using the Data Science curriculum from the University of California, Berkeley. These courses have been changed from their original format slightly to ensure they are slightly broader in scope and adjusted in pacing to better serve the needs of LCMC students.
The programming requirement for this offering uses courses based on Dr. Charles Severance’s “For Everyone” materials. Dr. Severance himself played a lead role in developing these classes, which seek to ensure that an education in programming and computer science is more broadly accessible to students.
Finally, the outline of the program and the courses it contains were reviewed by multiple individuals from both an academic and business context, some of whom are listed below. This program is deliberately smaller than many other programs in Data Science or Data Analytics to allow students to pursue their own interests in the liberal arts, and consider how their newfound understanding of data might shape the way they look at problems in other fields.
Dr. Charles Severance, University of Michigan - Dr. Charles Severance holds a PhD in Computer Science from Michigan State University. He is the former Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation, and one of the world’s leading online CS educators. His contributions and curriculum form the basis of our programming curriculum
Mala Chandra - Mala Chandra developed multiple core Java technologies, including J2EE, J2ME and Java Beans. In 2004, she was named one of the 25 most influential women in the development of the internet. She has developed courses in gamification, social media and other subjects for the University of Washington.
Our curriculum committees are staffed by subject matter experts from industry and academia, and both populations agree that separating the Data Analytics program into two tracks will improve student outcomes and experience. While students in the existing courses have successfully achieved the technical learning outcomes, the time dedicated to learning coding skills has resulted in delays in students performing meaningful analysis in the introductory courses. We are finding that there are increasingly distinct student populations based on their appetite for technical depth in data analytics, and by providing two distinct tracks we will offer better optionality and outcomes for students.
| Member | Organization | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ehren Bucholtz | University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy | Academic representative |
| Alison Curtis | ezCater | Industry representative |
| Gregory Edwards | Rize Education | Academic representative |
| Kris Jamsa | Praxis Precision Medicines, Inc. | Industry representative |
If you have any questions about technology requirements for Rize courses, please see below:
Technology requirements for Rize courses - AY 2025-2026
Recommended CIP Code: 30.7101
Note: Courses provided through the LCMC are shown in blue text