Data Science
About Our Program
Data science is a rapidly-growing field that touches billions of lives around the globe each day—including yours. Think about the last time you found a new favorite song thanks to a suggestion from Spotify, used an app to order food or hail a car, or when you connected with an inspiring brand or organization while scrolling through Instagram. These experiences are made possible because of data science.
Our data science program will give you the tools you need to investigate, discover opportunities, and use data to make a difference. It will also empower you to critically evaluate and ethically apply data science techniques to big data thanks to our interdisciplinary liberal arts experience.
Learning Experiences to Prepare for Your Career
Our hands-on learning approach will prepare you to tackle problems, experiment, and provide answers to big questions that will help organizations make critical decisions, develop better products, and improve user experiences. Communication and visualization are also core skills for a data scientist, and the liberal arts experience here at St. Lawrence is the ideal environment to develop them.Paid Summer Research
Gain experience conducting hands-on, intensive research with a faculty mentor in a topic area of your choice through the University Fellowship Program. Research can take place on campus, across the country, and around the world. You’ll make unexpected connections and be equipped to make unprecedented discoveries.
Festival of Science
St. Lawrence comes together each April to learn about and celebrate the research students conduct on campus every day. Share your research during a community day focused on what you and your peers have accomplished.
Peterson Quantitative Resource Center
Encouraging and developing quantitative reasoning, skills, and applications, the PQRC provides walk-in peer tutoring for students across all majors. You can gain help (or help others!) preparing for a quiz or exam, analyzing data, calculating and interpreting statistics, using quantitative software, designing an experiment, or anything else that would support your academic success.
Global Perspectives
Choose from more than 30 programs in over 20 countries to challenge your perspective and expand your worldview. Popular destinations for students studying data science include New Zealand and Australia.
New York City Semester
Experience hands-on opportunities in the city that never sleeps. You can choose between an academic focus in finance or non-profit and arts management, and complete an internship four days out of the week. You’ll be centered in a dynamic living and learning environment where you can confidently explore your professional aspirations.
Sustainability Program
If you’re interested in data science and the environment, you can live and learn in our low-impact, renovated farmhouse, located five miles off campus, as you grow and prepare your own food and work with community members involved in green building, homesteading, farming, and more.
Q-Club
Short for Quantitative Club, this departmental student organization will give you the chance to share research, internship, and summer program experiences, listen to faculty give talks on related areas of interest, and even connect with alumni who study and work in quantitative fields. Pizza and drinks provided.
Among the 150+ other clubs and organizations at St. Lawrence, students studying data science have enjoyed opportunities to participate in activities to round out their collegiate experience, including:
- Pi Mu Epsilon (Mathematics Honor Society)
- Academic Honor Societies
- Esports (varsity and club teams)
- Gaming Club
- Dance Club
- Fed Challenge
- International House
- Club Soccer
- SLU EMS
- Class Council/Student Government
Why St. Lawrence for Data Science
Data science is the top career to pursue today (CareerCast, 2019)
Study More Than One Discipline
St. Lawrence students often double major, add a minor or two, or even create their own interdisciplinary program
Increase in Data Science Jobs
between 2012 and January 2021 (LinkedIn)
Problem of the Week
The department posts a new problem every Friday during the academic year and you have the chance to solve it, earn points, win prizes, and be declared the ‘grand winner.’
Enhanced Research Infrastructure
Our high-performance computer and microarray scanner is an IBM System x3850 that contains:
- 64 Intel Xeon 2.2GHz Processors
- one terabyte of RAM
- 1.2 terabytes of hard drive
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
More Program Information
Program Requirements & Courses
The data science minor consists of seven units – six core courses and one elective. Find out more about the courses and requirements for this program.
Complementary and Related Programs
If you’re interested in data science, you might also like these programs.
Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics Faculty
Professors teaching data science are interested in everything from sports statistics and graph theory to bioinformatics and multimedia, home networks, and human-computer interaction.
“There is an incredible demand for data scientists that’s not even close to being met and graduates from St. Lawrence will an interdisciplinary background will have an advantage within the field.”
Dr. Ed Harcourt
Matt Higham
Ivan Ramler
Dr. Kevin A. Angstadt
“My SLU coursework was fantastic and provided me with a ‘first principles’ framework of thinking about how we take up a problem, strip it down to its most basic components before coming up with solutions.”
Taylor Pellerin
Get to Know Data Science at St. Lawrence
Your future professors answer questions about what makes our data science program unique and how its innovative liberal arts curriculum will best prepare you to make an impact in a rapidly growing field in this data science Q&A.
Our Tools and Facilities
Thanks to a recent National Science Foundation grant, you have access to our high-performance computer and a microarray scanner. We also maintain four computer lab facilities which are open to all students during the week, and students in computer science courses have after-hours key-card access.
Beyond the Classroom
Celebrate Pi Day at our annual Piathlon. Challenge yourself with the Problem of the Week. Eat pizza and listen to short talks at Q Club. Apply to do summer research with a faculty member. We’re proud that our students enjoy their coursework and seek even more opportunities to collaborate with their professors and peers.
Featured Events
Q-Club Meeting
Illustrative Mathematics and On-Campus Research/Funding Opportunities
Get More Information
We’re excited to learn more about you, tell you more about our interdisciplinary academic programs, show you around our beautiful campus, and help you navigate your college search.
Apply to St. Lawrence
We’re looking for curious students who are eager to make a difference. We take a holistic approach to reviewing applications and consider all aspects of your application and what we learn about you.