Interdisciplinary Minor
Data Analytics provides knowledge and skills in data collection and analysis for supporting decision-making within organizations. This inquiry-based minor provides students with the tools and concepts needed to function effectively in an increasingly data-driven world. The coursework is multidisciplinary and covers statistics, visualization techniques, data mining techniques, and other types of data modeling techniques. Data analytics orients the student towards the application of such skills and knowledge to organizational issues. Essentially, students learn the discipline of examining an organizational problem specified in human terms, analyzing it, designing a solution, simulating that solution using mathematics and computers, reflecting, and reworking the results of the simulation, and finally, communicating the new knowledge in a concise and clear way. A key theme underlying this minor is the ethical use of data.
SAP Student Recognition Award
Washington College, a member of the SAP University Alliances Program, has been authorized by SAP to award students meeting the following criteria with the SAP Student Recognition Award. In order to earn this highly valued non-transcript resume-building recognition, students must successfully complete BUS 210 Management Information Systems, BUS 315 Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and BUS 316 Data Analytics, reflecting a breadth of experience and familiarity with the SAP software products that are used to support pedagogy in these three classes. BUS 210 Management Information Systems is offered every semester but BUS 315 Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and BUS 316 Data Analytics are offered on a rotating basis so students interested in pursuing this award should work with their advisors to plan accordingly. Students seeking more information about the SAP Student Recognition Award may contact the Chair of the Business Management Department.
Data Analytics Minor Requirements
Course List
| Code |
Title |
Credits |
| Managerial Statistics | |
| Data Analysis I |
| Statistical Inference & Data Analysis I |
| Statistics & Research Design I with Lab |
| Management Information Systems | |
| Data Analytics | |
| Computer Science I | |
| Database Systems | |
| Intermediate Geographic Info Systems | |
| Enterprise Resource Planning Systems | |
| Marketing Research Methods | |
| Intro to Quantitative Finance | |
| Financial Derivatives | |
| Econometrics | |
| Scientific Modeling & Data Analysis | |
| Political Science Senior Seminar | |
| Statistics & Research Design II With Lab | |
| Research Methods in Sociology | |
| |
| Total Credits | 24 |
Advising Notes
The Data Analytics minor is intended to complement major courses of study by providing additional tools for critical thinking and analysis of knowledge grounded in the student’s major and so each elective course in this program requires prerequisites that are not listed here and would be taken in pursuit of the student’s major. For instance, students majoring in Business Management would take ECN 112 Principles of Microeconomics and BUS 111 Principles of Marketing as prerequisites to BUS 325 Marketing Research Methods; students majoring in Economics would take the introductory economics courses necessary to enroll in ECN 320 Econometrics.
Several departments (MAT, PSY, ECN) offer introductory statistics courses which can be used for this minor; however, BUS 109 Managerial Statistics is recommended because students learn to integrate descriptive and inferential statistics with the use of the Statistical ToolPak add-in for Microsoft Excel. Excel is the software of choice in real-world provisioning of analytics software as well as a powerful analytical tool in its own right.
The following rules govern double-counting:
- Students pursuing both the Information Systems minor and the Data Analytics minor may count only BUS 210 Management Information Systems, CSI 111 Computer Science I, and CSI 310 Database Systems towards both minors. The elective chosen for the Information Systems minor will not count towards the Data Analytics minor and vice versa.
- Students majoring in Computer Science may count at most CSI 111 Computer Science I and CSI 310 Database Systems toward the Data Analytics minor.
- Students majoring in Business Management may count only BUS 109 Managerial Statistics (or equivalent) and BUS 210 Management Information Systems towards the minor. The elective chosen for the Business Management major will not count towards the Data Analytics minor and vice versa.
BUS 112 Intro to Financial Accounting is recommended as a prerequisite to BUS 210 Management Information Systems for non-BUS majors but is not required. It is required for Business Management majors.
Austin A. Lobo, Co-Director
Caddie Putnam Rankin, Co-Director
