View a complete list of program courses, degree-level requirements, admission requirements, recommended prep courses and previous experience, and more.
This program requires a total of 36 credits. Take the following courses in the order listed:
This course must be taken within the first 6 credits of study (if required). The UCSP 615 requirement may be waived if you previously earned a graduate degree from a regionally accredited institution. For more information, contact your academic advisor.
You must meet the criteria for graduate admission at UMGC and also provide one of the following items (reflecting course completion or industry certification):
Learn how to manage and manipulate data and make strategic data-driven recommendations while earning a graduate certificate in business analytics. Once you have successfully completed the certificate, you may be able to apply up to 12 credits toward this master’s degree.
If you completed your undergraduate degree at UMGC with a major in data science, an accelerated pathway between UMGC undergraduate and graduate programs in this field allows you to reduce your total coursework for this program by 6 credits.
This program is designed to help prepare students for the following certification exams:
This information is for students who enroll in the 2023–2024 academic year. For prior year requirements for this program or to review UMGC's complete program requirements for a specific academic year, visit our program catalog archive.
Today’s data professionals need to be ready to meet the evolving challenges in a number of industries. UMGC’s online data analytics degree is designed to help students learn data and AI techniques, manage and manipulate data, create visualizations, build predictive models, and make strategic data and AI-driven recommendations to influence business outcomes. Our program is designed to help students develop knowledge in emerging areas like AI, data mining, and data management; gain experience in programming languages like SQL and Python; and work in software like Tableau and SAS.
Our program directors refresh and update the curriculum regularly, with a focus on helping students achieve these learning goals:
This program is designed to help prepare you for work in the field of data science and analytics in a public or private-sector organization. Potential job titles include data analyst, business analyst, data scientist, data architect, AI engineer, and more.
Throughout the program curriculum, your instructors will assign coursework that is designed to help you prioritize career-focused skills and experience and become a well-rounded and sought-after job candidate. You’ll gain experience in problem-solving and data analysis, and your projects will aim to help real organizations with data-based decision-making. In past courses, students have chosen the following projects, topics, and subject areas in order to complete required course assignments:
Get answers to questions that current and prospective students are asking about program admission, credibility, and more.
Big data is used to describe a vast quantity of data that is so large it becomes too difficult to manage using traditional technologies. It is commonly defined using the three Vs: Volume - The vast amount of data available, which leads to storage and management issues; Velocity - How fast data is being produced and aggregated and how fast the data must be processed to meet demand; and Variety - The number of types and sources of data, which can be structured and unstructured and can come from virtually anywhere. Data analytics make it possible to extract a fourth V: Value.
Just as the volume of data keeps growing, so do the sources. From commercial transactions to social media posts, personal data to weather patterns, nearly all data today is being tracked and recorded. It is up to data analysts to uncover the real potential.
Great strides have been made in the gathering, storage, and security of data, but the real opportunity is in the data analysis. Its application is virtually limitless, and will shape the world we live in, from the way we interact on a personal level to how businesses and governments evolve. The increased use of data in virtually every sector has created a talent gap for data analysts.
A master's in data analytics is a graduate degree program that teaches students how to extract insights and knowledge from data using statistical and analytical techniques. UMGC's Master of Science in data analytics program covers subjects like data mining, programming, statistical analysis, and visualization. Students gain knowledge of how to manipulate, examine, and interpret large datasets using programs like Python, SQL, and R. The program's objective is to prepare students for careers in data-driven fields like finance, healthcare, and technology, where they can put their knowledge to use in making decisions about the real world and business. Due to the widespread use of data analytics, students can apply their knowledge to a variety of industries.
A graduate degree in data analytics can help you gain the practical skills and hands-on experience you need for a variety of careers including data science, statistics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data engineering. At UMGC, we offer a master’s degree in data analytics and a master’s degree in information technology with a database systems technology specialization.
At UMGC, we want you to be happy with the investment you make in your education, and we work hard to keep our programs affordable. When you choose to pursue your master's in data analytics at UMGC, you can rest assured that the quality of our curriculum is backed by our status as an accredited state university and a member institution of the University System of Maryland. Deciding whether an online master's degree in data analytics is worth it for you ultimately depends on your individual needs and goals. If you're not sure whether this is the right program for you or need help figuring out how to fit the program into your life, don't hesitate to reach out to us—our advisors and success coaches are happy to help.
UMGC's master's degree in data analytics is a 36-credit program with courses offered year-round. If you successfully complete six credits each fall, spring, and summer, you can expect to graduate in as little as two years. If you recently completed an undergraduate degree in data science at UMGC, you may be able to apply 6 credits toward your graduate degree and shorten your time to completion by one term.
UMGC is committed to keeping our tuition and fees as affordable as possible. The master's degree in data analytics follows the specialty graduate program tuition rates, which appear at the top of this webpage. We also offer scholarships, an interest-free monthly payment plan, and no-cost digital materials in place of most textbooks to help make your education more affordable.
You don't need to have majored in any specific area to be successful in the master's in data analytics at UMGC. However, this program requires you to demonstrate a background in software programming and statistics as part of its admission requirements.
