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“Data science” is hot right now. The number of undergraduate degrees in statistics has tripled in the past decade, and as a statistics professor, I can tell you that it isn’t because freshmen love statistics, by ACSH Staff.
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Way back in 2009, economist Hal Varian of Google dubbed statistician the “next sexy job.” Since then, statistician, data scientist and actuary have topped various “best jobs” lists. Not to mention the enthusiastic press coverage of industry applications: Machine learning! Big data! AI! Deep learning!
But is it good advice? I’m going to voice an unpopular opinion for the sake of starting a conversation. Stats is indeed useful, but not in the way that the popular media – and all those online data science degree programs – seem to suggest.
So where do I sign up?
Five years ago there was no such thing as a data science degree, and now the list runs for pages and pages. And that’s not counting the traditional statistics programs, or programs in related subjects like computer science or operations research. LinkedIn’s sidebar strongly feels I should consider an online master’s degree in data analytics, from several different places.
The proliferation of these programs speaks to the inadequacy of many people’s undergraduate educations in terms of statistics and data competency. Although stats majors have tripled, there were only 3,000 last year, compared to 370,000 business degrees and 117,000 psych degrees. More of these students should certainly give statistics (or one of the newer data science degrees) a hard look, given that a bachelor’s degree is borderline compulsory these days.
But I worry that the premise behind the appeal of these degrees – especially at the master’s level – is the idea that the technology alone can solve problems. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Statistics is a tool for understanding data, but cannot by itself understand anything. Probably the biggest mistake people make when applying statistical or machine learning methods is not recognizing that the data being analyzed is insufficient to answer the relevant question. A degree that teaches you only about the hottest predictive analytics technology, like deep learning, is a bit like learning how to drive without knowing the first thing about how to navigate.
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Source: American Council on Science and Health
