Most engineering graduates from the Tier I institutions in India dream of continuing their education in US-based colleges and universities. However, the pandemic made that dream look distant for graduates willing to pursue Master’s from abroad. According to media reports, last year, there was a dip of 55 percent in the number of Indian students travelling abroad for higher education. As compared to 5.9 lakh students that went abroad for education, only 2.6 lakh moved last year. 

Nevertheless, online programmes and degrees come as a relief for computer engineers and potential data scientists willing to kickstart their careers with a degree from US universities. 

While online programmes are no match to the experience of studying on-campus, we have listed US data science degrees that one can obtain from the comfort and safety of their homes: 

MS in Spatial Data Science: Pennsylvania State University-World Campus 

This online Masters of Science in Spatial Data Science programme is offered by the PennState World Campus. The course mostly focuses on leveraging spatial data analysis and modeling to develop people-impacting problems; architect and implement solutions; research, communicate and critique data quality and results of spatial analysis. 

Taking this course will enable students to gain experience in at least two application domains– public health, business analytics or emergency management, and enable them to pursue careers in geospatial science, data science, geospatial analysis or spatial data engineering. 

The course consists of up to 36 credits, each credit costing $950. 

For more information, click here. 

Master’s Degree in Data Science: University of Texas

The Department of Computer Science and the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences at the University of Texas has partners to offer this Master of Science in Data Science Course. The 30-hour programme will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the subject. It will provide students with technical competency and rigorous training in data science, helping them advance their career with opportunities in the industry, government, nonprofit organisations, and academia. 

In order to apply for this course, one must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher, and have a regionally accredited Bachelor’s degree in one of the following– statistics, computer science, computer engineering, mathematics, electrical engineering, or a similar course. Programming language experience in R or Python or C++ is necessary. 

The course is fully online and will cost $10,000. It approximately takes 1.5 to three years to complete it. 

For more information, click here. 

Master of Applied Data Science: University of Michigan 

Offered by the University of Michigan School of Information, this online course on Master of Applied Data Science (MADS) is directed towards aspiring data scientists who wish to learn and apply skills through hands-on projects. The topic of study in the course deep dives into machine learning and natural language process and includes: 

• Privacy 
• Data ethics 
• Persuasive communication 

The course costs between $31,688 and $42,262 and is completely online. It approximately takes one to three years to complete this course. 

For more information, click here.

MS in Computer Science (Data Science): University of Southern California  

Offered by the University of Southern California, the Masters of Science in Computer Science (Data Science) programme is available both online and on-campus. It trains students to develop a core background in computer science and specialised algorithmic, statistical and systems expertise. Thus, allowing students to access, analyse and visualise large and real-time data. Additionally, the programme’s concepts are closely aligned with real-world domains– energy, environment, media, medicine, health and transportation. 

By taking this course, students will be exposed to career opportunities in aerospace, defense, computer programming, communications and IT industry. 

For full-time enrolled students, the programme takes up to two years to complete, and for part-time students, it may take up to three years to finish the course. 

For more information, click here.

MS Business Analytics and Data Science: Oklahoma State University 

The MS in Business Analytics and Data Science (MS BAnDS) online course is a STEM designated programme. For this programme, Oklahoma State University uses analytics software from Alteryx, Azure, Power BI, Tableau, SAS and Snowflake. Additionally, it makes use of softwares Google Colab, Python and R.

On taking this course, students will be equipped to pursue careers as data scientists, data or business analysts, and statistical analysts. 

Applicants must have GMAT or GRE scores above 51 percentile and work experience is recommended. 

For more information, click here.

Online Master’s in Data Science: New Jersey Institute of Technology 

This online programme equips students with computational skills to develop, design and apply models for data-driven decision making. Additionally, it provides a strong understanding of advanced statistical inference, machine learning, data visualisation, big data and data mining. 

Graduates of this course will be equipped with skills to work as data scientists, machine learning engineers, quantitative analysts, data warehouse architects and business intelligence analysts. 

Applicants must have a basic understanding and background in mathematics, statistics and software development; and basic understanding of Python. The course consists of 30 credits, each costing $1,050. 

For more information, click here.