Fall Hours • COVID-19 Update
The Silicon Valley Campus is open 4–9:30 p.m. on Monday–Friday and 8 a.m.–5 p.m. on Saturday.
All campus visitors must be vaccinated, wear a mask, & submit a COVID symptom check. Visit our COVID page for updates.
Programming for Data Science with Python
The language of data science
Specialization Description
Your data science career starts here
A fully online, self-directed program*
Most U.S. companies plan to add data science positions. By 2020, openings for data science and analysts are projected to grow 15 percent. Hundreds of thousands of people are needed to fill those jobs.
Specialization takeaways
By the end of this program you will understand:
- SQL fundamentals such as JOINs, Aggregations, and Subqueries.
- How to use SQL to answer complex business problems.
- Python programming fundamentals such as data structures, variables, loops, and functions.
- How to work with data using libraries like NumPy and Pandas.
- Version control and how to share your work with other people in the data science industry.
We recommend that students dedicate about 10 hours each week to complete the four-month program.
A month-to-month subscription program
How much can you complete in a month?
Most students take four months to complete this specialization. If you want to take a break, you can pause and pick up where you left off. You have up to six months to complete this program Learn more about the month-to-month subscription plan.
The benefits of an Udacity/UCSC program
The curriculum is designed by Udacity, our global online education partner. Here are some of the perks of choosing this program:
- Top University of California/Udacity technical curriculum.
- A certificate of completion from UC Santa Cruz, an accredited university with a global reputation and a 50+-year history of exceptional professional training.
- A UCSC Silicon Valley-branded digital badge to show off your acquired skills on LinkedIn and provide aptitude verification for employers.
- 12 continuing education units (CEUs).
- A self-paced, soft skills curriculum (0.5 CEUs) to strengthen your critical interpersonal skills for the job market.
- One-on-one career counseling session and workshops with one of our workforce partners for those who are eligible.
- Online job search tools and recruitment partners with Handshake, the No. 1 national virtual job fair platform for college students.
- A 24/7 online resume-building tool that leverages data science, machine learning, and natural language processing to provide you with instant personalized feedback on your resume based on criteria gathered from employers and global best practices.
- Engagement with the UC Santa Cruz community through live, topical webinars and career-related events.
- A Udacity Nanodegree certificate.
Estimated Cost (You pay only for courses you enroll in): Varies.
Required Credits: 12 CEUs
Duration: A student can complete this specialization in about four months.
Courses
Subscription by Month
Specialization Inquiry Form
The curriculum is provided in sequence, but you may progress at your own pace.
Introduction to SQL
Learn SQL fundamentals such as JOINs, Aggregations, and Subqueries. Learn how to use SQL to answer complex business problems.
Investigate a database
You’ll work with PostgreSQL, a relational database, and complete the entire data analysis process—from posing a question and running appropriate SQL queries to sharing your findings.
Introduction to Python programming
Learn Python programming fundamentals such as data structures, variables, loops, and functions. Learn to work with data using libraries like NumPy and Pandas.
Project: Explore U.S. Bikeshare Data
You will use Python to answer analytical questions about bikeshare trip data collected from three U.S. cities. You will write code to collect the data, compute descriptive statistics, and create an interactive experience in the terminal that presents the answers to your questions.
