Whether you're passionate about the sciences, social sciences, or humanities, data science can deepen your understanding of the world and broaden your horizons. We encourage you to explore our offerings on the subject during your time at Williams.
Introductory
The College offers a variety of introductory classes focussing on data science that are designed for a broad audience with little or no background in working with data.
Additional introductory classes focus on the foundations of the statistical and computational methods at the heart of data science. They are excellent starting points for exploring data science at Williams if you have already had some exposure to data science or intend to pursue more advanced topics in statistics, computer science, data science, or quantitative fields.
Many disciplines offer classes covering domain-specific applications of data science techniques within a particular domain, providing excellent opportunities to work with data in areas that may be particularly exciting or relevant to your studies. These introductory courses may require mathematical, statistical, or area-specific knowledge beyond those above but are often accessible to those early in their academic careers.
Upper Level
More advanced classes in quantitative disciplines equip students with more powerful data science methods and skills or an in-depth experience of working with data within a particular domain.
In statistics, students learn to apply more sophisticated techniques for data analysis, inference, and building models that can be applied broadly in many settings.
These classes, and those below, often leverage key mathematical concepts found in Discrete Math (Math 200), Linear Algebra (Math 250), and Probability (Math 341).
In computer science, the focus is on developing robust algorithms for efficiently managing data, as well as core machine learning, natural language processing, and causal inference techniques.
Economics courses complement more computationally-focused data science courses, often examining underlying data-generating processes and the ways that they are shaped by human choices, interactions, and incentives.
Other advanced classes employing the tools of data science include those focused computational biology, social justice, psychopathology, to name a few.
Dozens of other classes in the sciences and social sciences apply data science methods to deeper investigations of particular application areas. We encourage you to explore the full course catalog, particular in the disciplines mentioned above, for additional opportunities for working with data in your studies.