Data science is a rapidly developing field in all industries, including accountancy. Because of this, we are proud to offer a data science concentration for our ACCY major. To complete this concentration, student will explore new areas of mathematics, computer science, and statistics not required by the ACCY major and the Business Core.
If you are considering adding this concentration to your college experience, please continue reading to better understand how to navigate the new course requirements.
To declare a major in ACCY+DS, students must fulfill the requirements below. Some of these requirements are prerequisite courses in addition to other academic metrics.
Note: You must also have a Catalog year of Fall 2021 or later.
1.
This is the first course in the data science concentration and must be completed addition to the next requirement.
Note: STAT 107 will provide credit for CS 105 in the Business Core; however, CS 105 does not fulfill the STAT 107 requirement.
3.
This is specifically your Illinois GPA which only looks at courses you took at Illinois (not just Gies). Because of this, community college courses cannot be transferred in to improve this GPA.
2.
If you are not coming in with credit for calculus, we typically recommend taking MATH 234 in the Spring since it has a focus on calculus in a business context.
Note: MATH 220 and 221 can be alternatives to 234 but those courses are more for engineering students.
4.
This is more applicable for students who are switching into data science later in their academic career as some courses are semester restricted.
To see a sample plan for the ACCY+DS Major, please click here.
The following course must be taken in addition to the ACCY major courses, the Business Core, and Gen Eds. (This table's layout will mirror how it appears in your DARS report)
| Course Number | Course Name | Credits | Prerequisites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematical Foundations: | |||
| MATH 234 [Spring Only] (MATH 220 or MATH 221 are accepted) | Calculus for Business I | 4 | Adequate ALEKS placement score |
| MATH 227 [Spring Only] | Linear Algebra for Data Science | 3 | Introductory knowledge of Python (STAT 107 provides this) |
| Data Science Fundamentals: | |||
| STAT/CS/IS 107 | Data Science Discovery | 4 | n.a. |
| STAT 207 | Data Science Exploration | 4 | STAT 107 |
| CS 307 | Modeling and Learning in Data Science | 4 | STAT 207; MATH 227 or MATH 257 |
| Computational Fundamentals: | |||
| CS 277 [Spring Only] | Algorithms and Data Structures for Data Science | 4 | STAT 207; MATH 234 or 220 or 221 |
| Social Impact in Data Science: | |||
| IS 467 | Ethics and Policy for Data Science | 3 | Must be in +DS program; Junior or Senior standing |
| IS 477 | Data Management, Curation & Reproducibility | 3 | STAT 207 |
Note: MATH 257 can be taken instead of MATH 227 and is available in the Fall, Spring and Summer; however, this course is designed for engineering students so we do not typically recommend taking it.
