Options within this Major
Within the Data Sciences major, students must select from one of three options to further focus their studies.
Entrance to Major Requirements
An Entrance to Major requirement is a set of criteria that you must meet to officially be accepted into a specific major at Penn State. To enter the Data Sciences major, you must meet the entrance to major requirements below based on the semester you entered the University.
Suggested Academic Plan
Suggested Academic Plans are based on your semester of entry to Penn State and serve as a guide when scheduling courses. Work with your academic adviser and run “Academic Requirements” and “What If” reports in LionPATH to ensure that you are staying on track for graduation.
Prerequisite Flowchart
Prerequisite flowcharts visually represent the major's suggested academic plan including course prerequisites and sequencing. The flowcharts are intended to be used as a planning tool along with the Bulletin Suggested Academic Plan and the LionPath What-If and/or Academic Requirements reports.
Application Focus Areas
Application focus areas allow you to develop more specialized knowledge in a specific domain. Within the Data Sciences major (Applied Data Sciences option), you must take a series of courses in one of the application focus areas listed below or work with your academic adviser to create a custom focus.
Course requirements and additional information for each area can be found on the University Bulletin. Application Focus Areas can be found by scrolling all the way to the bottom of the Suggested Academic Plan page.
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Astronomy
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Business Fundamentals
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Economics
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Food Science
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Human-Centered Design and Development
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Information and Cybersecurity Sciences
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Nutrition
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Psychology
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Custom Application Focus
Required Internship
Every B.S., Data Sciences (Applied Data Sciences option) student is required to complete at least one internship before graduating. For specific information and resources related to the internship requirement, which includes enrolling in the 1-credit IST 495 course, visit the Internship Program page.
Internship Program Overview