The Data Analytics Graduate Certificate program is designed to prepare students to apply data analytics techniques to large data sets to support data-driven decisions across application domains. 

Admission Requirements

Applicants must hold either (1) a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or (2) a tertiary (post-secondary) degree that is deemed comparable to a four-year bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution. This degree must be from an officially recognized degree-granting institution in the country in which it operates. Applicants with undergraduate degree in a quantitative discipline such as science, engineering, or business may apply. Students from other disciplines will be considered based on prior coursework. Applicants are generally expected to have a minimum combined junior/senior GPA of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale.

Current Penn State Great Valley graduate students in all programs are also welcome to apply and enroll in this certificate.

Certificate Requirements

To be awarded the graduate certificate, students must successfully complete 15 credits of course work consisting of 12 required and 3 elective credits. All courses must be completed with a minimum grade of C or better and an overall GPA of 3.0.

Download: Data Analytics Certificate Advising Worksheet

Data Analytics Certificate Courses

Fall 2020 Course Offerings

Fall I Term:

  • STAT 500 – Applied Statistics
  • INSC 521 – Database Design Concepts

Fall II Term:

  • DAAN 862 – Analytics Programming in Python (Prerequisite: STAT 500)
  • DAAN 881 – Data-Driven Decision Making (Prerequisite: STAT 500)

Spring 2021 Course Offerings

Spring I Term:

  • DAAN 825 - Large-Scale Database and Warehouse (Prerequisite: INSC 521)
  • STAT 500 - Applied Statistics
  • SWENG 545 - Data Mining

Spring II Term:

  • DAAN 570 – Deep Learning (Prerequisite: STAT 500)
    (formerly DAAN 897)
  • DAAN 871 – Data Visualization
  • IE 575 - Foundations of Predictive Analytics (Prerequisite: STAT 500)

Penn State's schedule of courses lists course availability. Although the course numbers, times, and availability on the University registrar's schedule of courses is correct, their prerequisites differ. 

If you are a current certificate student and have completed all the coursework, please submit the Graduate Certificate Completion Form.

These courses may be able to be used towards the Data Analytics, Software Engineering, Information Science, and MBA master's degree programs.