Students must declare a certificate no earlier than the beginning of the fifth semester, and no later than the last day of classes of the antepenultimate (typically the sixth) semester. There are no exceptions to the declaration window and the College is no longer accepting petitions for late declarations.

No, students may not earn more than one certificate.

No, if you are completing two or more concentrations (or a concurrent degree), you may not complete a certificate.

Students must be enrolled in or have completed at least two courses toward the certificate at the time they declare in ASK.

The excluded concentrations for the Data Fluency certificate are Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Computational Biology, Computational Neuroscience, Mathematics, and Statistics (including joint concentrations in these areas).

According to the certificate guidelines, a student’s concentration and certificate cannot have substantial overlap.

Unfortunately, there are no exceptions to the declaration window and the College is no longer accepting petitions for late declarations.

No more than one requirement may count toward your concentration and the certificate.

1. For example, CSCI 0111 could count for both a concentration and a certificate requirement. 
2. For example, CSCI 0111 and ECON 1000 cannot both be used for the concentration and the certificate
3. For example, CSCI 0111 and a thesis credit cannot both be used for the concentration and the certificate.

The current list of accepted electives are listed in the Bulletin and it includes courses from anthropology, applied math, biology, cognitive linguistics, computer science, data science, economics, education, environmental science, math, music, public health, and sociology.  Students may also propose another course (with a significant data component) to their certificate advisor for approval.

Yes, students may complete DATA 1150 and the concurrent Data Science Fellows project to fulfill both the elective and experiential components of the certificate. 

Students interested in DATA 1150 should carefully review the course prerequisites and application process in Courses@Brown.

Yes.

1. Participate in a Brown university credit experience (ie independent study).
2. Participate in a non-credit experience (ie summer internship, TAship, work with a local organization on a data related project). If you complete a non-credit experience, you will be required to write a 10-12 page reflective paper on the experience (more information below).
3. Be a Data Science Fellow.

Students must submit a proposal for their experiential component experience by the end of the sixth semester.

When you are proposing an experiential component, you can do so in ASK. There will be space for you to write how you are planning to fulfill the requirement. 

If you need to submit a reflection paper at the end of your certificate, you can also upload that in ASK.

Brown's Center for Career Exploration is an excellent resource for finding an internship. The Swearer Center's Community-Engaged Data and Evaluation Collaborative (CEDEC) also may have opportunities and the DSI sends out relevant opportunities to the email list of certificate students. 

Yes, students may complete DATA 1150 and the concurrent Data Science Fellows project to fulfill both the elective and experiential components of the certificate.  

TA’ing for DATA 0080, DATA 0200, or any course listed as an elective on the bulletin will satisfy the experiential component. If you choose to TA you will need to complete the reflective paper assignment.  

Students who are interested in using their independent study / honors thesis in their concentration as their experiential learning component should send the details of their research to their certificate advisor for approval.

Please note that if you use your independent study or thesis for the experiential learning component, you cannot double-count any other requirements from your concentration to the certificate.

If you are receiving credit for the experiential component (i.e., an honors thesis or independent study), you do not have to write a paper.

If you are not receiving credit for the experiential component (i.e., TA’ing or an internship), then you do have to complete the reflection assignment. This assignment is a 10-12 page reflective paper where you get to talk about your experiences, think about the impact the courses had on that experience, and think about how you might use these skills and experiences after you leave Brown.

For May completers, the reflective essay is due in ASK by the end of the day on the last day of April. For December completers, the reflective essay is due in ASK by the end of the day on the last day of November.