You might not immediately think of Liberal arts schools when searching for data science programs, but they offer many benefits including faculty attention and a focus on learning across disciplines like sociology, philosophy, and communication to build connections between data and human society. Small class sizes and undergraduate research opportunities allow students to apply data skills to real-world questions, often starting in freshman year. 

Whether you aspire to lead analytics or shape policy, small liberal arts colleges nurture socially-aware contributors to the data revolution through a well-rounded, student-driven approach.

Check out these hidden gem liberal arts colleges across the country that offer rigorous data science curriculums in rural and urban settings across America.

1. Clark University (Worcester, MA): Data science at Clark is an interdisciplinary major with courses taught by faculty from computer science, economics, geography, management, and mathematics. Students learn approaches and techniques that are widely applied to quantitative analyses in almost every discipline.

2. Dickinson (Carlisle, PA): Dickinson’s Data Analytics major is highly interdisciplinary and gives students a depth and breadth of knowledge. Students gain the technical expertise to perform sophisticated analyses, and the ability to meaningfully comprehend, critique and construct data-driven arguments.

3. Knox College (Galesburg, IL): Knox’s Data Science major is interdisciplinary, covering areas in mathematics, computer science, and statistics as well as ethical issues and fields of application. The program addressses human impacts as well as numbers. 

4. Denison (Granville, OH): Denison was one of the first liberal arts colleges to offer Data Analytics as a major. Denison’s proximity to Columbus gives students access to internships and jobs with large corporations and organizations in diverse fields. 

5. Allegheny College (Meadville, PA): Allegheny’s Data Science major focuses on the study of integrated principles and methods to analyze complex big data for decision making, prediction, modeling and data management. Students examine social and human contexts and ethical implications of how data are collected, analyzed and utilized in diverse areas.

6. College of Wooster (Wooster, OH): Students who major in Statistical & Data Sciences at The College of Wooster choose a minor in an area other than math or computer science to allow them to focus on field that interests them and give them the opportunity to use their skills in a practical way before graduation. 

7. Willamette University (Salem, OR): Willamette’s Data Science program helps students gain contemporary computer programming and data analysis skills and addresses ethical issues when working with data and how to formulate good questions, design a process for answering them, and effectively communicate findings to a variety of stakeholders.

8. Xavier (Cincinnati, OH): The Data Science Honors Program at Xavier is interdisciplinary, including courses from Business Analytics and Information Systems, Computer Science, and Mathematics. It is a cohort-based program where students engage with their instructors and learning community while collectively working through the curriculum. 

9. Westminster College (Fulton, MO): The Mathematical Data Science major at Westminster includes courses in statistics, mathematics, and computing. Students learn how to use the statistical software to access and clean up data sets, and to explore, interpret, visualize, and analyze data in interdisciplinary fields. 

10. McDaniel College (Westminster, MD): McDaniel offers a major in Applied Mathematics with a Data Analysis specialization. Students take hands-on courses in analysis, advanced mathematics, statistics, mathematical modeling, and more. Faculty mentorship and opportunities to conduct research and attend conferences prepare students for future data analysis careers or graduate programs.