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Data scientists are the behind-the-scenes wizards tasked with making meaning out of seemingly incomprehensible piles of ever-growing data. Beyond using applied statistics skills and tools like RStudio and GitHub, data scientists communicate their results to help improve business decisions.
This multi-layered skillset, according to Glassdoor, is worth a US median base salary of $113,309 in 2020. It’s also rated the second-best job in the country in terms of job satisfaction.
If you’re looking to brush up on specific skills or enter a new field, online courses are one of your most affordable options; Right now, you can enroll in a handful of Harvard University courses for free.
edX, an e-learning non-profit, was founded by Harvard and MIT. It has dozens of free online courses from both Ivy League institutions, as well as many other top schools and companies. Below, you’ll find nine Harvard University data science courses that you can take together as part of a cohesive data science certificate program ($792) or individually for free (with one-off paid certificate options available as well).
You can audit courses, or pay for a verified certificate of completion and features like graded homework and projects. There’s also financial aid of up to 90% of the course cost available.
What is the difference between auditing an edX course and paying for a certificate?
The audit option is free and gives you access to review course materials and discussion forums. You can also pick and choose which courses you’re most interested in browsing, which can be helpful if you already have some data science experience and only want to brush up on certain skills. Another option is paying between $99-$149 for a one-course certificate instead of committing to an entire program.
However, the free versions will not include graded assignments or unlimited course access. For those, you must enroll in the professional certificate program, which comes with the $792 fee (note: there’s financial aid of up to 90% of the course cost available). You can read more answers to edX FAQs here.
The self-paced data science courses below are taught by Rafael Irizarry, a Professor of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Most courses take an estimated 8 weeks to complete with an hour or two of work per week. At that pace, you can finish the full professional certificate program in 1.5 years for $792.80. Once completed, the certificate may be added to your resume and LinkedIn profile for employers to see.
