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How Much Math Do You Need for Data Science?

Answer: A lot!
To be a real Data Scientist, you need to be 1/2-programmer and 1/2-mathematician/statistician. That means you need a very solid foundation in university mathematics, which starts with the following undergraduate, lower-division courses:
While there are TONS of free (and sometimes excellent) courses online via MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), you will want to have all of the above courses on real, transferable Academic transcripts to prove you have completed these courses, with letter grades, not just say "I took these courses from a MOOC". There are no short-cuts in building up your credentials as a mathematician for data science.

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are awesome, but they do not provide real academic course credit for their courses. If you plan to go for a B.A. or M.A. with a Data Science concentration, you will not be able to say "Oh, I took all my calculus courses from a MOOC" - you need these courses in your academic portfolio. We invite you to explore our Distance Calculus courses in more detail via the links above, or perhaps the movies below.

Academic Credits from Distance Calculus






Data Science & Distance Calculus



Data Science can best be described as a "a cross between a programmer and a mathematician/statistician".

This topic has many names, all being equivalent:
  • Data Science
  • Applied Statistics
  • Programmer+Mathematician
  • Big Data

If you wish to become a Data Scientist, you will need to develop both strong programming skills, and have a very strong mathematics background.

Distance Calculus @ Roger Williams University can help prepare you for a study of Data Science - either for a degree in Data Science or perhaps a certificate - by helping you complete the core mathematics courses necessary for starting a Data Science degree or certificate.

There are no short-cuts you can do with going into Data Science. You just can't learn Python and then pretend you are a Data Scientist because you watch a few videos on running data sets through Python! You NEED a very strong mathematics background that includes ALL of the following courses:







Distance Calculus - Student Reviews

Rachel H.★★★★★
Posted: Jan 15, 2021
Courses Completed: Probability Theory
Dr. Curtis gave helpful and timely feedback, and made the teaching videos very engaging! The course model and associated software was easy to acclimate to.
Transferred Credits To: Cedarville University
Rebecca Johnson★★★★★
Posted: Feb 19, 2020
Courses Completed: Applied Calculus
I took the Business Calculus course from Distance Calculus in 2013. I was admitted to my MBA program, but then they told me I needed to take Calculus before starting the program. I finished the Business Calculus course in about 3 weeks in August before my program started. Not the most fun thing to do over the summer, but at least I got it done. Thanks Diane and Distance Calculus team!
Transferred Credits To: Kellogg MBA Program
Jorgen M.★★★★★
Posted: Apr 13, 2020
Courses Completed: Calculus I
I really enjoyed this course, much more than I thought I would. I needed to finish this course very fast before starting my graduate degree program @ Kellogg. I was able to finish in 3 weeks. I liked the video lectures and the homework process. I highly recommend this course.
Transferred Credits To: Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern Univ
Aiden B.★★★★★
Posted: Jul 29, 2026
Courses Completed: Calculus II, Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra
After completing all the math offered by my highschool, I switched over to Roger Williams for Calculus II and onward. Overall, it has been a pretty great way to understand the topics online, with transferrable college credits. The exams are not terrible, and the courses cover the vast majority (if not all) of topics covered by traditional courses, with some unique ones added to. So far, I have taken four courses, with another one or two before I graduate.

The only problem with the course is the lack of pen and paper work. This shouldn't come as a crazy surprise with an online course, but there is not much emphasis on symbolic computation. Mathematica or other software does most of the heavy computation for you. The lectures usually show how to solve the problems through paper, but those skills are rarely put into practice. Literacy Sheets act as a way to do some of that (especially with the Calculus II & III course).

All in all, this isn't a huge issue. I just memorize and practice things like double integration, Laplace, ODE solving, matrix diagonalized form, row operations, etc. With a little outside work, this resolves itself. Without Roger WIlliams, I probably would not have been able to take any of these math courses in highschool.

So overall, a great choice for highschool advanced math, especially with transferrable credits.
Email: abarger@protonmail.com
Lucas L.★★★★★
Posted: Jun 25, 2026
Courses Completed: Multivariable Calculus
The professor as well as the TAs give great feedback when you need help with problems and the videos are great at explaining concepts. Return time on work is good and the work is not too much to handle.
Transferred Credits To: University of Wisconsin
Hari K.★★★★
Posted: Jun 24, 2026
Courses Completed: Linear Algebra
This course gives a perspective on Linear algebra that no traditional course does. I’d say i gained much more intuition for this subject from the DC course than my friends who took traditional courses elsewhere. As a cs major, this version of learning with visualization has helped me a lot in understand ML models. However the course doesn’t have videos for the last 2 chapers so i had to self learn with the mathematica notebooks. Response times are a little slow but since it’s a remote class, i guess it’s justified. Overall amazing course and definitely take this over traditional lin alg classes.
 
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