There are many connections between data science and computer science, but there are distinct differences that will better inform your master’s degree decision. Computer science is a larger, more encompassing field with more variety (technically, computer science can include data science). Professionals who work in computer science usually have a background in computer or software engineering and are more automation and object-orientation-focused.9 Some of the tools and languages a computer scientist can expect to use are: IDEs Testing software Python and other programming languages Microsoft Azure Atom GitHub With these skills, you can go on to become a cybersecurity expert, IT director, network specialist, AI scientist, or software engineer. Data science, on the other hand, attracts individuals with backgrounds in statistics who want to home in on machine learning and data analysis.9 Many job opportunities can come from a Data Science, M.S. degree: applications architect, data scientist/engineer, machine learning engineer, statistician, and more. These positions will require that you know how to use: SQL R SAS Python Tableau Jupyter PySpark Docker For more details, read our blog post.