Online Data Analyst Course

Folks, it's hard to say enough good things about this degree program. The instruction is excellent and the topic curation is very solid. It's modern, clean looking, with high quality sound and visuals. And the flexible structure is so appreciated - the problem sets and quizes are there for me as useful structure and interactivity. But I'm not shackled by them - I can choose to blast through a lesson's lectures when I would rather apply the concepts on my own terms.

It's great to see the Udacity staff is actively improving the offering - after I started the degree, the staff switched out one of the clumsier modules for a shiny new Numpy/Pandas primer (P2) - don't miss it.

I've found that bringing in other sources (for me: Introduction to Statistical Learning, various books from O'Reilly) is required for truly learning this stuff. And if you're like me, coming in with a minimal programming background, be prepared to debug code constantly with dozens of daily visits to Stack Overflow and python/R docs. If anything, nine months part time is an aggressive timeline, especially if you're complementing each topic with other learning sources and trying to apply them in real time to your own field.

Get ready to tap your inner love of learning, because you'll need some serious persistence to tackle this Nanodegree decisively. Good luck!

So far, the program is going really well, beyond my expectations! :D

I'm really learning a lot about Data Science, I feel a lot more confident about working with Python (Pandas/Numpy) and R, for instance. Besides that, many of the concepts related to the whole Data Science process - Data Wranglig, EDA, Data Visualization, Machine Learning, Statistics - and the process itself started to make sense!

The Nanodegree provided me knowledge I'm currently using in my job, and I could venture to say that if wasn't for this course, I wouldn't be able to be working in this position today.

Furthermore, maybe that is not entirely related with the Nanodegree, but Udacity enabled me meeting a lot of interesting people that are here willing to share knowledge and give support. The mentorship program is awesome! Christian Burkhart (my mentor) really made a change to this experience! I'm learning a lot, and that is great!

I've already stretched out a lot, but I would like to point out that this work that Udacity is doing of trying to bring its students closer to the market is amazing, I already improved in a way that I changed my behaviour and I took all of the advices related to professional growth and I feel that it is already causing a huge impact in my career path.

Keep up with the hard work! #udacious

I simply am short of words to praise you guys. You have opened a whole new world to me which I didn't see before. I feel so motivated every passing day and cannot wait to start applying my newly learnt skills in a related field. This course made me realize that life is not about getting saturated with what you know the best, but it's about getting out of your comfort zone and start learning new things everyday until you die. I have got a whole life's worth of motivation apart from the intense skill set you guys gave me and I promise to learn something new every day. Just one request, I know the day when you guys spread all over the world and convey this immensely effective teaching style everywhere is not so far away, but please get well established in India first. I get calls for interviews so often and I get so disappointed when I say the name Udacity and the person I am talking to says he/she has never heard of it! Please please make sure the next person I talk to has not only heard of your name but also your name got etched all over that person! You really deserve that Udacity! Love you! Planning to take your machine learning engineering course very soon! I am sure that will be as awesome as this!

Overall, I enjoyed the nanodegree experience. Here are some pros: 1. The project reviewers were fast, positive, and encouraging. 2. I learned unexpected things. For example, I had no previous experience with D3 and found it to be quite fun. 3. The projects forced me to get coding and helped me build confidence.

I have to mention a few cons too. 1. The projects rarely meet specifications on the first attempt. Even after closely following the rubrics, I usually had to change some small things to have my project meet specifications. It often felt nit-picky. 2. The quality of the courses varies. Some were a delight to go through while others were more of a slog. I suppose this could apply to any educational experience though. 3. I was suprised that 'big data' was not much of a topic in any courses.

I have one recommendation for incoming students: know how you will share your projects before starting them. I was not familiar with how to share projects on Github or Kaggle, so I did not organize my projects in a way that makes it easy to share on those platforms.

I was so glad the Nanodegree challenged me! This is a wonderful program that has given me new skills that are applicable in the marketplace. I can use the individual projects in my resume. What better way to illustrate to my prospective employer what skills I have acquired. Not showing them I can make A's on exams but rather showing them I can actually perform the activities/analysis they are searching for candidates to do. I must say this about the Nanodegree - be ready to find the answers on your own, as there is nobody around to just give you the answers. There are forums from the past that provide some help, but essentially you're on your own - which is what happens in the real world. You'll learn how to find the answers (or something close that can be adapted to your particular situation) on the internet. Also the mentors Udacity provides are very encouraging and provide moral support - but you won't be able to lean on them for answers either. Like I said it's a challenge - but I know you wouldn't have it any other way!

It really is fantastic. When I originally chose my path just after high school I didn't realise I was going into a declining field and that the digital revolution was about to change things so much. For a while programming and ticking the necessary boxes to break into this field was very much inside knowledge and Udacity has done a great job of making the technical as well as practical steps available to those who might not have been programming since they were eight. Also, the mix of videos and hands on as well as the forum make you feel part of something. The webcasts too. The content is fantastic, there are many curated links. I use the forum a lot, have not yet used the one-on-one appointments but it is very nice to know they are there in case the need truly arises one day. In the past I had some brief learning experiences with other online course providers but can clearly say that this course is definitely a step above anything I tried before.