Working professionals who are interested in earning an Ivy League graduate degree within the health and biomedical fields will soon have a more accessible option to consider when Dartmouth launches its online Master of Science (MS) in Health Data Science (HDS) degree program.
The new program—which will be offered by Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine in partnership with the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies—will go live in September of 2025.
Health data science is a crucial, rapidly growing field that blends biostatistics, programming, and advanced computational and classification algorithms like machine learning to address complex challenges within the biomedical, biobehavioral, public health, and clinical care sectors.
“Health data sciences are a rapidly expanding field that leverages advanced computational methods to understand the patterns in complex biomedical and health data,” explains Jennifer A. Emond, PhD, MS, assistant dean for health science programs at Geisel. “Our new online program will enable working professionals the opportunity to gain rigorous training within this high-demand field, while balancing other life demands.”
The program’s fully online format will feature 15 courses taken sequentially (one course at a time) over 21 months—offering students consistent and predictable scheduling. “We’re targeting between 25 and 30 students in the first year, and we want to ramp up to 50 students per cohort, and that will include international enrollment,” says Emond.
The MS in Health Data Science will be Dartmouth College’s third fully online master’s degree offering, following the launch of the Thayer School of Engineering’s online program earlier this year and Geisel’s recently announced MS in Implementation Science degree program, which will go live next fall.
“The growth of these programs reflects Dartmouth’s commitment to develop online learning opportunities that build off the strength of our existing hybrid and residential graduate programs and help to ensure that students are receiving the Dartmouth experience regardless of where their learning takes place,” says Erin DeSilva, associate provost for digital and online learning at Dartmouth College.
The program’s distinctive curriculum is adapted from Geisel’s existing 12-month residential MS in Health Data Science degree program. Designed with experts in pedagogy to maximize student learning in the online format, it will be led by Dartmouth faculty committed not only to advancing innovative methods and findings in health data science, but further committed to teaching excellence.
Students will receive training on the theory and application of foundational data science topics—including programming, visualization, biostatistics, epidemiology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Importantly, they will gain hands-on experience designing and delivering on their own health data science project through the program’s capstone course.
“We’re very pleased to be launching our new MS in Health Data Science program,” says Craig Westling, DrPH, MPH, MS, associate dean for health sciences education at Geisel. “This thoughtfully designed, engaging program will prepare our graduates to immediately collaborate as health data scientists across many different sectors—including the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, the healthcare and behavioral health spaces, government, non-profits, and more.”
Click here for an overview and additional details about the new MS in Health Data Science program.
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