When you are deciding whether to pursue a quantitative vs. qualitative data analytics degree, one of the most important factors to consider is the goal of your research, or what issue you are trying to better understand. For example, if you are currently in the finance field, you may want to choose a quantitative data analytics degree if your goal is to report on the pace of decline in consumer spending during a certain period in time. However, if your goal is to better understand why consumer spending is down, or how investors are reacting to this change, a qualitative data analytics degree may be a better choice.
If you’re still not sure how to go about choosing a degree after considering your career plans, the next step is to consider the dissertation itself and your own preferences. Writing a dissertation is a significant investment of time; you’ll be spending years thinking about your topic, researching, performing data analyses and writing the final paper. Because of this significant time investment, it’s critically important to choose a topic that can hold your interest over a long period.
Some graduate students find that they would much rather devote a substantial period of time to working with numbers. Others decide that qualitative data analytics is their primary passion. Because you may very well end up working with both types of data in your career, your choice of degree and dissertation could simply boil down to your personal preference.