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What is QTM?


Data is changing the world. Emory is changing the way the world is using data.

Our Mission

The Future Lies at the Intersection of Data Science and Liberal Arts

Data science, long a staple at many universities, helps students develop competence in collecting, analyzing, and reporting results from data.

Through Quantitative Theory and Methods (QTM), we provide that important grounding but go a crucial step further, recognizing that the liberal arts are central to unleashing data’s true potential. Using data intelligently requires well-honed critical thinking and research design skills. That means going beyond the what to the why.

It’s about asking the right questions, the deeper questions. It's about collecting, analyzing, and reporting the right data. It's about impactful communication of what we learn from data, especially given its often technical nature.

These are exactly the abilities developed by a first-class liberal arts education, like that offered at Emory.

QTM is a program apart, providing a critical and complementary education to traditional data science programs elsewhere, which is why it’s one of the university’s fastest-growing majors. Our students receive a powerful education that puts them in demand in whatever field they choose, whether business, government, academia, or nonprofit. The market is hungry for the unique blend of skills that our students bring.

Learn more about them here. How we put them on a path to become researchers and problem solvers. Code writers executing the spirit, not just the letter, of the task. Communicators bridging technical and non-technical audiences. And, ultimately, managers maximizing the value of their data teams.

Fast Facts

  • The Department of Quantitative Theory & Methods (QTM) was established in December 2011 as the Institute for Quantitative Theory & Methods
  • QTM 100: Introduction to Statistical Inference, a college-wide statistics course, was first offered in Fall 2012
  • Our first and most popular major, Quantitative Sciences, officially launched in 2014. We currently  have 20 interdisciplinary tracks.
  • We now offer four different majors and one minor that emphasize using data science techniques and successfully communicating the results in a variety of contexts.
  • Our first graduating class commenced in 2016, and our first Public Policy & Analysis major graduated in the class of 2018.
  • Since QTM's inception, the number of students participating in our majors has grown by 50% annually. We now have approximately 320 students enrolled (as of October 2019). 
  • In Fall of 2019, we piloted our undergraduate QTM Prep program, which rewards students for taking steps to prepare themselves for post-graduation careers, whether that takes them to graduate or business school, to a corporate or government office, or something else entirely.
  • In 2023, we launched our QTM Master of Science program, and our first cohort graduates in the Summer of 2024!