Can a commerce student do data science?

Yes. Commerce students are well placed for data analyst and business analyst roles, and some go on to data science. Your edge is understanding business, finance and markets, the context that data work serves. If you had maths in Class 12 Most data science degrees and programmes are open to you: B.Sc Data Science or Statistics at many universities, BCA with analytics, and B.A./B.Sc Economics. If you didn't have maths - Data analyst and business analyst roles are still reachable through skills. - The IIT Madras BS in Data Science is open to Class 12 students of any stream (maths in Class 10 is expected). - Some programmes accept you with a bridge course. You can also add maths through NIOS if a programme requires it. - Heavy ML research roles will be harder without strong maths. Skill path (6–12 months, alongside college) 1. Excel: formulas, pivot tables, charts. 2. Statistics: descriptive stats, probability basics, hypothesis testing. 3. SQL: querying business databases. 4. Python or R: pandas for data cleaning and analysis. 5. Visualisation: Power BI or Tableau dashboards. Projects that suit commerce students - Analyse a company's financial statements over 5 years. - Build a sales dashboard from a public dataset. - Study stock price patterns (as analysis, not tips). Degrees that combine both: B.Com with analytics electives, BBA in business analytics, and economics honours. Guidopia's Career DNA can show your fit for Data analyst and related roles, and whether numerical ability is a gap to work on.