MSBA Mission and Learning Goals

Mission

To prepare students for successful careers helping organizations make better decisions through analytics. The MS in Business Analytics (MSBA) program is designed to prepare students for the data driven business world of the 21st century and balance students with leadership aspirations with both the technical and quantitative skills and abilities necessary to effectively utilize data and strong communication, organizational management and general consulting knowledge. Graduates of our program are capable of transforming large, unclean data sets into usable and actionable information, while also presenting and communicating these results and recommendations to business leaders in order to create results and enact change.

The MSBA curriculum provides a deep foundation in the methodologies and technologies of analytics, as well as the team and project skills necessary to apply them in the real world.

Learning Goals

Students will:

  • Understand how analytics can improve decisions throughout an organization’s value chain and how to assess and improve the analytic competency of a firm.
  • Understand the different forms of analytics (descriptive, predictive and prescriptive) and develop a sound understanding of the methods used in each.
  • Develop hands‐on experience with analytical tools and software that are widely used in practice including emphasis on the SAS tools suite, R Programming, Python, SQL, no-SQL, Tableau and other current and trending technologies.
  • Understand the dynamics of leading and participating in successful analytics teams and projects.
  • Develop an ability to communicate the analysis and findings of an analytics project in an effective manner to decision makers and policymakers.