California's Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Orfalea College of Business has announced that it will launch a masters program in business analytics in 2016.
The new Master of Science in Business Analytics will take 10 months to complete and will help students understand how to solve business problems using data. It will combine "qualitative reasoning with quantitative tools to identify key business problems, translate them into relevant data questions, and apply data analytics to tell a story and propose concrete business actions," according to a Cal Poly news release.
The program's core courses will cover a range of analytical topics, with classes like "Data Analytics and Mining for Business," "Data Visualization and Communication in Business," and "Computational Methods in Economics," among others.
Additionally, the program will also include a "collaborative industry project," where students will use data analysis to solve real-world problems that companies face on a day-to-day basis.
Over the past several years, there has been an explosion in the number of business schools offering graduate-level courses in business analytics and big data. In July, both UCSD's Rady School of Management and the University of Dallas' Gupta College of Business announced new MS programs in business analytics. And in May, Tulane University's Freeman School of Business added a business analytics concentration to its MBA program.
The growth in analytics-based graduate programs is not limited to US business schools. Last year, Amsterdam Business School launched an MBA in analytics and France's ESSEC Business School partnered with Ecole Centrale Paris to offer an MSc in analytics.
And for analytical-minded MBA grads, job prospects look good: some businesses are scrambling to recruit grads who have an understanding of analytics and big data.
To apply for the new Orfalea MS program, prospective candidates should have a bachelor's degree with a GPA of at least 2.5 in the last 60 semester units. A GMAT or GRE score is also required, as is completion of college-level courses in statistics, calculus, and algebra. Additionally, a TOEFL or IELTS score is also required for international applicants.
For more information or to apply, please see Orfalea's MS in Business Analytics program webpage.
Image: "The College of Business building at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA" by Basar / Creative Commons (cropped)
