Whether you are majoring in business, statistics, economics, computer science, engineering, or a liberal studies nonbusiness field, a degree in business analytics offers a way to link your undergraduate studies to business. By earning a Master of Science-Business: Operations and Technology Management: Business Analytics, you’ll learn to harness the power of analytical tools to provide insight and actionable recommendations in any business setting.

You’ll also apply what you learn to real-world experiences and have opportunities to explore various career paths through site visits, guest speakers, case competitions, and other professional development activities.

The curriculum is divided into a foundations semester and an applications semester:

  • The foundations semester starts with a statistics and programming boot camp, where students are introduced to R and Python. The core method classes include data management/SQL, data visualization, machine learning, experimental design, and prescriptive analytical modeling.
  • The applications semester includes one analytics course elective (three credits) and six credits of experiential learning, including a consulting practicum for live corporate clients working on real business analysis challenges.

Curriculum

The program requires completion of 30 credits: 21 credits of required courses and 9 elective credits.

Required Courses:

  • GEN BUS 656 – Machine Learning for Business Analytics (3 credits)
  • GEN BUS 705 – Statistics and Programming for Business Analytics (3 credits)
  • GEN BUS 720 – Data Visualization for Business Analytics (1 credit)
  • GEN BUS 730 – Prescriptive Modeling and Optimization for Business Analytics (2 credits)
  • GEN BUS 740 – Experiments and Causal Methods for Business Insights (2 credits)
  • GEN BUS 760 – Data Technology for Business Analytics (3 credits)
  • GEN BUS 770 – Analytics Consulting Practicum (4 credits)
  • GEN BUS 840 – Current Topics–Business Analytics (2 credits)
  • OTM 752 – Project Management (1 credit)

Elective Courses:

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of business analytics, students are eligible to take any graduate-level course offered by the Wisconsin School of Business, provided they meet the course prerequisites.

The following approved elective courses are most relevant to business analytics:

  • ACCT 603 – Financial Analysis
  • ACT SCI 654 – Regression and Time Series for Actuaries
  • ACT SCI 655 – Health Analytics
  • GEN BUS 704 – Data to Decisions
  • MHR 617 – People Analytics
  • MKT 815 – Marketing Analytics
  • OTM 714 – Supply Chain Analytics
  • RMI 655 – Risk Financing
  • RMI 660 – Risk Analytics and Behavioral Science