With data science and Business increasingly intertwined, it makes sense that Columbia Business School and Columbia Engineering would combine forces to create a new business analytics program that draws on expertise from both schools.

The new degree, the Master of Science in Business Analytics, involves three semesters of study with a minimum of six classes in the engineering school and four to six in the Business School, plus additional electives in business, engineering or one of several other schools.

Central to the new program is a capstone that builds hands-on experience in business analytics. Throughout their time in the program, students will work on consulting projects with businesses, applying their skills to their clients’ data.

This real-world experience takes advantage of Columbia’s location. The dean of the business school said that Columbia Business school and Columbia Engineering were “uniquely situated” and would be “tapping into the vibrant and diverse business ecosystem that can only be found in New York.”

Costis Maglaras, a professor at Columbia Business School, echoed this emphasis on hands-on experience, saying that “students will use the modeling techniques and data science tools to provide pragmatic solutions to the practical problems that businesses are facing today.”

Given that data analytics are relevant to an increasingly broad range of businesses, Columbia envisions that participants in the program will go on to careers in a variety of industries like consulting, finance, tech, and marketing.

Along these lines, students in the M.S. of Business Analytics will have access to the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research career services program and will take a Professional Development and Leadership course that focuses on building leadership skills.

Ultimately, says Garud Iyengar, chair of the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research department, “We expect this program to have 100 percent placement of its graduates as do our very successful M.S. in Management Science and Engineering and M.S. in Financial Engineering programs.”

The program’s first cohort will arrive on campus in September of 2018. If you’re interested in more information, see the program’s web page.

And if you’re interested more generally in whether Columbia Business School is a good fit for you and how your application stacks up at other top B-schools, we can help with that too.

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