A New Master's at Mason

In August 2016, the doors will open to William & Mary’s first new graduate program in 15 years — the Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA). Business analytics is a critically urgent field in today’s marketplace: “big data” is a driving factor of innovation and productivity. Each day we produce 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, and in just a few years, data production will increase by 4,300 percent. Due to this skyrocketing growth, the Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks data analytics as one of the fastest-growing career fields for the next decade. A shortage of as many as 1.5 million data professionals is predicted by the year 2018.

Recognizing this talent gap, the faculty at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business developed an innovative 10-month Master of Science in Business Analytics program, tailored to the big-data challenges facing business organizations.

“Graduates of our program have the deep analytical skills required of data scientists, but also business knowledge and communication skills which are essential to deploying analytics effectively,” says Jim Bradley, faculty director for the MSBA program.

The program will focus on four skill areas: business acumen, applied mathematics, computing technologies and communicating with impact. Coursework will include optimization, neural networks, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data visualization.

The Mason School is now accepting MSBA applications for fall 2016. Prospective students who are interested in improving their quantitative skills should visit W&M’s MSBA website and call 757.221-1763 to speak with Brian Nigg, associate director of the MSBA program.