The Online Master of Science in Business Analytics

The future of business is being directed by data science and analytics. The data scientists and business leaders who understand this language and who can render its fundamental patterns into actionable insights have a unique power to redefine corporate strategies, enhance agility and improve profitability.

William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business is proud to offer an Online Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) designed to help pioneering professionals like you embrace the power of data analytics to evolve your expertise in business. Earn a degree that employers know and trust and expand your career horizons in as few as 15 months.

Visit our application requirements page to see how we evaluate prospective Online MSBA students holistically with no GMAT or GRE scores required.

Online MSBA at a Glance

  • Complete in as few as 15 months*
  • 100% online
  • 32 credits
  • 8 core courses
  • 2 prerequisite courses
  • 3 starts per year: August, January, May

*Students who are required to complete the prerequisite courses can graduate in as few as 18 months.

Redefine Your Career With William & Mary’s MS in Business Analytics Online

#18

Online MSBA Program1

#5

Best Business Professors2

90%

of MSBA alumni received a promotion after graduation3

25%

or greater post-graduation salary increase3

$134,195

average salary for alumni shortly after graduation3

Business Analytics Professionals Are in Demand

Position yourself for success in a rapidly growing area of business with roles that rank highly on best jobs lists. In fact, “data scientist” has consistently ranked in Glassdoor’s top three best jobs in the U.S. each year since 2016.4 Additionally, a number of business analytics roles feature prominently on U.S. News & World Report’s Best Business Jobs list.

Overall, the growth rate for occupations related to business analytics are projected to grow much faster than average for all professions through 2031 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Check out our careers page to learn more about the opportunities in this area of business.

Operations Research Analysts
23% growth5 and #9 for Best Business Jobs6

Market Research Analysts
19% growth7

Management Analysts
11% growth8 and #5 for Best Business Jobs6

Data Scientist
#3 on Best Jobs in America list for 20224

Statistician
#10 for Best Business Jobs6

Master the Skills Employers Need

William & Mary faculty designed our online master of science in business analytics program with a singular goal in mind: to give you an unmatched competitive advantage in the workplace. Our master’s program blends the technical rigor you expect from a graduate analytics program at a top-ranked university with the strategic business insights you need to communicate productively with stakeholders.

Our expert faculty are terminal degree holders who have worked in cybersecurity, information technology, telecommunications, healthcare, marketing, manufacturing, oil and gas and the Department of Defense. They weave the theme of business intelligence and analytics throughout the online program. You will learn about the value of big data and the ethics of working with algorithms as well as how to manage teams, communicate solutions and steer data-driven decision-making.

The concept of business intelligence and analytics is introduced prominently in our core course BUAD 5112 Competing Through Business Analytics. In this course, you will learn how to:

  • Integrate analytics into business processes
  • Visually convey insights from complex data sets in a straightforward, digestible way
  • Identify the most difficult and time-consuming steps of business processes
  • Create graphs with Python programs using the Matplotlib package
  • Create an analytics presentation with graphs you have created
  • Program two heuristic algorithms in Python
  • Web scrape

This course, and the master’s program as a whole, will challenge you to synthesize your technical and strategic learnings so you can champion the importance of business analytics at any company.

The Workplace Value of the Online Master’s in Business Analytics Degree

Video Transcript

Monica Tremblay, Ph.D.
This program was designed in conjunction with our advisory board, with the mindset of what does the industry need. Other programs may have technical courses, but I feel like our courses are taught by faculty that are very strong technically. That translates into very rigorous experience in the classroom as far as using these techniques and understanding what lies underneath that.

Maximize Your Potential in Just 15 Months

William & Mary Online MSBA alumni can be found in high-ranking positions at top companies.3

Data Scientist
Booz Allen

Cloud Engineer
Amazon Web Services

Executive Director
JP Morgan Chase

Senior IT Analyst
Federal Reserve Bank

Senior Defense Machine Learning Engineer
Octo

Business Operations Analyst
Navy Federal Credit Union

Ted Hallum, MBA ‘20
Ted Hallum, MSBA ’20
TED HALLUM
MSBA ’20
Senior Defense Machine Learning Engineer, Octo Consulting Group
“The Online MSBA program pushed me to technical and academic achievements far beyond those I would have ever thought myself capable of reaching. Getting exposure to using artificial neural networks for image classification was huge. Moreover, computer vision is a perfect example of a skill that most MSBA programs don’t cover, and a way in which William & Mary stands out at the absolute top of the pack.”

Learn More

Course Highlights

BUAD 5122: Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics

This course is designed to provide students with a deep understanding of the theory and practice of supervised and unsupervised learning, including regression, classification and clustering. An important part of this course is the use of statistical software, which is used extensively in labs and assignments in this class and may reappear in other classes throughout the program.

BUAD 5802: Artificial Intelligence Applications for Business

This course focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) applications in business, and covers implementations of contemporary AI techniques, such as deep learning, natural language processing and planning for solving business problems.

What skills will you acquire in the online master’s in business analytics program?

  • Querying relational databases using SQL
  • Performing extract, transform, load (ETL) processes
  • Building data warehouses
  • Preparing data for analysis using data wrangling techniques
  • Managing data using services such as Hadoop, Amazon Web Services and NoSQL
  • Creating data visualizations and dashboards with Tableau
  • Performing descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analyses
  • Utilizing basic methodologies like regression, logistic regression, time-series analysis, Bayesian methods, etc.
  • Deploying a broad array of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques
  • Constructing and executing prescriptive optimization models
  • Analyzing data with statistical software including R
  • Writing computer programs in Python and R
  • Designing, programming and implementing heuristic algorithms in Python
  • Conducting simulation analyses
  • Distilling strategic insight from analyses and communicating it persuasively


Who’s Earning the Online MSBA?

William & Mary’s Online MSBA program welcomed its first cohort in spring 2018, and we quickly discovered that our student demographics mirrored the personal and professional diversity that is common in the fields of technology, data analytics and programming. Take a look at the story told by our cohort demographics, and consider what you could learn not only from our master of science in business analytics program curriculum and faculty, but also from a diverse cohort of peers.

38%
students of color
8
years of work experience
36%
female
32
average age of students

Online Foundations in Business Analytics Certificate

Not quite ready for a full master’s program? The Online Foundations in Business Analytics Certificate is a short-term, targeted professional skills-development program. In just three courses that can be completed in little more than one semester, you will learn key business analytics tools and skills that can help launch you into analytics-driven roles.

This program can also be your point of entry into the Online MSBA program if you decide to continue on for the degree. All credits earned in the certificate program can be applied to the MSBA.

Learn More

Foundations in Business Analytics Certificate by the Numbers
  • 12 credits
  • 3 courses
  • 2 programming languages
  • 100% online

Interested in Our Online Programs?

Feb
16

Priority Application Deadline

February 16th
Summer 2024 Term
Apr
5

Application Deadline

April 5th
Summer 2024 Term
May
6

Next Start

May 6th
Summer 2024 Term
Sources
  1. Retrieved on February 13, 2024, from usnews.com/education/online-education/college-of-william-and-mary-231624/rankings
  2. Retrieved on May 10, 2023, from princetonreview.com/business-school-rankings?rankings=best-professors
  3. Based on a limited sample of self-reported data from alumni of William & Mary’s Online MSBA program from graduating cohorts between 2021 and 2022
  4. Retrieved on May 10, 2023, from glassdoor.com/List/Best-Jobs-in-America-LST_KQ0,20.htm
  5. Retrieved on May 10, 2023, from bls.gov/ooh/math/operations-research-analysts.htm
  6. Retrieved on May 10, 2023, from money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/best-business-jobs
  7. Retrieved on May 10, 2023, from bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/market-research-analysts.htm
  8. Retrieved on May 10, 2023, from bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm
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