UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Smeal College of Business is now offering a new accelerated master’s that delivers the skills needed to transform raw data into evidence-based decisions for students who want to quickly rise in their organization.
The Penn State Smeal Master’s in Business Analytics (M-BAN) is a one-year residential program that dives into the world of business analytics and gives recent graduates the opportunity to sharpen their analytics skillset.
“Students can be excited about this program not only for the opportunities in business analytics or analytics positions, but many students will find they are the ones introducing analytics into their organizations,” said Chris Solo, Smeal clinical assistant professor of supply chain and analytics, and program faculty director.
The 30-credit master’s program has a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) designation, which is a testament of the quality and rigor of the program. The designation allows international graduates on F-1 visas to work in the United States for an additional 24 months via the extended Optional Practical Training, totaling 36 months.
With a face-to-face classroom setting at Penn State’s University Park campus, students will focus on developing the business analytics skills of professionals entering and engaged in business, non-business, and STEM career fields.
The program will begin in fall 2020 and spans two academic semesters followed by two courses in the summer. The curriculum will go beyond predictive analytics and cover the full hierarchy of the analytics maturity model: descriptive (what has happened), predictive (what will happen in the future), and prescriptive (what should happen in the future), giving students the ability to solve today's real-world corporate problems.
Students will also learn how to leverage popular analytics tools, such as: GAMS, KNIME, Microsoft Excel and Power BI Desktop, Minitab, Python, R, SAS, SQL, Tabelau, and Weka.
“This program gives students the tools they need to take raw data, process it, and turn that data into useful insights for business decision-making,” Solo said. “This is a very hot commodity that can help organizations achieve higher goals.”
The M-BAN program is the newest offering in Smeal’s suite of one-year master’s degrees, which also includes accounting, corporate finance, management and organizational leadership, and real estate analysis and development.
“We’re very excited about the new M-BAN program,” said Brian Cameron, associate dean of the office of professional graduate programs at Smeal. “This is a cutting-edge program with great employer demand. We also expect that this will be a popular program to stack with other Smeal resident master’s programs.”
Smeal offers students the unique ability to customize their education by allowing stacking of degrees. For example, by waiving overlapping classes, students may combine their business analytics degree with a secondary master’s and potentially earn two degrees and two graduate certificates in two years.
Applications for the M-BAN program are now being accepted for fall 2020 enrollment. GMAT or GRE waivers available. More information about the program can be found online, or interested students may contact the program directly at mban@smeal.psu.edu.