Curriculum Overview

The MSA program runs from August to August, consisting of Fall, Spring, and Summer terms with a total of 33 credit hours required for the degree.   The courses are designed to cover three areas of analytics:  descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive. 

Descriptive analytics are covered in MSA 5470, 5600, and 6440.   Predictive analytics is included in MSA 5020, 5160, 6440, and 6450.  The focus of MSA 6010 is on prescriptive analytics.  Other courses cover areas that are essential to successful analytics implementations and applications including database management (MSA 5400), business intelligence (MSA 5600) and big data analytics (MSA 6500).  The focus of these courses is on applications and hands-on experience.   

The curriculum also includes a non-technical soft skills course, MSA 6600 Project Management, which is critical to ensuring that MSA graduates have the necessary management skills to be a successful business leader. 

MSA 6701, 6702, and 6703 are a sequence of three, one-credit hour courses designed for teams of students to work on analytics projects.  Each term, students work on aspects most relevant to the courses they are taking.  The Analytics Project III course concludes with a written paper and an oral presentation.