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A busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree is a STEM degree that’s in strong demand by busi­ness­es try­ing to under­stand the large amounts of data gen­er­at­ed by cus­tomers and users. When look­ing at the ques­tion of “what is a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree?”, you’ll find that it’s a high­ly tech­ni­cal degree that com­bines busi­ness prin­ci­ples with tech­ni­cal knowledge. 

If you have a strong inter­est in solv­ing com­plex issues, have an apti­tude or inter­est in learn­ing com­put­er pro­gram­ming lan­guages, and are inter­est­ed in play­ing a crit­i­cal role in the deci­sion-mak­ing process, you will find a degree in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics worth it.

The posi­tion of a busi­ness data ana­lyst is one that’s here to stay as busi­ness­es col­lect infor­ma­tion from a vari­ety of sources, then use it to their own advan­tage. Infor­ma­tion gen­er­at­ed through ana­lyt­ics can put a busi­ness in a bet­ter posi­tion to serve more users as well as increase prof­its. Busi­ness ana­lyt­ics is the mod­ern ver­sion of col­lect­ing data from user sur­veys, prod­uct test­ing, and feed­back col­lec­tion in order to pre­dict the future of a prod­uct or service.

Methodology: Ranking the Best Business Analytics Degrees

To rank the best busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees, the edi­tors at Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter researched only rep­utable, accred­it­ed col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties. Pro­grams are ranked accord­ing to their cost, poten­tial salary, and stu­dent sat­is­fac­tion, using cur­rent IPEDS and Niche data.

1. Florida Polytechnic Unversity

The Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics pro­gram at Flori­da Poly­tech­nic Uni­ver­si­ty is a bach­e­lor of sci­ence degree pro­gram that pre­pares stu­dents to ana­lyze busi­ness and finance-relat­ed data in order to gain insight to an exist­ing sit­u­a­tion or prob­lem, and pro­pose solu­tions or stream­line oper­a­tions. Class­es in the pro­gram include biol­o­gy, tech­ni­cal writ­ing, chem­istry, prin­ci­ples of macro­eco­nom­ics, Six Sig­ma, entre­pre­neur­ial oppor­tu­ni­ty, and more. The degree pro­gram also leads to con­cen­tra­tions in Intel­li­gent Mobil­i­ty, Logis­tics and Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment, Quan­ti­va­tive Eco­nom­ics and Econo­met­rics, and Health Sys­tems Engineering.

Flori­da Poly­tech­nic Uni­ver­si­ty (Flori­da Poly) is a pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty and is part of the State Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem of Flori­da. It’s the only poly­tech­nic uni­ver­si­ty in the state, and only offers STEM pro­grams. The school was opened in 2012 and fea­tures a ful­ly mod­ern cam­pus includ­ing a cam­pus library that is all digital.

What We Like: The school has a space-grant affil­i­a­tion, and is home to a big data lab, a cyber secu­ri­ty lab, a cyber gam­ing and media lab, and a 3‑D print­ing lab. It offers nine bach­e­lors degrees and two mas­ter’s through­out 31 edu­ca­tion­al concentrations.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Flori­da Poly­tech­nic University

2. Brigham Young University

Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty offers a bach­e­lor’s in Sta­tis­tics: Applied Sta­tis­tics and Ana­lyt­ics to pro­vide a foun­da­tion­al edu­ca­tion in the sci­ence of ana­lyz­ing sta­tis­ti­cal mod­els. Upon grad­u­a­tion, stu­dents will have learned the skills and knowl­edge to per­form tasks that include the abil­i­ty to manip­u­late data, use the appro­pri­ate meth­ods for ana­lyz­ing data, be able to cre­ate tech­ni­cal reports and pre­sen­ta­tions to laypeo­ple, and solve prob­lems using com­plex math­e­mat­ics. Upon grad­u­a­tion, stu­dents can find employ­ment in posi­tions that require a BS in Applied Statistics.

Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty (BYU) is a pri­vate, not-for-prof­it research uni­ver­si­ty that’s spon­sored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat­ter-day Saints. The school has a well-earned rep­u­ta­tion for pro­vid­ing a low-cost, high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion and has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties: High research activ­i­ty”. BYU offers 183 bach­e­lors degrees across 98 majors.

What We Like: Its ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in NCAA Divi­sion I — Inde­pen­dent, MPSF, WCC conference.

Degree: Sta­tis­tics: Applied Sta­tis­tics & Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Brigham Young University

3. University of Virginia

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia offers a Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics Track as part of its bach­e­lor of sci­ence in com­merce pro­gram, and is one of the best busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees for stu­dents who want to earn a mas­ters’ degree in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics along­side their under­grad­u­ate degree. The track is designed to teach stu­dents prac­ti­cal research skills that are need­ed to design, cre­ate, and ana­lyze data sets used by com­mer­cial enter­pris­es to under­stand and eval­u­ate con­sumer behav­iors. Stu­dents also learn how to report their find­ings in ways that don’t over­whelm the read­er or lis­ten­er. The pro­gram is designed to help stu­dents appre­ci­ate the chal­lenges com­mer­cial enter­pris­es face when rely­ing on ana­lyt­ics to make their key strate­gies and decisions.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia (UVA) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty that was found­ed in 1819 by Thomas Jef­fer­son. It’s also the flag­ship school of Vir­ginia and is a high­ly regard­ed edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion in terms of his­to­ry, edu­ca­tion­al qual­i­ty, research facil­i­ties, and its notable alumni.

What We Like: The school has a space- and sea-grant affil­i­a­tion, and has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties: Very high research activity”.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics Track, BA to MBA Program

Uni­ver­si­ty of Virginia

4. Rutgers University

The Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics and Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy (BAIT) BS at Rut­gers Busi­ness School teach­es stu­dents how to use com­put­er sys­tems for the man­age­ment and analy­sis of data along with sup­port­ing deci­sion mak­ing in an orga­ni­za­tion. Stu­dents learn how to design data­bas­es and man­age them, web serv­er tech­nol­o­gy, data min­ing, and risk mod­el­ing. The pro­gram has a focus on teach­ing stu­dents how to work with big data which ana­lyzes large vol­umes of data. Grad­u­ates will pos­sess busi­ness fun­da­men­tals, the abil­i­ty to func­tion in teams, and take on lead­er­ship or man­age­ment roles. Stu­dents from the BAIT pro­gram have gone on to work for For­tune 500 companies.

Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty (RU) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty and is the eighth-old­est col­lege in the U.S. hav­ing been found­ed in 1766. The school fea­tures both sea- and space-grant affil­i­a­tions, and has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — Very high research activity”.

What We Like: Rut­gers has mul­ti­ple muse­ums and art col­lec­tions that are open to the pub­lic for view­ing, botan­i­cal gar­dens and arbore­tums, the papers of Thomas Edi­son, and work­ing farms.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics and Infor­ma­tion Technology

Rut­gers Busi­ness School

5. Carnegie Mellon University

The Heinz Col­lege at Carnegie Mel­lon Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems degree pro­gram. The cur­ricu­lum includes class­es in struc­tured and unstruc­tured data ana­lyt­ics, pre­dic­tive mod­el­ing, machine learn­ing, sta­tis­tics for IT man­agers, big data and large-scale com­put­ing, among oth­ers. Carnegie Mel­lon’s pro­gram com­bines com­put­er sci­ence, infor­ma­tion sci­ence, and busi­ness man­age­ment for a well-round­ed busi­ness ana­lyt­ics education.

Carnegie Mel­lon Uni­ver­si­ty (CMU) is a pri­vate research uni­ver­si­ty and has pro­duced mul­ti­ple alum­ni that have gone on to earn pres­ti­gious awards and prizes. U.S. News and World Report ranks Carnegie Mel­lon at 25th place for Amer­i­can research uni­ver­si­ty for 2022. It also ranks high for com­put­er sci­ence, fine arts, sta­tis­tics, and psychology.

What We Like: The Carnegie Mel­lon clas­si­fi­ca­tion gives itself a rank­ing of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — Very High Research Activ­i­ty” with the school spend­ing mil­lions of dol­lars on research every year.

Degree: BS in Infor­ma­tion Systems

Carnegie Mel­lon University

6. Iowa State University

Iowa State Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics through its Deb­by and Jer­ry Ivy Col­lege of Busi­ness. Stu­dents who take the pro­gram can dou­ble major in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics and anoth­er major of their choice. A total of 21 cred­it hours are required to com­plete the major in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics, and required class­es include intro­duc­tion to data sci­ence, ana­lyt­i­cal meth­ods in finance, cus­tomer rela­tion­ship man­age­ment, and social media mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, to name a few. Stu­dents learn how to use the lat­est in tech­nol­o­gy, and learn how to apply their find­ings to frame and cre­ate solu­tions for busi­ness problems.

Iowa State Uni­ver­si­ty (ISU) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty, and is the largest uni­ver­si­ty in the state. It has a space-grand affil­i­a­tion and has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — Very high research activ­i­ty”. It receives almost $500 mil­lion in research grants on an annu­al basis.

What We Like: ISU offers more than 100 bach­e­lor’s degree pro­grams, over 110 mas­ter’s degree pro­grams, and 83 doc­tor­al degree pro­grams, along with a degree in vet­eri­nary medicine.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Iowa State University

7. Indiana University — Bloomington

The Kel­ley School of Busi­ness at Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty — Bloom­ing­ton offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics co-major that com­ple­ments all Kel­ley majors. The pro­gram teach­es advanced busi­ness ana­lyt­ics skills to give stu­dents the abil­i­ty to inte­grate the infor­ma­tion they learn from data analy­sis into their deci­sion-mak­ing process­es. Stu­dents grad­u­ate from the pro­gram with the skills need­ed to work as a con­sul­tant, cor­po­rate infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, busi­ness analy­sis, sup­ply chain and oper­a­tions man­age­ment, and busi­ness management.

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty — Bloom­ing­ton (IU) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty and is the flag­ship cam­pus of the Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem. The school has a space-grant affil­i­a­tion, and has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — Very high research activ­i­ty”. Ath­let­ics teams at IU par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I FBS — Big Ten conference.

What We Like: Around 45,000 stu­dents enroll each aca­d­e­m­ic semes­ter to study for a bach­e­lor’s, mas­ter’s, or doc­tor­al degree.

Degree: Busi­ness: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty — Bloomington

8. Ohio State University

Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Data Ana­lyt­ics spe­cial­iza­tion pro­gram that teach­es stu­dents how to han­dle large amounts of data and ana­lyze the infor­ma­tion for insights. The degree pro­gram com­bines math­e­mat­ics, com­put­er sci­ence, and sta­tis­tics to help stu­dents gain prob­lem-solv­ing and crit­i­cal think­ing skills along with the abil­i­ty to clear­ly com­mu­ni­cate their find­ings. Stu­dents in the pro­gram can par­tic­i­pate in Ohio State’s annu­al Amer­i­can Sta­tis­ti­cal Asso­ci­a­tion DataFest com­pe­ti­tion that has under­grad­u­ates take on a data analy­sis chal­lenge in order to win prizes.

The Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty (OSU) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem of Ohio. It’s con­sid­ered a Pub­lic Ivy school and reg­u­lar­ly ranks as one of the best pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties in the U.S. It fea­tures a sea- and space-grant affil­i­a­tion, and has a Carnegie Clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — Very high research activ­i­ty”. The school’s ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I FBS — Big Ten — WCHA conference.

What We Like: Many notable indi­vid­u­als have grad­u­at­ed from OSU and gone on to earn pres­ti­gious awards and entered into politics.

Degree: Data Ana­lyt­ics, BS — Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics specialization

Ohio State University

9. Case Western Reserve University

Case West­ern Reserve Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BA or BS and mas­ter of busi­ness ana­lyt­ics inte­grat­ed pro­gram. Stu­dents in this pro­gram earn their bach­e­lor’s and mas­ter’s degree at the same time over five years. The pro­gram teach­es stu­dents to learn about and under­stand how big data plays a role in the deci­sion-mak­ing process of a busi­ness, and how to use the data to gain a com­pet­i­tive edge against sim­i­lar busi­ness­es. Some of the class­es in the pro­gram include man­age­r­i­al mar­ket­ing, data min­ing and visu­al­iza­tion, pre­dic­tive mar­ket­ing, and account­ing and finan­cial management.

Case West­ern Reserve Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate research uni­ver­si­ty locat­ed in Cleve­land, Ohio, and gets its name from the com­bi­na­tion of the Case School of Applied Sci­ence and West­ern Reserve University.

What We Like: The school enrolls almost 12,000 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic year, and offers 95 bach­e­lor’s, 135 mas­ter’s and doc­tor­al degrees, dual degrees, and pro­fes­sion­al certificates.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS/BA to MS Program

Case West­ern Reserve University

10. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty-Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty Indi­anapo­lis offers a BS in Applied Data and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence through its School of Infor­mat­ics and Com­put­ing. Stu­dents learn how to devel­op their math and tech­nol­o­gy skills so they can ana­lyze com­plex datasets and use their dis­cov­er­ies to inform their deci­sion-mak­ing process for the data sci­ence por­tion of the degree. The applied infor­ma­tion sci­ence por­tion of the pro­gram teach­es stu­dents how to orga­nize, access, and man­age datasets, how to man­age data, archive infor­ma­tion, and orga­ni­za­tion. Stu­dents can earn a bach­e­lor’s and mas­ter’s degree in five years through an accel­er­at­ed grad­u­ate stud­ies program.

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty-Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty Indi­anapo­lis (IUPUI) is a part­ner­ship between Indi­ana and Pur­due uni­ver­si­ties locat­ed in down­town Indi­anapo­lis. The school’s ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I — Hori­zon League conference.

What We Like: The school offers over 200 degree pro­grams, is the pri­ma­ry cam­pus for the Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine, and is home to the only school of den­tistry in the state of Indi­ana. It’s also the loca­tion of one of two law schools in the state.

Degree: Applied Data and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence, BS

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty-Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty Indianapolis

11. University of Miami

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Mia­mi offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics for stu­dents who are study­ing for a bach­e­lor of sci­ence in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion degree. Stu­dents take core busi­ness class­es that include busi­ness ana­lyt­ics, fun­da­men­tals of finance, cal­cu­lus, and oper­a­tions man­age­ment, then take 18 hours of spe­cial­iza­tion class­es in the busi­ness ana­lyt­ics major. Class­es in the ana­lyt­ics major include data acqui­si­tion, prepa­ra­tion, and visu­al­iza­tion, object-ori­ent­ed pro­gram­ming, data­base man­age­ment sys­tems, and com­put­er sim­u­la­tion sys­tems. Grad­u­ates of the pro­gram will pos­sess strong com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, have crit­i­cal think­ing skills, and be able to use tools and tech­niques to ana­lyze datasets.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Mia­mi (UM) is a pri­vate research uni­ver­si­ty that fea­tures a sea- and space-grant affil­i­a­tion, and has a Carnegie Clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — Very high research activ­i­ty”. Its ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I FBS — ACC conference.

What We Like: The school spent over $350 mil­lion on research in 2019. Over 35,000 stu­dents attend UM to study for bach­e­lor’s, mas­ter’s, and doc­tor­al degrees.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BBA

Uni­ver­si­ty of Miami

12. University of Vermont

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ver­mont offers a Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics (BA) con­cen­tra­tion pro­gram through its Gross­man School of Busi­ness. The pro­gram has a focus on data-dri­ven deci­sion mak­ing in order to con­vert data into con­text-spe­cif­ic infor­ma­tion and aid a busi­ness in mak­ing deci­sions that are advan­ta­geous to its oper­a­tion. Stu­dents who take the BA con­cen­tra­tion engage in class­es that teach six-sig­ma qual­i­ty, sup­ply chain man­age­ment, busi­ness process improve­ment, sta­tis­tics, and oper­a­tions research. The school rec­om­mends stu­dents take a minor in com­put­er sci­ence, math or sta­tis­tics along­side the BA concentration.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ver­mont (UVM) is a pub­lic flag­ship research uni­ver­si­ty, and is one of the orig­i­nal pub­lic Ivy col­leges in the U.S. The school has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R2: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — High research activ­i­ty”, and fea­tures both a sea- and space-grant affil­i­a­tion. The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ver­mont Med­ical Cen­ter, the largest hos­pi­tal in the state of Ver­mont, is locat­ed on the main campus.

What We Like: UVM offers bach­e­lors, mas­ters, and doc­tor­al pro­grams through­out its nine schools and colleges.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BA

Uni­ver­si­ty of Vermont

13. Auburn University

Auburn Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics through its Har­bert Col­lege of Busi­ness. The pro­gram offers a vari­ety of soft­ware learn­ing envi­ron­ments with stu­dents learn­ing pro­gram­ming lan­guages that include SAS, Python, Wat­son, SAP, R, and Tableau. Oth­er class­es in the pro­gram include tech aspects of big data, pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics, and prin­ci­ples of pre­dic­tive mod­el­ing. Stu­dents who grad­u­ate from the pro­gram are in high demand as the school has an excel­lent place­ment rate for its graduates.

Auburn Uni­ver­si­ty (AU) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty in Alaba­ma, is the sec­ond-largest uni­ver­si­ty in the state, and is the flag­ship uni­ver­si­ty for the Alaba­ma state uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem. The school has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — Very high research activ­i­ty”, and has a sea- and space-grant affil­i­a­tion. The school’s ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I FBS — SEC conference.

What We Like: Auburn has a strong asso­ci­a­tion with NASA with six astro­nauts grad­u­at­ing from the school, and sev­er­al hun­dred grad­u­ates going on to work for the agency.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Auburn Uni­ver­si­ty

14. Saint Louis University

Saint Louis Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Ana­lyt­ics and Enter­prise Sys­tems through its Chaifetz School of Busi­ness. The pro­gram is described as a soft­ware-based major and empha­sizes the use of soft­ware to per­form enter­prise resource plan­ning tasks. Stu­dents learn how to col­lect, orga­nize, and ana­lyze data gen­er­at­ed through busi­ness activ­i­ties in order to aid in mak­ing deci­sions, solve prob­lems, and refine busi­ness oper­a­tions. The school offers SAP cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to stu­dents, and is the only one in the St. Louis area that offers the certification.

St. Louis Uni­ver­si­ty (SLU) is a Roman Catholic pri­vate research uni­ver­si­ty run by the Jesuits, and is the old­est uni­ver­si­ty west of the Mis­sis­sip­pi with its found­ing in 1818. Around 28,000 stu­dents enroll each aca­d­e­m­ic semes­ter in order to earn pro­fes­sion­al cer­tifi­cates, bach­e­lor’s and mas­ter’s degrees, and doc­tor­ates. The school’s ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in NCAA Divi­sion I — A‑10 conference.

What We Like: The school has a space-grant affil­i­a­tion, and has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R2: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties: High research activity”.

Degree: Ana­lyt­ics and Enter­prise Sys­tems, B.S.

Saint Louis University

15. University of Tennessee-Knoxville

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ten­nessee-Knoxville offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics pro­gram through its Haslam Col­lege of Busi­ness. It pre­pares stu­dents to work in var­i­ous fields that include sup­ply chain finance, mar­ket­ing, con­sult­ing, and more. Stu­dents learn to use the tools that suc­cess­ful busi­ness analy­sists use on a dai­ly basis, and learn how to engage in regres­sion analy­sis, data­base min­ing, data­base man­age­ment, and rel­e­vant soft­ware. The pro­gram encour­ages stu­dents to engage in degree-relat­ed intern­ships in order to improve their start­ing salary after graduation.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ten­nessee-Knoxville (UTK or UT) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty that was found­ed two years before Ten­nessee was grant­ed state­hood, and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ten­nessee sys­tem. It fea­tures a sun-grant affil­i­a­tion and has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — Very high research activ­i­ty”. The ath­let­ics teams at UT par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I FBS — SEC conference.

What We Like: The school is tied to the Oak Ridge Nation­al Lab­o­ra­to­ry, and is affil­i­at­ed with var­i­ous research institutions.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Uni­ver­si­ty of Tennessee-Knoxville

16. University of New Hampshire

The Uni­ver­si­ty of New Hamp­shire offers a BS in Ana­lyt­ics and Data Sci­ence with an ana­lyt­ics option that focus­es on busi­ness through its Col­lege of Engi­neer­ing and Phys­i­cal Sci­ences. Stu­dents learn the lat­est in tech­ni­cal skills to help them man­age, ana­lyze, inter­pret, and cre­ate con­clu­sions from datasets for a wide vari­ety of busi­ness­es. Class­es include learn­ing how to pro­gram in lan­guages such as Python and R, and learn how to use big data frame­works like MapRe­duce and Hadoop. Stu­dents par­tic­i­pate in intern­ships, applied projects, and field work to help them apply their edu­ca­tion with real data.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of New Hamp­shire (UNH) is a flag­ship pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty, and the largest cam­pus in the Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem of New Hamp­shire. It has a total of 11 col­leges and grad­u­ate schools, and offers over 100 majors. The ath­let­ics teams at UNH par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I — Amer­i­ca East.

What We Like: The school fea­tures a sea- and space-grant affil­i­a­tion, and has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R1: Doc­tor­al uni­ver­si­ties — Very high research activity”.

Degree: Ana­lyt­ics and Data Sci­ence, BS — busi­ness emphasis

Uni­ver­si­ty of New Hampshire

17. Augustana College

Augus­tana Col­lege offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics in both a major and minor option. The school offers a lib­er­al arts focus for the degree pro­gram to help stu­dents expand their per­spec­tive and crit­i­cal think­ing skills when ana­lyz­ing datasets. Class­es in the major include math­e­mat­ics, com­put­er sci­ence, ethics, sta­tis­tics, and ones specif­i­cal­ly designed for data ana­lyt­ics. Stu­dents gain crit­i­cal think­ing skills, infor­ma­tion lit­er­a­cy, the abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate clear­ly and com­pe­tent­ly, and be capa­ble of using math and sta­tis­tics to solve prob­lems. The pro­gram also includes prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence and an ana­lyt­ics project with an out­side business.

Augus­tana Col­lege is a pri­vate reli­gious col­lege in Rock Island, IL, and is affil­i­at­ed with the Evan­gel­i­cal Luther­an Church in Amer­i­ca. The school enrolls 2,500 stu­dents each semes­ter and offers 90 majors and minors, nine pre-pro­fes­sion­al pro­grams, and eight inter­dis­ci­pli­nary programs.

What We Like: Many notable indi­vid­u­als grad­u­at­ed from Augus­tana and went on to earn awards, act, per­form in sports, and even earn a Nobel prize.

Degree: Data Ana­lyt­ics, BS — focus on busi­ness analytics

Augus­tana College

18. Marquette University

The Col­lege of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion at Mar­quette Uni­ver­si­ty offers a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics major that has to be tak­en as a sec­ond major with any oth­er busi­ness major. The pro­gram is not pure­ly the­o­ret­i­cal, and stu­dents are giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with live, unfil­tered datasets pro­vid­ed by part­ners in the indus­try. The major has 15 cred­it hours with busi­ness ana­lyt­ics class­es includ­ing data def­i­n­i­tion, prepa­ra­tion, and descrip­tive ana­lyt­ics, unstruc­tured data analy­sis, advanced, and inte­gra­tive busi­ness analytics.

Mar­quette Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate Roman Catholic research uni­ver­si­ty in Mil­wau­kee, Wis­con­sin and is one of the largest col­leges run by the Jesuits. The school has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R2: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — High research activ­i­ty”. It offers grad­u­ate cer­tifi­cates, bach­e­lor’s and mas­ter’s degrees, and over 68 doc­tor­al degree pro­grams. Ath­let­ics teams at the school par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I — Big East Conference.

What We Like: The school fea­tures the only den­tal school in the state of Wisconsin.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Mar­quette University

19. Valparaiso University

The Col­lege of Busi­ness at Val­paraiso Uni­ver­si­ty offers a bach­e­lor’s in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics in both the arts and sci­ences. The pro­gram is designed to pro­vide stu­dents with a strong foun­da­tion in data ana­lyt­ics for busi­ness. Upon grad­u­a­tion, stu­dents will pos­sess a skil­let that can be used to aid busi­ness­es under­stand the infor­ma­tion they’re col­lect­ing, increase oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy, and mit­i­gate risks. Stu­dents are required to com­plete an intern­ship, or engage in a coop­er­a­tive edu­ca­tion expe­ri­ence that com­bines full-time pro­fes­sion­al employ­ment with aca­d­e­m­ic coursework.

Val­paraiso Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate Luther­an uni­ver­si­ty in Val­paraiso, Indi­ana. Found­ed in 1859, the school was one of the first coed­u­ca­tion col­leges in the U.S. with women and men attend­ing uni­ver­si­ty togeth­er. It was bought by the Luther­an Uni­ver­si­ty Asso­ci­a­tion in 1925. The school’s ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in NCAA Divi­sion I.

What We Like: Val­paraiso Uni­ver­si­ty has five under­grad­u­ate col­leges that include arts and sci­ences, busi­ness, engi­neer­ing, nurs­ing and health pro­fes­sions, and an hon­ors college.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS/BA

Val­paraiso University

20. Southern Utah University

South­ern Utah Uni­ver­si­ty offers a bach­e­lor’s in Eco­nom­ics with a Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics empha­sis in both arts and sci­ence for­mats. The over­all out­come for stu­dents in both for­mats is to pos­sess tech­ni­cal and ana­lyt­i­cal skills that are need­ed for mak­ing deci­sions in a com­plex envi­ron­ment. Stu­dents learn about micro- and macro­eco­nom­ic prin­ci­ples, be able to mod­el and solve opti­miza­tion prob­lems for a busi­ness, and devel­op strong think­ing skills. The BS has a min­i­mum require­ment of 12 cred­its in math or sci­ences, and the BA has a for­eign lan­guage require­ment of 16 credits.

South­ern Utah Uni­ver­si­ty (SUU) is a pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty and part of the Utah Sys­tem of High­er Edu­ca­tion. The school enrolls over 10,000 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic semes­ter, offers over 140 under­grad­u­ate pro­grams along with 19 grad­u­ate degrees. The school’s ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I FCS — Big Sky Conference.

What We Like: SUU has a full-size recon­struc­tion of the Eliz­a­bethan-era Globe The­ater, and has held the annu­al Utah Shake­speare Fes­ti­val since 1962.

Degree: Eco­nom­ics — Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics Empha­sis, BS/BA

South­ern Utah University

21. St Mary’s University

St Mary’s Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BBA in Account­ing and Data Ana­lyt­ics that focus­es on account­ing and infor­ma­tion sys­tems, finan­cial mod­el­ing, and quan­ti­ta­tive man­age­ment. The pro­gram includes class­es such as cost account­ing, enter­prise resource plan­ning, finan­cial mod­el­ing, and busi­ness intel­li­gence. Stu­dents take 120 cred­it hours for the account­ing major, and an addi­tion­al 30 cred­it hours in data ana­lyt­ics and infor­ma­tion sys­tems cours­es. The major sat­is­fies all require­ments for the Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Accoun­tant exam upon grad­u­a­tion. Major cor­po­ra­tions in the region fre­quent­ly hire data ana­lysts that grad­u­ate from the program.

St. Mary’s Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate Catholic col­lege run by the Mar­i­an­ists, and is the old­est Catholic uni­ver­si­ty in Texas. The school enrolls a stu­dent body of around 2,800 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic semes­ter who are seek­ing to earn under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate degrees from one of sev­en schools and col­leges. Its ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion II — Lone Star Conference.

What We Like: The law school at St. Mary’s has pro­duced many dis­tin­guished jurists who have gone on to careers in politics.

Degree: Account­ing and Data Ana­lyt­ics, BBA

St Mary’s University

22. Siena College

The School of Busi­ness at Siena Col­lege offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics for stu­dents who are look­ing to even­tu­al­ly find employ­ment in the field. The con­cen­tra­tion is avail­able to all stu­dents, but stu­dents who select the busi­ness major have to pick this as their con­cen­tra­tion in order to build their degree. Class­es include busi­ness intel­li­gence, math, sta­tis­tics, and data intel­li­gence. Stu­dents learn prob­lem solv­ing and ana­lyt­i­cal skills that are in high demand from employers.

Siena Col­lege is a pri­vate col­lege in Loudonville, New York, and is run by the Fran­cis­cans as a lib­er­al arts col­lege. The col­lege enrolls a rel­a­tive­ly small stu­dent body each aca­d­e­m­ic semes­ter of 3,200 under­grad­u­ates and 33 post­grad­u­ate stu­dents. The school offers grad­u­ate cer­tifi­cates, bach­e­lor’s degrees, and mas­ters’ degrees in account­ing and busi­ness administration.

What We Like: Ath­let­ics teams at Siena Col­lege par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion 1 — MAAC conference.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BA

Siena Col­lege

23. Pace University

Pace Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BBA in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics through its Lubin School of Busi­ness. Stu­dents learn the lat­est skills in ana­lyt­ics and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy that employ­ers are seek­ing in employ­ee can­di­dates. The pro­gram is one of the few under­grad­u­ate busi­ness ana­lyt­ics pro­grams in the New York City area. It pro­vides an edu­ca­tion in analy­sis and mod­el­ing tech­niques that relate to descrip­tive, pre­dic­tive, and pre­scrip­tive ana­lyt­ics, dra­va visu­al­iza­tion, data min­ing, and opti­miza­tion. Stu­dents are taught in-demand soft­ware skills and apply them to real-world busi­ness prob­lems to find a res­o­lu­tion and conclusion.

Pace Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate uni­ver­si­ty locat­ed in New York City and Westch­ester Coun­ty, New York. Orig­i­nal­ly found­ed in 1906 by the Pace Broth­ers as a school of accoun­tan­cy and busi­ness, the school grew over the years and added schools that include health, arts and sci­ences, law, busi­ness, edu­ca­tion, and com­put­er sci­ence and infor­ma­tion sys­tems. The school’s ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion II North­east ‑10 East­ern Col­lege Ath­let­ic Conference.

What We Like: About 9,000 under­grad­u­ates and 3,700 post­grad­u­ates enroll each aca­d­e­m­ic semester.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BBA

Pace Uni­ver­si­ty

24. Miami Dade College

Mia­mi Dade Col­lege (MDC) offers a BS in Data Ana­lyt­ics that teach­es stu­dents invalu­able skills for the ana­lyz­ing and inter­pre­ta­tion of a vari­ety of datasets on behalf of an employ­er. Stu­dents engage in areas of study that include sta­tis­ti­cal data analy­sis, machine learn­ing mod­els for data clas­si­fi­ca­tion, data­base con­cepts and Struc­tured Query Lan­guage, datavi­su­al­iza­tion tech­niques, and more. Mia­mi Dade Col­lege has agree­ments with insti­tu­tions that offer enroll­ment to MDC grad­u­ates into their mas­ter’s degree in a relat­ed field.

Mia­mi Dade Col­lege (MDC or Mia­mi Dade) is a pub­lic col­lege and is the largest school in the Flori­da Col­lege Sys­tem, and the sec­ond largest of its kind in the U.S. There are eight dif­fer­ent cam­pus­es that make up the school, and over 100,000 stu­dents enroll each aca­d­e­m­ic year in pur­suit of asso­ciate and bach­e­lor degrees.

What We Like: The school is home to over 1,600 art­works spread around the cam­pus, indoors and out, and in all types of medi­ums and genres.

Degree: Data Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Mia­mi Dade Col­lege (MDC)

25. Western Michigan University

West­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­si­ty offers a bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics through its Haworth Col­lege of Busi­ness. Stu­dents learn how to col­lect, orga­nize, and com­pre­hend data sets through cours­es that include busi­ness data min­ing, big data ana­lyt­ics, visu­al ana­lyt­ics, and more. Upon grad­u­a­tion, stu­dents can find employ­ment in roles that include solu­tion archi­tect, health ana­lyst, busi­ness intel­li­gence, along­side elec­tives such as prac­ti­cal project man­age­ment, regres­sion analy­sis, and top­ics in com­put­er infor­ma­tion sys­tems. Stu­dents can join orga­ni­za­tions that help sup­port them as they learn about busi­ness analytics.

West­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­si­ty (WMU) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty that has a Carnegie clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “R2: Doc­tor­al Uni­ver­si­ties — High research activ­i­ty” and fea­tures a space-grant affil­i­a­tion. WMU has almost 150 bach­e­lor’s degree pro­grams, 73 mas­ter’s, and 30 doc­tor­al pro­grams. The uni­ver­si­ty has sev­en col­leges, includ­ing a Col­lege of Avi­a­tion, Med­ical, and Law.

What We Like: The school has pro­duced many notable alum­ni, includ­ing Ter­ry Crews, Luther Van­dross, and Homer Stryker.

Degree: Busi­ness Analytics

West­ern Michi­gan University

Is Business Analytics a Good Career?

A career in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics is a very good career in terms of job sat­is­fac­tion and income poten­tial. Busi­ness­es of all kinds need busi­ness ana­lysts who pos­sess train­ing in com­plex math­e­mat­i­cal mod­els, have crit­i­cal think­ing skills, and the abil­i­ty to han­dle datasets and datasets, then make sense of the data for busi­ness deci­sions, mar­ket research, and pre­dic­tive ana­lyt­ics. The career path in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics is a newish one, and the future of the career in ana­lyt­ics is still uncer­tain. How­ev­er, as long as data is col­lect­ed via the inter­net, indi­vid­u­als gen­er­ate reams of col­lectible data for study, there will be a career in ana­lyt­ics for the data sci­en­tist who choos­es to pur­sue this career path.

A career in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics is a great option for peo­ple who have inter­ests in IT, busi­ness man­age­ment, research and ana­lyt­ics, and writ­ing code. On the sur­face, these sound like skills that real­ly don’t relate to one anoth­er, and it may seem unusu­al that some­one would have an inter­est in all of these dis­ci­plines. The real­i­ty is, not all careers in ana­lyt­ics are going to call on all of these skills, and col­lege degree pro­grams in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics reflect that fact. The same goes for employment.

The core pur­pose of a career in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics is that of col­lect­ing data for analy­sis on behalf of a busi­ness. How this is achieved is not nec­es­sar­i­ly a fixed process. The odds that all types of careers in ana­lyt­ics are going to be around for the long term are high. And in the event the career path in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics changes, degree hold­ers are well-posi­tioned to weath­er and adapt to the changes through con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion and fol­low­ing trends.

The method in which this infor­ma­tion is col­lect­ed and stored has become more com­plex, but the infor­ma­tion gen­er­at­ed by users still needs to be assem­bled into a coher­ent for­mat and ana­lyzed to be use­ful on behalf of a com­pa­ny. That’s where busi­ness ana­lyt­ics comes into play.

What Can I Do with a Degree in Business Analytics?

The ques­tion of “what can I do with a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree?” is a good one. You may find that employ­ers don’t name their posi­tions in a way that ref­er­ences busi­ness ana­lyt­ics in a direct fash­ion. There are plen­ty of jobs that have the title of data ana­lyst, but that can be a bit vague in terms of explain­ing what’s expect­ed of you in that posi­tion. Here’s a few of the jobs you can do with a degree in busi­ness analytics:

  • Sta­tis­ti­cian
  • Data archi­tect
  • Chief tech­nol­o­gy officer
  • Appli­ca­tion architect
  • Busi­ness insight and ana­lyt­ics manager
  • Man­age­ment analyst
  • Oper­a­tions research analyst
  • Busi­ness sys­tems analyst

Earn­ing a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree enables you to work in var­i­ous types of roles that range from logis­tics to con­sul­tan­cy. The struc­ture of the work is one of col­lect­ing large amounts of data from a sin­gle data­base or mul­ti­ple sources, apply­ing a query, or mul­ti­ple queries, to the data, and find­ing infor­ma­tion that relates to the queries. Some posi­tions require knowl­edge in pro­gram lan­guages while oth­ers require pro­fi­cien­cy in soft­ware that is used to pull infor­ma­tion from data­bas­es. Oth­ers require the abil­i­ty to use com­plex math­e­mat­ics to extrap­o­late data that can help pre­dict future trends. The field of busi­ness ana­lyt­ics is one that has some­thing for everyone.

The var­ied nature of busi­ness ana­lyt­ics gives you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be selec­tive in terms of degree pro­grams and employ­ment. You can find schools that offer a degree pro­gram that aligns with your strengths and inter­ests, then find employ­ment that uti­lizes your edu­ca­tion. It’s a great way to find job sat­is­fac­tion as well as mak­ing use of your education.

Relat­ed Rankings:

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics