Graduate Certificate in Business Analytics

The Graduate Certificate in Business Analytics will offer students the opportunity to take a deep-dive into business analytics at the same time that they earn their MBA degree.

Learning Outcomes

Students who complete the Certificate in Business Analytics will:

• Understand how analysis fits into the broader agenda of management.
• Assess the value of data-driven decisionmaking as well as its limitations.
• Evaluate the cost of data and analysis, and when the benefits of improved business decisions make this cost worth bearing.
• Distinguish and work with different kinds of data in a business setting.
• Construct and demonstrate analysis using programming-based tooling within a business context.
• Classify different kinds of analysis/tools and be able to evaluate which is appropriate for different business problems (e.g., evaluate the benefits of programming-based tooling relative to point-n-click or Excel-based approaches within a business context).
• Design and create analysis based on advanced topics (e.g., Machine Learning, Data Mining, Big Data, SQL databases) and apply these tools to realistic business problems.
• Create their own analysis and demonstrate the application of the above content to practical scenarios.

Requirements

To earn the Graduate Certificate in Business Analytics, students must complete a total of 15 units as follows:

Required Courses

• QST IS 737 Decision Making with Data (3 units)
• Choose one of the following:
  • QST IS 834 Business Analytics in Practice (3 units)
    or
  • QST QM 877 Intro to Python Bootcamp (1.5 units) and QST QM 878 Deep Learning with Python Bootcamp (1.5 units)

Elective Courses

Choose three courses from the following:

• QST IS 841 Data Mining (3 units)
• QST IS 843 Big Data (3 units)
• QST IS 860 Business Analytics Consulting (3 units)
• QST IS 889 Data Management (3 units)
• QST MK 842 Machine Learning (3 units)

Academic Standards

For the certificate to be conferred, a student must achieve a minimum cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 2.70 (on a 4.0 scale). Students are not permitted to take additional units beyond the certificate program in order to improve grades (CGPA) or restart enrollment, nor can they withdraw and re-enroll.

Certificate Completion

To qualify for the Graduate Certificate in Business Analytics, students must:

• Successfully complete all required courses, for a total of 15 units.
• Have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.70.
• Have no “I” grades or no “MG” grades in courses counting toward the certificate.
• Only up to 9 units of the certificate program may also be applied toward the MBA degree.