Master in Business Analytics Concentrations

Concentrations that Align with Your Trajectory

The Healthcare, Marketing, and Data & Methods concentrations are designed to align with a range of professional interests and backgrounds, allowing students to deepen their understanding in a specific area of analytics through focused coursework and hands-on projects. Whether entering the field for the first time or building on prior experience, you’ll gain valuable, industry-relevant skills that prepare you to make meaningful contributions in your chosen domain.

Data & Methods

What is the Data & Methods (Applied Data Science) concentration?

Students in this concentration learn a multidisciplinary field that applies data analysis methods and models to real-world problems to generate insights and support decision-making.

MSBA students learn a range of skills including:

  • Machine Learning (Supervised & Unsupervised)
  • Neural Networks
  • Gen AI for Business Analytics
  • Applied Data Optimization
  • Big Data Concepts & Usage

Elective Courses

Explore your interests and hone your Data Science acumen with the following electives.

COURSE CODE: ba865

This course will introduce you to the Python programming language and the ecosystem of software packages needed for Data Science and to build and train Neural Networks in Python, including: NumPy, Pandas, SKlearn, and PyTorch. After reviewing key Python building blocks, the course will focus on Neural Networks and Deep learning Concepts and implementation in PyTorch. This is an intensive course and the majority of it will be presented through interactive python notebooks (Google Colab).

COURSE CODE: ba843

COURSE CODE: ba885

In this course we will open the neural network (NN) "black box" and examine how these mathematical modeling tools evolved to become the powerful data analysis engines that many companies rely on today. We will start with simple, comprehensible, few neuron models that we can build from scratch on our devices, and byte by byte grow our skills to understand and manipulate the enterprise-scale networks with complex architectures that are currently used in businesses ranging from Alpha-Go to Tesla. As we explore the mathematical and computational representations of different network architectures, you will obtain a solid understanding of how to choose and customize NN models that fit best to the task at hand, aware of their strengths and challenges, and what these mean for practitioners in business analytics. Whenever possible, we will draw examples related to global challenges such as climate crisis.

COURSE CODE: ba882

This course will equip students with the essential skills for transitioning data analysis and machine learning tasks to the cloud, supporting production workloads. It covers the creation and deployment of data and ML pipelines, including those for generative AI applications, with a focus on data integration strategies, cloud data warehousing, BI, and ML-Ops. Leveraging prior coursework in data management and machine learning, students will learn to implement ETL/ELT processes, monitor data quality, and deploy models as APIs using cloud services.

Computing & Data Science Courses

Course Code: CDS DS 690

Directed study in Computing & Data Sciences provides students the opportunity to complete directed research in a selected topic not covered in a regularly scheduled course under the supervision of a faculty member. Student and supervising faculty member arrange and document expectations and requirements. Examples include in-depth study of a special topic or independent research project.

Meet the Data & Methods Faculty

Get to know the Data & Methods faculty, such as Professor Elhamod, who teaches courses like Neural Networks, Unsupervised Learning, and Gen-AI (with LLMs), while currently coordinating the Data & Methods Concentration for MSBA. He has a PhD in Computer Science and was a software developer at Microsoft.

Mohannad Elhamod View Profile
Mohannad Elhamod

Clinical Assistant Professor, Information Systems

Fang Wan View Profile
Fang Wan

Clinical Assistant Professor, Information Systems

Mohammad Soltanieh-ha View Profile
Mohammad Soltanieh-ha

Clinical Assistant Professor, Information Systems

Gordon Burtch View Profile
Gordon Burtch

Allen and Kelli Questrom Professor in Information Systems

Meet Stella Vardanega, MSBA Alumna

With her new degree in hand, Stella Vardanega landed a position at Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, a healthcare technology firm. As an AI/data scientist, her work involves developing and learning new technologies and techniques to apply data and AI to business-facing problems, applying machine learning and natural language processing skills to the healthcare industry.


Healthcare Analytics

What is the Healthcare Analytics concentration?

Students learn analytic techniques and concepts in multiple healthcare domains, including: claims data, clinical data, quality data, and pharmaceutical data.

MSBA students completing this concentration are prepared for careers in:

  • Healthcare Technology (HealthTech)
  • Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals
  • Healthcare Consulting
  • Hospital/Healthcare Systems Operations
  • Digital Health and Telemedicine
  • Health Informatics and Data Infrastructure
  • Healthcare Product Management

Elective Courses

Explore your interests and hone your Healthcare Analytics acumen with the following electives.

COURSE CODE: ba878

This course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding of the key concepts, methods, and tools in data science, machine learning, and data infrastructure applied to the world of health care. The course will cover both theoretical foundations and practical applications of these topics, with a focus on the integration of data science techniques with data infrastructure. The course will include hands-on examples from real world data sets the will enhance skills and experiences in health care. In addition to reviewing key steps in the data science process (i.e. data preparation, exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, model selection, model evaluation, and model deployment) and machine learning techniques, we’ll explore how to use, apply, and deploy them in various healthcare settings. Students will learn about data architectures, distributed data processing systems, data pipelines, data transformation, and data visualization tools, and how different healthcare players are solving data challenges at scale. By the end of the course, students will have developed a deeper understanding of data science, machine learning, and data infrastructure, and will be able to apply these concepts to solve complex problems in a variety of healthcare domains across a multitude of data types.

COURSE CODE: hm817

For students interested in enhancing their skills for positions in the rapidly growing field of healthcare information technology, this course utilizes healthcare delivery, life science, and business leaders to deliver current perspectives and trends in the use of information technology (IT) to enhance patient care outcomes while delivering more cost-effective care. Students explore various methods and approaches that can be applied to both develop and evaluate IT systems encompassing electronic medical records, administrative systems, healthcare mobile applications, and the emerging field of digital therapeutics. The course provides strategic perspectives important to the healthcare chief information officer, chief medical information officer, other managers, prospective healthcare IT entrepreneurs, and users of both clinical and administrative IT systems. Its focus is not on the technical specialist.

COURSE CODE: hm848

This course examines an array of compelling opportunities for innovation, incremental and disruptive, across products and services, created within existing organizations or by starting new businesses. It bridges design and implementation, examining the unique and complex array of elements that make successful innovation in the health sector so difficult, and developing the skills and knowledge needed to effectively address those challenges. The course provides a conceptual framework, and then emphasizes hands-on engagement, concrete exercises, written cases, and in-class speakers who are engaged in real-world innovation initiatives. Students will have the opportunity to focus on areas of particular interest and relevance to current or future work. They will leave better equipped to drive or support the viable, value-creating innovation so desperately needed in the health sector.

School of Public Health Courses

Course Code: SPH BS 803

Graduate Prerequisites: ((SPH PH 717 or SPH BS 704) and SPH BS 723) or SPH BS 800; or consent of instructor. – This course will focus on skills required for advanced computing applications in biostatistics. Students will learn statistical programming and methods such as loops, functions, macros as well as data visualization techniques in SAS and R. Furthermore, the course will provide and introduction to Linux and basic statistical programming in Python. Lab sessions will also provide students with basic computing skills to enroll to more advanced statistical classes such as SPH BS 830 and SPH BS 857.

Course Code: SPH BS 806

Graduate Prerequisites: One year of college-level calculus, including multivariable calculus, and linear algebra to cover matrix operations, matrix functions and singular value decomposition. Can’t be taken together for credit with BS 805. – This course will focus on skills required for effective conduct of data analysis with statistical packages, primary with R. This course will focus on the multiple regression modeling and multivariate analysis to cover multi-way ANOVA, multiple linear regression, classification and regression trees, automated model search, model fit and diagnostic, and multivariate analysis (PCA and cluster analysis) with particular emphasis on applications in medicine and public health.

Course Code: SPH PM 804

Graduate Prerequisites: (SPHPH719) or consent from instructor. – Globally recognized digital expert and professor, David L. Rogers, argues that digital transformation for organizations is not about the technology and tools that are often over emphasized when approaching a shift to a digitally enabled- world, but instead is more about strategy and a new way of thinking. According to Rogers, there are five domains of strategy to approach digital transformation: Customer, Competition, Data, Innovation, and Value. This course will address both–learning about the tools and technologies in healthcare, while also understanding how to use those to strategically transform care including improvements in equity, efficiency, effectiveness, and patient and provider satisfaction. This course will introduce students to the policy and application of digital tools and models across the healthcare delivery system, including learning about and critically assessing concepts such as patient engagement, interoperability, telehealth, artificial intelligence, big data and analytics, health information technology (HIT) adoption and communication, data security, among others. Students demonstrate their knowledge through a team project, presenting their own proposal on using digital tools and technology to transform the healthcare sector. Case studies, readings, and interactive exercises in class round out topic knowledge and application.

Meet the Healthcare Analytics Faculty

Get to know the Healthcare Analytics faculty, such as Ned McCague, who currently coordinates the Healthcare Concentration for MSBA and is the Senior Director of AI and Predictive Modeling at Arcadia, a healthcare technology company. He also teaches graduate-level courses in machine learning at BU’s medical campus and MIT.

Placeholder View Profile
Ned McCague

Lecturer, Information Systems

Rena Conti View Profile
Rena Conti

Associate Professor, Markets, Public Policy, and Law

Abraham (Avi) Seidmann View Profile
Abraham (Avi) Seidmann

Professor, Information Systems

Meet Rohan Chaudhary, MSBA Alumnus

With three years of experience, Rohan Chaudhary is a leader in the Healthcare Analytics field. As a Data Engineer at Aetna, he’s driven to make a tangible impact in his career, engages in knowledge-sharing sessions, and is dedicated to fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment.


Marketing Analytics

What is the Marketing Analytics concentration?

Students learn the process of collecting and analyzing marketing data to understand customer behavior, evaluate marketing performance, and optimize marketing strategies. Students seeking to specialize in marketing analytics complete 3 or more related electives.

MSBA students completing this concentration are prepared for careers in:

  • Product/Category Management
  • Brand & Communications
  • Digital & Performance Marketing
  • Customer Insights & Market Research
  • Sales & Channel Marketing

Elective Courses

Explore your interests and hone your Healthcare Analytics acumen with the following electives.

COURSE CODE: ba860

This is an introductory course on Digital Marketing emphasizing analytics that seeks to familiarize students with digital marketing tactics. At the heart of marketing lies consumers and their marketing journey through the stages of awareness, intent, conversion and finally retention. In this course, we will learn how digital has revolutionized the interactions between firms and consumers along this journey. Digital offers powerful tactics to reach consumers along the funnel: online display ads raise awareness, search listings reach consumers with intent, on-site e-commerce marketing facilitate conversion, and social medial both energizes and retains customers.

COURSE CODE: mk864

This course focuses on the practical needs of the marketing manager making pricing decisions. Students learn the techniques of strategic analysis necessary to price more profitably by evaluating the price sensitivity of buyers, determining relevant costs, anticipating and influencing competitors' pricing and formulating an appropriate pricing strategy.

COURSE CODE: mk852

This course will focus on developing marketing strategies driven by marketing analytics. Topics covered include market segmentation, targeting, and positioning, new product test marketing, market response models, customer profitability, social media, and marketing resource allocation. The course will draw on and extend students’ understanding of issues related to quantitative analysis and principles of marketing. The course will use a combination of cases, lectures, simulations, and a hands-on project to develop these skills.

COURSE CODE: mk856

Marketing, in particular, begins and ends with the consumer – from determining consumer needs to ensuring customer satisfaction. In this course, we will explore the most recent scientific research in marketing, psychology, and behavioral economics related to consumer behavior. We will develop your ability to understand and influence what people want, how people decide what and when to buy, and whether people will be satisfied or dissatisfied with their decisions. These psychological insights are particularly useful for marketing strategy, brand positioning, and marketing communication decisions, but also yield insight into common biases in judgment and decision making, beyond marketing, to which you would otherwise fall prey. Why people are willing to drive across town to save $5 on a tank of gasoline, for example, when they would not drive a minute to save $5 on a refrigerator. We will discuss some of these applications in class. In addition, we will examine the methodology of market research (specific to consumer behavior) to build the tools you will need to interpret and base decisions on it. Readings will include primary empirical research articles (e.g., Journal of Consumer Research articles), business journal articles, and research reviews (e.g., Harvard Business Review articles). The course includes lecture, discussion, an exam, and a team term project.

Meet the Marketing Analytics Faculty

Get to know the Marketing Analytics faculty, such as Professor Engel, who teaches Pricing and Consumer Analytics. He has over 30 years of consulting experience, working mainly with airline companies and investors on their marketing strategy.

Paul Stillman View Profile
Paul Stillman

Assistant Professor, Marketing

Nina Mazar View Profile
Nina Mazar

Professor, Marketing

Samuel Engel View Profile
Samuel Engel

Lecturer, Marketing

Garrett Johnson View Profile
Garrett Johnson

Dean’s Research Scholar

Associate Professor, Marketing

Meet Shrey Sood, MSBA Alumnus

Shrey Sood’s passion for technology, coupled with his curiosity about combining it with business, led him to Boston University to study how to develop data-driven solutions. He is now a Marketing Research Manager at Fidelity.


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Application Deadlines

  • September 25th, 2025
  • December 1st, 2025
  • January 20th, 2026
  • March 16th, 2026*
  • May 4th, 2026**

*Last round for all international applicants who are not currently in the US and on an active F-1 visa
**Last round for domestic and international Students with a current, active F-1 visa