Student in audience of case competition smiling

Masters in Business Analytics Hands-On Learning

Hands-on learning isn’t an add-on… It’s the foundation.

In the MS in Business Analytics program, all students experience regular hands-on learning in classes. Opportunities beyond the classroom abound, including case competitions, hackathons, industry projects, capstones, and internships that build confidence, sharpen problem-solving skills, and prepare students for the collaborative, fast-paced work environments they’ll enter after Questrom.

How MS in Business Analytics Students Gain Hands-On Experience

Average annual percentage of students participating in each opportunity.

Horizontal bar chart depicting percentage of students participating in various hands-on modes. 100% of student participate in applied projects. 65% participate in internships and coops. 30% competitions and hackathons. 20% participate in on-campus employer-based collaborations with industry, and 20% participate in capstone projects - all 12-month track students.

Learn by doing in the classroom

Over 75% of core courses feature experiential learning through collaborative, real-world projects. Collaboration heats up in BA810: Supervised Machine Learning, where business analytics teams dive into research, harness real-world data, and deliver powerful, data-driven solutions to tackle some of the most interesting challenges in business. Peruse their projects below.

Recent Internships & Co-Ops

Take Your Talents to Industry via Internships and Coops

MSBA students complete required analytics practicums through research projects, internships, or co-ops, applying skills in analyzing business problems, generating insights, building models, delivering recommendations, and working with data. Students on the 16-month track can pursue one or more internships in the summer, fall, or across both seasons, gaining hands-on experience in real business settings.

  • Business/Data Analyst
  • Data Engineering
  • Financial Analyst
  • Software Development
  • Data Science
  • Machine Learning
  • Operations Analyst
  • Business Intelligence
  • FP&A
  • Consultant
  • Business Development

Learn by Doing via a Company-Sponsored Capstone

Last Summer, Assette, a local SaaS fintech company, challenged MSBA student teams to build models and generate AI-based synthetic data for different investment asset classes.

The goal: create realistic “model clients” for testing, quality assurance, and client demos. Using Python and Snowflake, students got a start on designing end-to-end pipelines simulating the full investment data lifecycle. They gained hands-on experience not only solving real-world business and analytics problems but consulting with a client.

Questrom alum and Assette team member Maneesha Premarante reviewed the final capstone presentations. As Associate Director, Data & AI Solutions at Assette, Maneesha enjoys mentoring students and challenging them to think critically about both business use cases and the best solutions to complex data problems.

  • Optimize processes, costs, and efficiency
  • Segment customers for targeted strategies
  • Analyze text data for sentiment or insights
  • Build dashboards to visualize KPIs
  • Test business hypotheses through experiments
  • Detect anomalies or unusual patterns
  • Develop recommendation systems
  • Optimize pricing strategies
  • Improve data quality and governance
  • Predict churn and model customer lifetime value
  • Apply generative AI for content, simulations, or synthetic data


On-Campus Collaborations

Boston University offers a wealth of opportunities for students to tackle real-world business and analytics challenges—both through their own innovations and by supporting companies of all sizes. MSBA students frequently secure paid, on-campus projects that let them apply classroom learning to meaningful, hands-on work.

Team working together with laptops in classroom.

Questrom Consulting Lab

Work with organizations to solve strategic analytics problems.

BU Spark!

Collaborate on real data projects across industries.

Innovate@BU

Develop and launch your own innovative solutions.

2025 Minne MUDAC competition- MSBA spring 2026
Student team group photo at the 2024 Humana-Mays Healthcare Analytics Case Competition - MSBA spring 2026
Students present at Questrom’s 7th Annual Battle of the Boutiques Case Competition - MSBA spring 2026

Test skills through case competitions & hackathons

Case competitions and hackathons are a signature part of the MSBA experience, giving students the chance to apply business and analytics skills to real-world challenges under real-world pressure, on local and global stages. Boston University, Questrom, and the MSBA team actively identify, promote, and support a wide range of opportunities for students to compete, collaborate with driven teammates, and showcase talents to industry leaders.

BU Employer Partners Look to YOU for Help

“Working with the Questrom Consulting Lab has been one of the most rewarding parts of my BU experience. I’ve been able to apply my prior professional experience and coursework to real-world projects with the SharkNinja AI & Analytics Lab, guided by Professors Howard and Tibert.”

Chamnan Suon

MS in Business Analytics

Upcoming MSBA Admissions Events

Attend an event and apply for free. Join us to discover program insights and enjoy a waived application fee when you apply to a Questrom graduate degree program.

Ready to Apply?

Once you’ve submitted your materials, we’ll start the review process. We’re happy to answer your questions along the way.

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