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.
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.
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.
Minne MUDAC Competition
MSBA student teams at the 2025 Minne MUDAC competition
Humana-Mays Healthcare Analytics Case Competition
Questrom MSBA placed second in the 2024 Humana-Mays Healthcare Analytics Case Competition, winning $20K in prize money!
John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition
MSBA students were one of 15 teams selected for an all-expenses paid trip to compete in person for the final round of the John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition
Koding with KAGR
MSBA Students won the 2025 Koding with KAGR (Kraft Analytics Group) Case Competition
Battle of the Boutiques Case Competition
MSBA and MBA teamed-up in Questrom’s 7th Annual Battle of the Boutiques Case Competition
AECTech Boston Hackathon
MSBA student on team winning the Most Impactful Hack Award at the AECTech Boston Hackathon 2025
Hackathon by Cirkul & Questrom MSBA team
Hackathon cohosted by Questrom MSBA in 2020, in partnership with Cirkul
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.”
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.
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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