Difference Between MS in Data Analytics or Business Analytics

Master’s in Data Analytics

• Courses focus on data operations, including advanced analytics
• Substantial mathematical focus usually geared for professionals with a STEM background
• Develops system architects to prepare data for advanced analytics

Master’s in Business Analytics

• Advanced analytics courses focus on transforming data into insights and competitive business advantages
• Builds corporate communications skills needed to effectively convey findings to senior leadership and various stakeholders
• Appeals to a STEM audience but also tailored to varying professional backgrounds

If you have an engineering background but you no more want to venture into core engineering jobs, MS in Data Analytics is an excellent choice for you.

You would learn how to gather, organize and analyze data in or outside of a business context.

You will learn to become a systems architect, who prepares data for advanced analytics and focus on gaining mastery with the tools and techniques used for data governance and analysis.

Curriculum of MS in Data Analytics will give you hands-on experience with analysis techniques such as multiple regression and logistic regression, teaching you how to find critical patterns within datasets.

You will also acquire skills need to extract meaning from raw data, develop analytic dashboards for non-technical users as well as build charts and other infographics to thoroughly explain your finding.

A Data Analytics MS program typically focuses on mathematical and programming skills and tools.

You will get the knowledge you need to transform your organization’s data into a usable asset.

As a Business Analytics professional, you will use analytical tools for improved business decision making.

You typically will start working on a specific business application, for which you would identify which data and methodologies are best suited to approach the problem at hand.

Like your counterparts in a Data Analytics Master’s program, you will learn how to discover data trends.

However, you not only learn the tools and techniques for analyzing both small and large data sets, you do so within specific business domains, and recognize which analytical tool is most effective for solving a given business problem.

During your Master’s, you would take courses that provide a comprehensive set of both technical and business skills, including management and communications.

So you would become proficient with state-of-the-art technologies such as machine learning and optimization, while also learning how to best communicate your ideas to the rest of your organizations as well as clients and other stakeholders.

So if you are someone who thrives in an environment where you would be required to use a blend of creative, technical and communication skills, go for Master’s in Business Analytics.