As part of a public research university, the Lindner College
of Business understands the fundamental importance of
integrating real industry experience with classroom learning.
The goal of the college is to deliver a top-rated education to
students and value-added service to the business community.
Currently, the Linder College of Business enrolls over 3,500
undergraduate students and more than 1,100 graduate
students and provides them with unique opportunities to build
professional experience, cultural competency, and leadership
skills through co-operative education, internships, field-study
research, and cross-disciplinary studios.
Distinct Pedagogy to Build Analytical Skills
The Linder College of Business’s program core courses are in
optimization, simulation modeling, probability modeling, data
management, statistical methods, and data mining. Elective
courses include data visualization, forecasting, big data
integration, multivariate statistics, data wrangling, operations
management, and case studies. The capstone experience
requires students to demonstrate their skills through a research
project, an extended case analysis, or an internship.
The program may be completed as either a full-time student or
as a part-time student and can be completed in as few as nine
months. It features nationally-ranked and world-class faculty
who conduct advanced analytics research. Textbooks authored
by UC business analytics faculty are used at more than 400
different institutions including University of Arizona, UCLA,
Georgia Tech, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University,
University of Michigan, NC State, New York University, University
of Notre Dame, Ohio State University, Purdue University,
University of Texas, USC, Vanderbilt University, and Washington
University in St. Louis.
Students also benefit from the corporate and academic
partnership with the Center for Business Analytics which
provides real-world data analytics experience and career
opportunities and promotes industry leadership and research
to advance the field of business analytics.
The Lender College offers financial aid in the form of scholarships
and assistantships and is awarded on a competitive basis.
The program is recognized as a STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics) program.
An Exemplary Leadership
Dr. Edward Winkofsky has been the Academic Director of the
MS-Business Analytics (MS-BANA) Department of Operations,
Business Analytics, and Information Systems for the last five
years. During that time, he has guided the program through a
significant period of growth while maintaining the quality of the
incoming classes and its placement rate. From 2013 to 2018,
the program has grown by over 40 percent. The job placement
rate has averaged more than 90 percent within three months of
graduation, which was 95 percent in 2018.
According to Edward, the curriculum has been adjusted to reflect
changes in analytics. Through core courses and electives, there
is a greater focus on data management, data wrangling, data
mining, and big data. The new student orientation program
has been expanded to provide all students with a basic
understanding of Python, R, and SAS.
The capstone has been expanded including an internship
option, which allows a student to gain significant work
experience contributing to a company while applying the skills
and knowledge obtained in the program.Technological Advances that Provide Edge
The edge that Linder College’s Analytics and Data Science
program has in comparison to other institutes is that it combines
deep technical course content taught by world-class faculty with
a strong emphasis on practical applications. Edward stated that
“UC has a strong history of experiential education as it is the
birthplace of cooperative education. Our MS-BANA program
has a similar focus on experiential education. Due to our
location in Cincinnati, OH, students benefit from close proximity
to the headquarters of many leading analytics organizations
including Procter & Gamble, GE Aviation, Macy’s, Kroger, and
many others.”
The MS-BANA program at UC also has an extensive history and
is one of the oldest such programs in existence. The precursor
to the MS-BANA program, the MS-Quantitative Analysis degree,
has been offered since the late 1970s. Throughout its existence,
the course work has been a combination of statistics and
operations research with a focus on practical applications. The
program was rebranded as MS-Business Analytics in 2011 and
has been constantly updated to keep up with changes in the
marketplace and technology.Offering Unmatched Industry Experience to Enhance Skills
To provide practical exposure to students, Edward says, “All
students must complete a capstone as part of their MS-BANA
curriculum. This typically involves a three-month paid internship
with a company in an analytics role or working on an applied-
analytics project. In all cases, the capstone is overseen by a
faculty member, and the student must submit a detailed report50
THE 10 MOST PROMINENT ANALYTICS AND
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