The data analytics program teaches you to research and analyze large amounts of data forecast business strategy success rates, find correlations, and identify trends. You can use information to find new opportunities, maximize profitability, and optimize resources. This degree lays the foundation for you to work in finance and technology.
This degree might be for you if you
- have strong math skills
- enjoy analyzing information and solving problems
- love finding patterns and using logic
- are interested in a career that offers the flexibility to work in a variety of fields
Why study data analytics at Northwestern?
The Twin Cities has 16 Fortune 500 headquarters including 3M, Best Buy, General Mills, and Medtronic! Our professors and alumni have many connections to these large corporations. Students visit companies and learn from the field experts.
Northwestern’s small classes allow students to engage with faculty. We know our students on a personal level and want to come alongside data analytics students.
Northwestern also requires you to have internships in your field before graduating to equip you for your career. Students take advantage of internship opportunities in Minnesota’s thriving business industries. More than 60% of internships resulted in job offers.
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Careers in business data analytics
There are a variety of career and academic pathways that begin with a degree in data analytics.
What types of work are related to this degree?
- Data Collection/Data Mining
- Information Technology
- Data Analysis
- Decision Analysis and Modeling
- Predictive Analytics
- Customer Loyalty and Selection Programs
- Marketing Strategy Development
- Fraud Detection
- Applied Statistics
- Process Optimization
- Operations Research/Management
- Manufacturing Design
- Supply Chain Management
What will I learn?
You will develop strong communication and analytical skills and manage large data sets to solve critical business problems.
DAL 4275
Business and Economic Forecasting
This course is designed to expose participants to the development and utilization of forecasts. Emphasis on statistical methods (time series, regression, Monte Carlo simulation etc.) and software applied to quantitative forecasting. Specific applications include forecasting sales, market prices, inventory, and macroeconomic factors.
BUS 4435
Business Ethics
An understanding of personal and corporate integrity from a biblical perspective and resolving ethical dilemmas is emphasized. A comprehensive case analysis is required.
DAL 3255
Data Mining
The data mining course presents methods and systems for mining varied data and discovering knowledge from data. After detailing a data mining system architecture and tasks, the course examines and compares specific methods in data mining, such as data preparation, classification, clustering, and text mining. Several applications are detailed, and tools to build new applications are provided. The task of knowledge discovery is then outlined as a higher-level goal of data mining. Familiarity with statistics, and database systems, in particular database design, is expected.
BUS 2011
Introduction to Business Analysis
This course provides an introduction to frequently used data analysis techniques that can aid business decision making. Data capture, processing, analysis, and presentation techniques will be introduced. Excel and other relevant software tools will be used to perform basic data analysis.
MAT 2055
Statistics
Descriptive and inferential statistics include methods for describing data, binomial and normal probability distributions, tests of hypotheses, simple linear regression, analysis of variance, nonparametric techniques, two-sample testing and contingency tables.
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Discover the Department of Computing, Analytics, & Mathematics
Professors at Northwestern are focused on their students first. Our faculty include experts in their respective fields who want to help you grow in your faith while you earn your degree.