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Analytics involves the translation of data into meaningful and actionable insights. The Minor in Data Analytics provides graduates with knowledge and skills in this growing field to complement their degrees and majors.
Why a Minor in Data Analytics?
In today’s data-driven economy, having data analytics skills, in addition to your primary business degree, makes you much more competitive by adding high-demand technical skills to your business expertise. Data skills are no longer optional!
You’ll be equipped to interpret, visualize, and communicate insights from data to support better decision-making across industries.
Career Possibilities
|
Role |
Typical Job Focus |
Industries |
|
Business/Data Analyst |
Analyze business operations, uncover trends, and support strategy with data. |
Finance, Retail, Consulting, Healthcare, Tech |
|
Marketing Analyst |
Use customer data to shape marketing campaigns and measure performance. |
Advertising, E-commerce, Media |
|
Financial/Investment Analyst |
Analyze market trends, investment portfolios, or risk assessments using data. |
Banking, Investment Firms, Insurance |
|
Operations Analyst |
Improve business processes by analyzing supply chain, logistics, and production data. |
Manufacturing, Transportation, Logistics |
|
Human Resources (HR) Analyst |
Leverage data to optimize hiring, retention, and employee satisfaction strategies. |
Corporations, Nonprofits, Public Sector |
|
Sales Analyst |
Analyze sales trends and forecast future performance to guide revenue strategies. |
Retail, Consumer Goods |
|
Data Governance Specialist |
Ensure data is managed securely, ethically, and efficiently across the organization. |
Government, Healthcare, Finance |
|
Entry-level Data Scientist (with further technical upskilling) |
Build predictive models, machine learning solutions, and advanced analyses. |
Technology, Healthcare, Retail, Banking, Startups |
Through the Minor, you'll learn:
- Data collection and cleaning (Excel, SQL basics)
- Business and inelligence tools (Power BI)
- Data visualization and storytelling
- Descriptive and predictive analytics
- Ethical Data goverance and privacy principles
- Basic Statistical analysis and interpretation
- And more!
What courses are in the Minor?
Through six required courses, students will learn about data management, data analysis, and how to translate the results into meaningful insights. Learn more about the Data Analytics requirements and current courses offered.
MGMT 2262 - Statistics and Analytics for Business
As the start of your journey through data analytics, this course builds the foundational skills essential for success as an analyst. In addition to vital Excel skills, you will learn to apply critical thinking, problem-solving, visualization, and statistical literacy, all within the context of data analysis, interpretation and presentation.
Offered all terms
INFO 2650 or SINV 3303
Strong technical skills are important for anyone working in the field of analytics, but a key skill for any successful data analyst is communication. It is vitally important that you can interpret your results to multiple audiences with differing needs and levels of technical understanding and to argue convincingly for the value that your analysis adds. Learning to tell the story of your data is the focus of INFO 2650 and SINV 3303, both of which aim to enhance your written, oral and visual communication skills.
Offered in the Fall term
MGMT 3501 - Data Management and Business Analytics
At the heart of data analytics is data. A significant portion of an analyst's job is managing data throughout its lifecycle–from gathering to managing to governing. In this course, you will learn key data management skills essential for a career as an analyst, including the employment of relational databases, the utilization of visual analytics, and the application of ethical principles in data governance. (prerequisite MGMT 2262)
Offered in the Fall term
MGMT 4501 - Advanced Analytics in Business
You acquired a taste for data analysis in MGMT 2262. Now it’s time to broaden and deepen your analysis toolkit by tackling data problems with multiple new techniques. Moving beyond Excel, and building on your foundational data analysis and technical skills, you will learn more advanced techniques such as model building, structural equation modeling and the basics of machine learning, all while working with more sophisticated software such as R studio. (prerequisite MGMT 3501 and corequisite INFO 2650 or SINV 3303)
Offered in the Winter term
MGMT 4511 - Business Intelligence
This course will bring together all of your previous work in the Minor, from managing data (MGMT 3501), to analyzing data (MGMT 4501), to telling the story of your analysis (INFO 2650 or SINV 3303). In MGMT 4511, you will draw on all of these skills through the completion of a course project that addresses real problems within a real organization, culminating in the communication of your analysis in a variety of ways to your chosen audience. (prerequisite MGMT 4501)
Offered in the Fall term
MGMT 5501 - Applied Analytics - Strategy and Professional Practice
You’ve developed so many skills during your journey through your Minor. This course takes you across the finish line, where, using all the tools of an analyst, you will complete a capstone project for a real client. Working closely with your chosen client, you will start by exploring a problem to be solved within their organization. From there, you will complete an in-depth analysis, and ultimately present your insights back to your client, helping to guide their decisions in resolving the initial problem. (prerequisite MGMT 4511)
Offered in the Winter term
Want to hear more about the Minor?