Today's Discussion: Is BA Really a "Jack of All Trades" Major?
(For the TFE 2018 BA program rankings, click here)
BA (Business Analytics) is primarily structured around business management, mathematics, and computer science, and is an interdisciplinary field combining all three. For a detailed introduction to the BA major, click here.
Most BA graduate programs at top U.S. universities are housed in business schools, such as University of Southern California, New York University, University of Texas at Austin, and they are often called "the most engineering-like major in the business school." Some schools offer it in their engineering schools, like Northwestern University and Cornell University, with high requirements for math and computer science backgrounds. Columbia University's MSBA program (not the MSAA in SPS) is jointly offered by the Business School and the School of Engineering.
The reasons why BA is popular among international students in the U.S. can be easily summarized:
1. Interdisciplinary and job-friendly: As a business-oriented STEM program, it allows you to work in the U.S. for up to three years (the most common reason);
2. Sounds prestigious and decent (a simple and straightforward reason);
3. A genuine passion for business analytics (very rare).
As a rising star among study-abroad application majors in the last two years, more and more students come to CheersYou（清柚教育）for consultation about the BA major. Meanwhile, with its growing popularity, more U.S. schools are beginning to offer this program. Many business students believe that compared to finance/accounting, BA has certain employment advantages, especially with the three-year OPT.
That's the theory, but what is the reality?
In recent years, the BA hype has been continuously fueled. However, for most potential applicants, BA remains a new field, and it is hard to tell whether they have interest or if it suits them. Amidst this frenzy, shouldn't we calm down and think: Are you just following the herd in applying? And can BA truly deliver the value you imagine?
BA Major: Low Entry Barrier in Theory,
So Why Is Applying So Challenging?
As a relatively new interdisciplinary field, not many top U.S. universities offer graduate BA programs. The immature system leads to unstable admission criteria – one could say they fluctuate. In other words, if a school had a less-than-ideal applicant pool last year, it might raise standards this year; then finding the bar too high to recruit enough students, it considers lowering them the next. Compared to well-established majors and programs, the admission criteria can be quite unpredictable.
While programs are few, applicants are many. This has directly led to increasingly intense competition for BA admissions, with ever-rising bars and a tough application landscape. From T/G standardized scores to work experience and academic background (requirements in math, programming, and relevant coursework), the de facto requirements seem to have far exceeded the official ones set by the schools.
For example, looking at the USC MSBA student profiles for 2017 and 2018: it's worth noting that USC MSBA receives an overwhelming number of applicants! In 2018, the applicant count rose to over 3,000, with an incoming class of 97; the average GRE was 320+, GMAT around 725, the average GPA rose from 3.6 in 2017 to 3.7 in 2018, and the average work experience surpassed one year (click here for specifics).
UT Austin MSBA 2017 student data: average GPA 3.61, GMAT 719. Although the program is hosted in the business school, students with engineering backgrounds made up the largest proportion.
In some ways, BA resembles Financial Engineering, but since it has emerged only recently, the coursework difficulty is lower than that of Financial Engineering, and so is the admission difficulty. However, this does not mean applicants do not need relevant backgrounds; your transcript should show foundations in math, computer science, and business to be eligible. Depth is not required, but it's best to have taken basic courses, such as micro- and macroeconomics in business, calculus, linear algebra, and mathematical statistics in math, and Java, Python, SAS, R, and other statistical tools in computer science. In particular, programs housed in engineering or information schools have very high requirements for math and computing backgrounds.
Covering Three Disciplines: Good for Employment?
Is an Interdisciplinary Major Really the Best Shortcut to a Job?
Business Analytics vs. Statistics
Many people simply hear from others and blindly believe that BA, as an interdisciplinary field of math, computer science, and business management, must have broader job prospects compared to a pure field like statistics. Yet they don't think deeply about what business analytics actually does.
The emergence of BA stems from companies' current need for big data. In the past, businesses could use Excel for financial and market analysis, but now massive new data can help them understand consumers in all dimensions. Traditional business analysts would be overwhelmed by such large datasets—data so large that downloading it in Excel would crash the computer. Traditional BAs lacking statistical knowledge simply don't know how to analyze it.
Therefore, for BA, statistics is the tool and business is the goal; master the tool first to achieve the goal. In other words, you need a solid foundation before you can build a building.
What we want to tell you is: Don't insist on BA just to "get a job"; don't study BA just for the sake of studying BA.
For instance, if you choose statistics, study it enthusiastically and excellently, and then take some business courses, you will still be qualified for related jobs and may even have stronger employment competitiveness.
There's a saying: "Jack of all trades, master of none." When choosing BA, you still need to clearly know what you want. Although BA covers a wide range, if you lack interest and effort, you may end up weaker in statistics than pure stats majors, weaker in programming than DS or CS majors, and weaker in business than Marketing Analytics majors—that's a very awkward position! This is one reason why, despite BA's seemingly broad job prospects, we Chinese students often find that finding a job isn't really that simple. The BA craze may be irrational; for the sake of our futures, we should stay rational~
For more detailed information and application advice, feel free to scan the QR code at the bottom of our homepage for one-on-one consultation~
