Online Applied Business Analytics Graduate Certificate
The online Graduate Certificate in Applied Business Analytics provides comprehensive coverage of data analytics concepts, techniques, and state-of-the-art tools used in the process of data-driven business decision-making. Students have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with a variety of analytical models and decision-support tools and to apply them to interlinked data-inputs and large data sets in the areas of marketing, operations, product and technology innovations, financial services, human resources management, and others. The curriculum covers advanced software tools and functions such as predictive modeling, text and data mining, visual analytics, simulations, and OLAP tables. Graduates of the program will be able to analyze data-driven business processes, select appropriate analytical methods to monitor and identify performance issues, and propose optimal data-based solutions.
Students who complete the Graduate Certificate in Applied Business Analytics will be able to demonstrate:
- The knowledge and skills to better utilize available information in operational, tactical, and strategic decision making in organizations.
- The ability to apply various powerful emerging technologies and techniques for increasing the value of both in-house and third party data sets.
- An understanding of how organizations are using interlinked data-inputs, analytics models, and decision-support tools to better understand their operations, customers, and markets.
- The skills to understand web analytics and metrics, procure and process unstructured text, and delve into their hidden patterns.
- The expertise to facilitate knowledge discovery using data mining and visualization techniques over vast amounts of data.
Awards & Accreditations
Newsweek magazine ranked Boston University’s online programs #4 in the nation in its 2023 survey.
Why Choose BU’s Graduate Certificate in Applied Business Analytics?
- Boston University certificate programs comprise just four courses (16 credits) and provide essential skills and capabilities in high-growth industry areas. Certificate programs also provide a pathway to Metropolitan College management degree programs.
- Learning from expert faculty from MET’s Department of Administrative Sciences, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the concepts, techniques, and state-of-the-art tools used in the process of data-driven business decision-making—an area of burgeoning need in today’s marketplace.
- Online certificate programs share courses and instructors with MET’s master’s degree programs in management, ranked #6 among the nation’s Best Online Master's in Business Programs (Excluding MBA) by U.S. News & World Report in 2024.
Meet Dr. Vladimir Zlatev, one of the faculty members you’ll work with in the Applied Business Analytics program.
Career Outlook
Management Analysts
10% increase in jobs through 2032
$95,290 median annual pay in 2022
Financial Analysts
8% increase in jobs through 2032
$96,220 median annual pay in 2022
Market Research Analysts
13% increase in jobs through 2032
$68,230 median annual pay in 2022
Mathematicians and Statisticians
30% increase in jobs through 2032
$99,960 median annual pay in 2022
Operations Research Analysts
23% increase in jobs through 2032
$85,720 median annual pay in 2022
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/home.htm (visited September 06, 2023).
Employment for management analysts is projected to grow 10% from 2022-2032, much faster than average for all occupations.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Tuition & Financial Assistance
Money Matters
Boston University Metropolitan College (MET) offers competitive tuition rates that meet the needs of part-time students seeking an affordable education. These rates are substantially lower than those of the traditional, full-time residential programs yet provide access to the same high-quality BU education. To learn more about current tuition rates, visit the MET website.
Financial Assistance
Comprehensive financial assistance services are available at MET, including scholarships, graduate loans, and payment plans. There is no cost to apply for financial assistance, and you may qualify for a student loan regardless of your income. Learn more.
Curriculum
Boston University’s Graduate Certificate in Applied Business Analytics consists of four required online courses (16 credits).
Students who earn the Graduate Certificate in Applied Business Analytics may waive MET AD 616, MET AD 654, and MET AD 688 for the Boston University Metropolitan College Master of Science in Applied Business Analytics degree program.
As a prerequisite to the course MET AD 571 Business Analytics Foundations, applicants are required to complete MET AD 100 Pre-Analytics Laboratory and MET ADR 100 Introduction to R for Business. MET AD 571 is a prerequisite for MET AD 616, MET AD 654, MET AD 688, and MET AD 699. Some courses may have additional prerequisites.
Courses
(Four courses/16 credits)
METAD571 Business Analytics Foundations
Prereq: AD100 Pre-Analytics Laboratory and ADR100 Introduction to R
This course presents fundamental knowledge and skills for applying business analytics to managerial decision-making in corporate environments. Topics include descriptive analytics (techniques for categorizing, characterizing, consolidating, and classifying data for conversion into useful information for the purposes of understanding and analyzing business performance), predictive analytics (techniques for detection of hidden patterns in large quantities of data to segment and group data into coherent sets in order to predict behavior and trends), prescriptive analytics (techniques for identification of best alternatives for maximizing or minimizing business objectives). Students will learn how to use data effectively to drive rapid, precise, and profitable analytics-based decisions. The framework of using interlinked data inputs, analytics models, and decision-support tools will be applied within a proprietary business analytics shell and demonstrated with examples from different functional areas of the enterprise. R, SQL, and Power BI software are used in this course. [4 credits]
Plus three chosen from the following:
METAD616 Enterprise Risk Analytics
Prereq: METAD571
The course offers an overview of the key current and emerging enterprise risk analytical approaches used by corporations and governmental institutions and is focused on understanding and implementing the enterprise risk management framework on how to leverage the opportunities around a firm to increase firm value. The major risk categories of the enterprise risk management such as financial risk, strategic risk, and operational risk will be discussed and risk analytics approaches for each of these risks will be covered. Students will learn how to use interlinked data inputs, analytics models, business statistics, optimization techniques, simulation, and decision-support tools. An integrated enterprise risk analytics approach will be demonstrated with examples from different functional areas of the enterprise. R, SQL, and Power BI software are used in this course. [4 credits]
METAD654 Marketing Analytics
Prereq: METAD571
Become familiar with the foundations of modern marketing analytics and develop your ability to select, apply, and interpret readily available data on customer purchase behavior, new customer acquisition, current customer retention, and marketing mix optimization. This course explores approaches and techniques to support the managerial decision-making process and skills in using state-of-the- art statistical and analytics tools. Students will have an opportunity to gain a basic understanding of how transaction and descriptive data are used to construct customer segmentation schemas, build and calibrate predictive models, and quantify the incremental impact of specific marketing actions. Python, R, SQL, and Power BI software are used in this course. [4 credits]
METAD688 Web Analytics for Business
Prereq AD100, ADR100, AD571
Explore web analytics, text mining, web mining, and practical application domains. The web analytics part of the course studies the metrics of websites, their content, user behavior, and reporting. The Google Analytics tool is used for the collection of website data and doing the analysis. The text mining module covers the analysis of text including content extraction, string matching, clustering, classification, and recommendation systems. The web mining module presents how web crawlers process and index the content of websites, how search works, and how results are ranked. Application areas mining the social web and game metrics will be extensively investigated. R, SQL, and Power BI software are used in this course. [4 credits]
METAD699 Data Mining for Business Analytics
Prereqs: AD100,ADR100,AD571
Enterprises, organizations, and individuals are creating, collecting, and using a massive amount of structured and unstructured data with the goal to convert the information into knowledge, improving the quality and the efficiency of their decision-making process, and better positioning themselves in the highly competitive marketplace. Data mining is the process of finding, extracting, visualizing, and reporting useful information and insights from both small and large datasets with the help of sophisticated data analysis methods. It is part of business analytics, which refers to the process of leveraging different forms of analytical techniques to achieve desired business outcomes through requiring business relevancy, actionable insight, performance management, and value management. The students in this course will study the fundamental principles and techniques of data mining. They will learn how to apply advanced models and software applications for data mining. Finally, students will learn how to examine the overall business process of an organization or a project with the goal to understand (i) the business context where hidden internal and external value is to be identified and captured, and (ii) exactly what the selected data mining method does. R, SQL, and Power BI software are used in this course. [4 credits]
Vladimir Zlatev
Associate Professor of the Practice of Administrative Sciences
PhD, MS, BS, Dresden University of Technology
Krystie Dickson
Lecturer, Administrative Sciences
MS, Boston University
MS, The Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business, University of the West Indies
BS, University of the West Indies
Benjamin P. Harris
Assistant Professor, Administrative Sciences
PhD, MS, BS, Northeastern University
View all Faculty
Christopher Athaide
Assistant Professor, Administrative Sciences
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
BTech, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai
Gregory Page
Lecturer
MBA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MEd, Harvard University
BA, Stanford University
David Ritt
Lecturer, Administrative Sciences
MS, Boston University; BA, University of Chicago
Aidar Orunkhanov
Lecturer, Administrative Sciences
Data Strategy Partner, Decile
MA, University of Illinois; BA, Ohio Wesleyan University
Roman Rabinovich
Lecturer, Administrative Sciences
Director, Customer & Strategic Analytics, PTC
PhD, Grenoble School of Management, France; MS, Boston University; BA, Pace University
Patrick Tyson
Lecturer, Administrative Sciences
Data Scientist, Prime Therapeutics
MS, Boston University; BA, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
Getting Started
To learn more or to contact an enrollment advisor before you get started, request information using the button below and tell us a little about yourself. Someone will be in touch to answer any questions you may have about the program and detail the next steps in earning your degree. You can also start your application or register for a course at Metropolitan College.