What’s the Difference Between a Master’s in Business Analytics vs. Data Science?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that careers in data science and business analytics will grow much faster than other fields over the next decade. Which degree best suits you and your goals?

Business Analytics and Data Science: What’s the Difference?

You may have heard people use “data science” and “business analytics” interchangeably, but there are real and important differences between the two fields and their associated master’s programs. 

On the most basic level, you can think of the difference being that business analysts use data to draw meaningful conclusions and solve business problems with light use of coding. Data scientists, on the other hand, prepare data for analysis by writing algorithms and building statistical models through heavy use of coding.

To understand how these differences will impact your career trajectory, it helps to better understand each field and what you’ll learn in the pursuit of a graduate degree.

What is Business Analytics?

Business analytics includes the skills, technologies and practices used to investigate past business performance in order to gain insight and drive future business decisions. 

Analytics professionals identify historical business trends and determine the factors that influence them, identify likely outcomes and make recommendations to reach desired business goals. Nearly every industry uses these techniques to develop marketing strategies, increase sales, improve financial efficiency, streamline processes and increase productivity.

What Degree Do I Need to Work in Business Analytics?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, business analysts typically need at least a bachelor’s degree to get into the field, but some employers may also require a master’s degree. Though business analysts aren’t typically expected to earn a degree in a specific field, a strong background in finance, mathematics, statistics, economics, marketing or psychology can lend to your professional success.

A master’s degree in business analytics can help you learn the skills, programming languages and techniques you need for a career as a business analyst if your undergraduate degree didn’t prepare you for the role. A master’s degree can also help you pursue a business analytics position at the management level or higher.

What Do You Learn in a Business Analytics Graduate Program?

A graduate-level business analytics program is designed to help you become proficient in coding languages, like SQL, strengthen your skills in math and statistics, data mining and data visualization. You’ll use a wide range of tools and software programs while you study probability theory, statistical analysis, numerical methods, computation and simulation methods and others.

Career opportunities in business analytics can include:

• Analytics Manager
• Data Analyst
• Functional Analysts

What is Data Science?

Data scientists extract and analyze raw data in order to deliver structured data. On a day-to-day basis, data scientists are involved in extracting, formatting, analyzing and maintaining big data sets and typically work on the front end of the data collection and analysis process. 

Because data science includes the more specialized fields of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, data scientists must have strong coding and data manipulation skills.

What Degree Do I Need to Work in Data Science?

To get your foot in the door as a data scientist, you’ll need at least a bachelor’s degree in data science or another computer-related field, although most data science careers will require a master’s degree in computer science.

What Do You Learn in a Data Science Graduate Program?

A graduate program meant to prepare you for a career in data science will incorporate theoretical understanding with hands-on work, so you can learn the basics of computation and how to build the secure databases and systems that help the virtual world flourish. Courses typically include: