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Hi all, I'm deciding between Columbia's Masters of Science in Business Analytics and University of Michigan's Masters of Science in Data Science program. Since they are in different industries, I'm very conflicted. I got waitlisted from NYU and UW Data Science, got accepted to Cornell's MPS in Applied Statistics (Data Science), ORIE at Cornell Tech, and Georgetown Analytics. Economics major and Statistics minor at a top 3 liberal arts college, with some cs background (3 CS classes, As, and software engineering coding bootcamp) and involved in some research (data stuff, not my own research but for professors/post docs). I think my end goal is working as a data scientist at a consulting/finance firm, but I'm open to other data science roles. Not interested in PhD. I was leaning towards Michigan because of technical complexity, so I'll have a wide variety of career options, but everyone's telling me to choose Columbia because of its name value, resources, and geographical advantage (i.e. recruiting and networking). I have a week to decide - any advice/input would be appreciated!!! Thank you! +) I am thinking of trying to transfer to Columbia or NYU Data Science; in that case, which decision is better? Transferring from Columbia's business analytics to Columbia Data Science, or UMich Data Science to Columbia Data Science? I heard Columbia DS program admits transfer students during spring semester, but I'm not sure how the program will like an applicant from business analytics, since it is not technical enough?

Thanks, I'll look into it! I also considered PM at some point - if you want to become a product manager, I think Cornell Tech will be a better fit. Their curriculum looks like they're teaching right enough technical stuff for PMs but has an emphasis on entrepreneurship and products. From what I heard from my PM friends, knowledge about product development etc. seemed more important than cs/statistics, and you'll gain just enough amount of technical materials from the program while being involved in projects/studio classes!

Regarding Cornell's Applied Statistics, I'm not a big fan of Ithaca. But I heard Cornell's ORIE department is prestigious and if you're interested in PhD it would definitely be a better option. Cornell Tech's ORIE is really interesting, and they offered me a merit scholarship (10k). But I somehow liked Columbia better, and honestly, I don't know why. Probably operations research vs. business analytics, and Columbia's concentration in financial technology. I want to do something at the intersection of finance and technology. Hope this helps!

Thank you so much for your reply. I wish I could know about post-graduation placement, but I'm the first batch of Michigan's Data Science program and second of Columbia's. Columbia's first batch hasn't graduated, unfortunately. Could you look into this Columbia's curriculum (https://msba.engineering.columbia.edu/content/curriculum) and let me know if it would be technical enough? I am planning on doing double-concentration in fin tech and algorithms, or just take more technical classes in algorithms/cs department if a more technical background is needed. Everyone I have talked to (and my guts too) is telling me to go to Michigan, but somehow Columbia's name value and opportunities (name value, friends, networking, life quality, or maybe I can get a data science internship during school) are hard to let go. Michigan's program is extremely technical, half of the curriculum being from statistics and the other half from eecs. But Columbia's program seems more like from Operations Research (IEOR), and I am curious to know if this coursework would be enough (I will definitely work hard to look into internships etc) to get a job as a data scientist. Thank you so much!

Hi all, I'm deciding between Columbia's Masters of Science in Business Analytics and University of Michigan's Masters of Science in Data Science program. Since they are in different industries, I'm very conflicted. I got waitlisted from NYU and UW Data Science, got accepted to Cornell's MPS in Applied Statistics (Data Science), ORIE at Cornell Tech, and Georgetown Analytics. Still waiting from Brown, PENN, LSE Data Science. Economics major and Statistics minor at a top 3 liberal arts college, with some cs background. I think my end goal is working as a data scientist at a consulting/finance firm, but I'm open to other data science roles. Not interested in PhD. I was leaning towards Michigan because of technical complexity, so I'll have a wide variety of career options, but everyone's telling me to choose Columbia because of its name value, resources, and geographical advantage (i.e. recruiting and networking). I have a week to decide - any advice/input would be appreciated!!! Thank you!