Strategic Analytics

The 30-credit Strategic Analytics program has seven required courses and three electives. Required courses provide students with a focused education surrounding fundamental topics in the field, while electives build upon specific professional skillsets and allow students to enrich and round out their studies.

Sample Fall 2018 curriculum

Please note that available courses are subject to change.

Required courses

• Foundations of Data Science and Analytics
• Business Intelligence, Analytics and Strategic Decision Making
• Statistics and Data Analysis
• Strategic Analytics and Visualization for Big Data
• Predictive Analytics
• Data Quality and Governance
• Analytics Strategy and Management

Sample electives

• Project Management for Analytics
• Data Security, Privacy and Ethics
• Marketing and Customer Analytics
• Project Management for Analytics

View a complete list of program requirements.

View tuition and financing options. 

Businesses, governments, and institutions across the globe are collecting and analyzing unprecedented amounts of data, and that trend is expected to grow exponentially. With the world already facing a shortage of analysts capable of designing and executing complex data analysis, experts in data collection, management and analysis are integral to organizational success. 

Strategic Analytics students often hold job titles such as:

• Project Consultant
• Compliance Manager
• Data Architect and Scientist
• Marketing Consultant
• Data Analyst
• Senior IT Manager
• Project Manager
• Business Intelligence Functional Manager
• Customer Account Manager
• Principal Data Architect
• Senior Director of Business Development

The program is 55% male and 45% female.

27 students have graduated from the program since it launched in 2013.

96 students are currently working toward their Strategic Analytics degree.

“As an online learner at Brandeis GPS, I found the coursework and support resources convenient and accommodating. In fact, I rarely felt as though my studies were an interruption. What I learned was immediately applicable, and I continue every day to benefit from the understanding the courses gave me.”
— Scott Paddock, GPS Student (read more student testimonials here)

Our Strategic Analytics faculty understand the challenges of modern industry. Whether they’re leveraging the latest technologies to manage large datasets or using big data findings to counsel executive leadership, they structure their GPS curriculum to draw on real-world expertise and connections that ultimately help our students advance their career goals. Here is a sampling of our Strategic Analytics faculty:

• Annie Shebanow has many years of software engineering and business leadership experience. She holds a Doctorate of Computer Science degree. As a lead faculty, Annie has managed a Computer Science Department and taught graduate level courses at Colorado Technical University (CTU). She has worked with doctoral students at CTU online as a dissertation committee member, and designed courses in IT networking and Big Data Analytics for various universities. On the business side, Annie has founded five technology companies. 
• Travis Dawry earned a B.A. in Political Science with a focus on International Relations and Comparative Politics from the University of Central Florida in 2009. Since then he has worked in a variety of government organizations, most recently as a Library Specialist for Broward County, located in South Florida. His language of choice for analytics, and everything else, is R. Travis earned a Master of Science in Strategic Analytics from Brandeis University in the Spring of 2016, and is now an instructor at the Brandeis Rabb School. He currently splits his time between South Florida and Atlanta, Georgia, where he lives with a veterinarian, a dog, and two cats.
• Paul Dooley, PhD, is a Director with the United Nations in New York, NY, where he is currently the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund. In addition to his work in administering this global financial institution with assets of over $60 billion, he also leads teams of analytics professionals in descriptive and predictive analytics-based initiatives. As a former Chief Information Officer (CIO) he has used analytics techniques to deliver value for such institutions as Citigroup, Guardian Bank and the United Nations. As an academic, Dr. Dooley's research interests have led him to explore and uncover the attributes, constructs, and factors associated with successful analytics-based systems implementations.

Visit the Rabb School faculty directory for a full list of Brandeis GPS faculty.