Brandeis International Business School

Why did you choose Brandeis for your MSBA degree?

Having smaller classes is a competitive advantage for Brandeis International Business School. At a big university, there are hundreds of students in a class. It’s hard to attract professor’s attention and get involved in the discussions. At Brandeis, I had a really close connection with my professors and classmates, as well as staff advisors and career coaches.

I also had the opportunity to be president of the Data Analytics Club and create a series of workshops to introduce other students to programming languages like R and Python. I was able to get a clearer picture of what this industry is about, and I made some good connections with professionals during workshops and competitions.

Tell us about your internships.

I actually did two internships during the 16-month program. Last summer I worked as a forecasting analyst at Micromeritics, a company in Atlanta that makes material characterization instruments. There was lots of coding, and Professor Blake LeBaron’s forecasting class was very useful. I also helped the marketing team build a data visualization dashboard for showing trends in application and industry information for their product lines. And in the fall I did another internship at ABclonal in Woburn, Massachusetts, working as a business analyst to help manage their sales force CRM platform and figure out how to call and email customers in the most efficient manner. Now I’m hoping to land a position after graduation as a marketing, business or data analyst.

How would you describe the atmosphere at Brandeis?

I really like the environment. There are people from all over the world and we all have different backgrounds. There are no communication barriers at Brandeis. People are really open-minded and love to share their experiences and cultures and learn about others. The school-wide events like the Winter Formal and the Global Gala play a crucial role in keeping all of us connected.

What would you say to people who are thinking of applying to Brandeis?

Be yourself, show your character to people and don’t be afraid to ask questions or participate in all kinds of events, even those you don’t know anything about. You never know what you might become interested in. The workload is intense, but people here are really friendly and help each other a lot.