Review of applications for the MSA Class of 2012 has begun. The pace of applications is ahead of prior years and we expect to review as many as 200 potential candidates before filling the 40 seats available for the 2012 cohort. Finalists will be interviewed for admission during the spring. Admissions decisions will begin around April 1.
Author: Michael Rappa
Employers Line Up for Spring Visits
Employers have begun lining up to recruit from the MSA Class of 2011 next spring. Campus interview dates are filling rapidly, and it looks to be a strong hiring season despite the slow economic recovery. Many employers are returning to campus this year after recruiting from earlier classes. There is also a growing number of new employers coming to the Institute for the first time. Indications are strong that MSA job placement will exceed 90-percent by graduation for the fourth straight year.
Institute Hosts LSU Faculty
Today the Institute hosted a visit by a contingent of Louisiana State University faculty from the Department of Applied Statistics and the Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences, for a discussion of the MSA curriculum. Louisiana State is considering plans to revamp an existing M.S. in Information Systems and Decision Sciences into an analytics-focused degree modeled after the MSA. The LSU faculty met with Institute staff, faculty and a panel of MSA students for a daylong discussion about how the MSA degree is structured and delivered.
Kaur Selected for Leadership Program
Bank of America has selected MSA student Gurleen Kaur for its prestigious Quantitative Management Associate Program (QMAP). This is the second year in a row BoA has tapped a MSA student for QMAP. The program is designed to prepare future business leaders of BoA who are grounded with quantitative skills and experiences. Only about twenty candidates from the nation’s leading universities are selected to enter the QMAP program each year. Several of the bank’s top leaders in quantitative areas are alumni of the program. BoA also recruits MSA students for positions throughout the bank.
Director Discusses MSA Learning Model
The Institute’s director, Dr. Michael Rappa, spoke with a group of students and faculty at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge today about the MSA program. The MSA’s unique learning model has attracted a great deal of interest in LSU, following a visit to the Institute by the Deans of Agriculture and Business earlier in October.
Analytics Practicum Projects Kick-off
The MSA Class of 2011 Analytics Practicum projects are now off and running. Students are paired into eight teams of 4 or 5 members, and will work over the next seven months on a challenging business problem with real data from our corporate sponsors. This year’s sponsors are all new to the MSA program. They include: Allscripts, Dex One, Quaero, M&T Bank, Sharefile, Tekelec, and Trident Marketing. Continue reading “Analytics Practicum Projects Kick-off”
MSA Gains National Affiliation
The Institute’s Master of Science in Analytics (MSA) degree program has been designated as a Professional Science Masters (PSM) degree under a nationwide initiative sponsored by the Sloan Foundation and run by the Council of Graduate Schools, a national organization dedicated to the advancement of graduate education and research. Although not part of the initial PSM movement, the MSA had adopted through its own design many of the same guiding Continue reading “MSA Gains National Affiliation”
Director to Speak at Triangle AMA
The Institute’s director, Dr. Michael Rappa, will speak at a gathering of the Triangle Chapter of the American Marketing Association on Wednesday, October 20. Dr. Rappa’s talk, titled “Confessions of a Data Analyst,” will discuss the challenges of deriving meaningful insights from complex data and will offer useful advice to marketing professionals based on three decades of experience. The luncheon talk is part of a daylong program on Marketing Analytics.
Guest Lecture – John Brocklebank
We are delighted to have Dr. John Brocklebank, Vice President, SAS Institute and a distinguished alumnus of NC State to speak today with students in the Master of Science in Analytics (MSA) degree program. In his current executive position, Dr. Brocklebank oversees SAS Solutions OnDemand, Advanced Analytics Lab, SAS Drug Development, Education Value Added Assessment System (EVAAS) ASP educational testing (K-12), and is responsible for product R&D, marketing, sales, program management, IT, quality assurance, and documentation. Dr. Brocklebank joined SAS in 1981 after earning his Ph.D. in Statistics from NC State University. He is recipient of the 2009 SAS CEO Award of Excellence. Dr. Brocklebank is the author and many publications in statistics and several patents.
Gaddis Awarded Ott Scholarship
Congratulations to Marshall Gaddis, MSA Class of 2011, who has been awarded the Ellis R. Ott Scholarship for Applied Statistics and Quality Management from the Statistics Division of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Gaddis is a 2010 valedictorian and summa cum laude B.S. graduate of NC State University, where he majored in Statistics in the University Honors Program.
Executive Delivers Guest Lecture
Mr. Arun Pinto, Senior Vice President and Quality & Productivity Executive at Bank of America spoke with MSA students today, marking the successful end of the summer boot camp. Bank of America is actively engaged in the recruitment of our graduates, hiring three from the MSA Class of 2010, including one candidate as part of the company’s Quantitative Management Associate Program. The MSA program has a total of five alumni employed at Bank of America.
Guest Lecture – Scott Farris
The Institute is delighted to host Scott Farris as our special guest speaker today. Scott is Research Manager at the State Farm Research and Development Center, located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He leads a team of two-dozen actuarial professionals and student interns who work on pricing and reserving models and research on new analytical methods. A veteran employee of nearly 30 years, Scott joined Continue reading “Guest Lecture – Scott Farris”
Visiting Delegation from Singapore
Today the Institute hosted a visit by Mr. Christopher Chen and Mr. Ng Kai Koon, with of Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority, and Professor Yeow Meng Chee, Head of the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Technical University (NTU), Singapore to discuss the creation of an Analytics degree program in at NTU.
Studies Begin for Class of 2011
The MSA Class of 2011 began its 10-month journey this week. The cohort of 40 students was selected from a pool of 160 applicants. It is the most academically qualified MSA class to be admitted. The average undergraduate GPA is 3.50 (up from 3.28), and the number who graduated with academic honors increased by two-thirds over the 2010 class. Seventy-eight percent of the incoming class members are residents of Continue reading “Studies Begin for Class of 2011”
Job Placement Sets New Records
Despite the difficult economy demand for talent in Analytics remains strong. For the third consecutive year over 90 percent of the Institute’s graduates in the Master of Science in Analytics (MSA) had offers of employment in the profession within 30 days of graduation. Interest among employers in hiring MSA students reached new heights during the recruiting season this spring. Compared to last year, the Institute arranged twice the number of job interviews (347) and logged a record number of employer visits (38) for the class of 39 students. Students had an average of 10 interviews and two offers. One-quarter of the job seekers had 4 or more job offers. Continue reading “Job Placement Sets New Records”