School of Business announces new analytics major

USD becomes one of first schools in country that allows students to major in business analytics

Tyler Pugmire / News Editor / The USD Vista

After months of discussions, the USD School of Business officially announced that, coming in Fall 2021, it will offer an undergraduate business analytics major.

USD was the first college in Southern California to offer the business analytics minor, and is joining less than 100 universities around the country in offering the major to students.

The School of Business website states that there has been an increased number of businesses and alumni that saw a need for data analytics students who also had a working knowledge of the foundations of business. 

Previously, the school had only offered the two-year masters program for business analytics, and this new change could allow for students to get their foot in the door without sacrificing two extra years of tuition. 

Junior Tony Le expressed his excitement for USD’s business school to join other schools across the country such as MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Texas-Austin in offering a business analytics major. 

“The business analytics major as an addition to the business school is an improvement, showing the quality of our school as well as the growth of programs for business students at USD,” Le said.

The extra curriculum that comes with adding a major will be added in Fall 2021. This means most first-year or sophomore students on the business path can still be on track to graduate while declaring as business analytics majors. 

Unfortunately, students in similar sectors who are juniors or seniors are not able to receive distinction as business analytics majors. 

Le, who is majoring in business economics, said his frustrations with the current business analytics minor could be exacerbated by the announcement of the new major. 

“For the business analytics minor, there is an overlap with business economics electives, and a class that is an elective for both programs will not be able to count for both requirements in order to graduate with distinction,” Le said.

As more companies are on the hunt for analytics-based jobs, even if the major is very similar to the current version of business economics, the currently-enrolled students in the business economics program fear they will be at a disadvantage and that their program could lose their enrollment numbers.

“If they add the major, there’s definitely going to be overlap in terms of the classes some people take, so my worry is if there will be fewer students that are declared as business economics, as having a business analytics distinction is probably more beneficial for students,” Le said.

For reference, every single elective that is available in order to fulfill the current business analytics minor are the exact same electives that count toward a business economics major.

The business school has begun to promote the new major, and there will be an information session on March 18 for all prospective students of the new major.