The Master’s of Business Analytics course here at McCombs School of Business is a 10 month course beginning in the summer semester (beginning of July) — Being a short term course with a lot of curriculum to cover the course is pretty fast paced — so I’d say better come prepared! I know I wasn’t :)
Week 1 aka Intensive Week:
Week 1 was here at UT Austin though tiring was filled with loads of networking and practical learning opportunities.
Monday, Day-1: The week kicked off with the MSBA Program Director and Academic Co-ordinator welcoming us. We were also given name tags, bag, etc! YAY! Free goodiess! Also we had to dress up in Business Professionals, a first for me, but the Austin heat did not make it better, but I managed I guess.
Following this, we participated in a building community session that involved engaging in discussions about various social scenarios. In my group, there were five participants, consisting of four individuals from India and one from China. The cultural diversity within the group led to a fascinating cultural exchange and provided insights into how things operate in China, which was an eye-opening experience for all of us.
All three days we had a workshop on R programming as we use that for a course Intro to Machine Learning taught in the semester. A helpful resource that can help you learn a little bit of Statistic and R before coming here:
https://bookdown.org/jgscott/DSGI/
Thursday, Day-2: The day kicked off with a plagiarism workshop, like we will ever copy! Duh! And then began a very intersting seminar on communication and presentation, where we were given some pointers on how you can communicate effectively. You’ll imagine that a presentation on communication skills would now have me yawning but I was so sleepy; All fault is one me; No attentions span to attend a three hour long seminar! Post this we had to give a presentation with a group of 5 on remedies to increase the profits of a beer company! Texans love their beer! I think me and my friends ended up doing a decent enough jon after preparing for like 20 mins. This is us:
Friday ,Day-3: The final day of the I-week introduced us to the invaluable concept of “NETWORKING.” Though we’ve all heard about it before, its profound importance in this course was a revelation for me. Unlike Indian colleges, where the placement cell usually ensures job opportunities, here, we have relatively little assistance in that regard. The Career Management Division’s first session enlightened us on how they will support us in securing jobs and how we can utilize the university’s resources effectively.
Subsequently, we had the privilege of learning from industry leaders who shared their insights on deploying analytics in real-world company settings.
These sessions proved to be incredibly insightful and provided us with practical knowledge to excel in the field.
The day ended with a closing reception where all MSBA students had an opportunity to network with each other and there was good food and FREE BOOZE! Yay!
Look at us looking so happy, not knowing what is going to hit us:
I-week was just a beginning of a hetic 10 months. The week provided a lot of information, resources, and opportunities to build new connections. Stay tuned for the week ahead and wish me luck!