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Degree Requirements

The MBA/MSDS Joint Degree is designed to be completed in five semesters. Students focus on MBA coursework in their first year, along with one MSDS core class, and then explore MSDS along with the MBA in their second year. Both degrees are issued at the end of Summer, year two.

Sample Curriculum

Fall of 1st year

  • GSM 5103: Data Analysis, Modeling and Decision Making
  • GSM 5104: Managing Individuals, Teams and Organizations
  • GSM 5105: Accounting for Managers
  • GSM 5108: PACE I
  • GSM 5111: Economics and Finance I

Spring of 1st year

  • GSM 5107: Marketing: Creating Satisfied Customers
  • GSM 5109: PACE II
  • GSM 5112: Economics and Finance II
  • GSM 5114: Operations and Systems Management
  • DATA 502: Data Visualization and Presentation

Summer of 1st Year

  • GSM 7251: Internship for Management

Fall of 2nd year

  • GSM 6121: Politics and Public Policy for Managers
  • GSM Elective
  • DATA 501: Foundations of Data Science with R
  • CS 501: Python Programming for Data Science

Spring of 2nd year

  • GSM 6123: Strategic Management
  • GSM Elective
  • DATA 503: Fundamentals of Data Engineering
  • DATA 505: Applied Machine Learning

Summer of 2nd year

  • DATA 510: Capstone
  • DATA 513: Advanced Data Engineering OR DATA 515: Advanced Machine Learning
  • GSM Elective
  • GSM Elective

Summary of requirements:

  1. All core MBA ECCC, 4 GSM electives (including at least 1 experiential GSM elective, and 1 DS-eligible GSM elective)
  2. All core DATA classes (except DATA 504W) and either DATA 513 or DATA 515
  3. Internship for credit, usually completed in the summer after the first year

DS-Eligible electives:

  • GSM 6020: Marketing Analytics
  • GSM 6030: Coding and Automation
  • GSM 6216: Business and Economic Forecasting
  • GSM 6004: E-Commerce and Digital Marketing
  • GSM 6260: Research for Marketing Decisions

MBA Course Descriptions MSDS Course Descriptions

Willamette University

Willamette University