Gain Real-World Experience
Graduate from the online MS in Analytics program ready to solve real business challenges.
Analytics Practicums
The Analytics@American program is dedicated to ensuring our students graduate prepared with the skills and connections needed to succeed in their analytics roles. Our in-person practicum experience provides students with hands-on analytics experience working with real-world data. Students will also participate in company site visits where they can make connections in a variety of industries. The virtual practicum is to be completed first, then an in-person practicum is completed in the last semester for the Business Analytics program.
Partnerships with Top Corporations
Outcome-Focused Curriculum
Real-World Data Experience
During each three- to four-day practicum, students get to explore the unique culture of business in the nation’s capital while immersing themselves in the AU community and working on their capstone project.
Practicums comprise company visits with our corporate partners, talks from business leaders, and collaboration with classmates on the capstone project. By the end of the practicums, students gain experience solving real-world business data challenges for a real company and are ready to apply the skills learned to their careers.
2 Practicums
3-4 Days
1.5 Credit Hours Each
Practicums occur during the final terms of the program and are taken in consecutive terms in September, March, or June. Early in the term, prior to attending the practicum, students complete asynchronous independent course work that prepares them for the in-person component, where they will further develop and practice the skills learned throughout the program.
Students are responsible for all practicum travel and accommodation expenses and arrangements. Program fees will be assessed for direct program expenses, and all practicum experiences carry 1.5 credit hours and the related tuition.
What to Expect
Designed to enhance students’ networks and access to key resources in the area, the program partners with top corporations and organizations in Washington, DC’s unique business landscape.
Each organization provides students with real data sets to analyze and solve complex problems. Students have the opportunity to present their findings and defend their reasoning. Through these experiences, students gain tangible skills in data analysis and management as well as develop close connections.
Practicums are designed to prepare students to:
- Form an understanding of a specific business and its broader industry
- Evaluate business problems and develop appropriate solutions
- Identify available data to leverage and recommend which sources to use
- Download and array data
- Analyze variables and run core descriptive statistics
- Deal with missing or bad data
- Understand how to transform variables in preparation for modeling
- Choose a final model
- Implement the final model
- Present analysis and recommendation
Practicum I (Virtual)
In the first course of a two-course sequence, students learn to understand the partner, the data, and how to prepare the data.
This practicum puts into practice all the analytics concepts covered in the online MS in Analytics program. Students use descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics and models, tools, and methods to develop multidisciplinary business insights from data. They utilize skills that enable them to present solutions to problems and provide answers to business questions in various business disciplines through hands-on exercises and an immersive term project.
Main Focus: The first three primary stages of analysis that often define success or failure: (1) developing a detailed understanding of the business and the problem to be addressed, (2) understanding the data that is available to help address the business problem, and (3) preparing the data for statistical modeling.
Practicum II (In-person in Washington, DC)
In Practicum II, students extend into modeling, analysis, and deploying the data to the business need.
This practicum puts into practice all the analytics concepts covered in the MS in Analytics program. Students use descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics and models, tools, and methods to develop multidisciplinary business insights from data. They utilize skills that enable them to present solutions to problems and provide answers to business questions in various business disciplines through hands-on exercises and an immersive term project.
Main Focus: The final three stages of analysis: (1) The core statistical modeling work to address the business problem; (2) Evaluation of the performance of those models, and selection of a final model; and (3) Deploying the model into a business strategy for the partner company.
Explore a Past Practicum
At a past practicum in partnership with Capital One, AU students had to use machine learning in R to reduce the total number of e-mails sent to former customers while still maintaining 80 percent of the current response rate. Using predictive analytics, students developed a model, after organizing the data, to identify the most high-intent former customers to target with these e-mails.
The Result: Capital One can send fewer e-mails in total and maintain the same response rate.
Sample Practicum II Itinerary
The following is a sample schedule of a Practicum I experience and is subject to change.
Optional Early Event
Evening:
- Optional Networking Event
Day 1
Morning:
- Check-in and breakfast
- Kick-off and speaker event
- Break
Afternoon:
- Site visit
- Project work
- Practicum dinner
Day 2
Morning:
- Breakfast
- Tour of campus
- Project work
Afternoon:
- Speaker event and lunch
- Project work
- Career panel
- Project work
- Free evening
Day 3
Morning:
- Breakfast
- Team management workshop
Afternoon:
- Working lunch and presentations
- Wrap up and launch Practicum II
Learn More about Analytics@American
Explore how the online MS in Analytics program can prepare you with the skills and exposure needed to advance your career.