Rider To Offer Business Analytics Program This Spring

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — Rider University is the first private college or university in New Jersey that will offer a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program in business analytics, the university announced on Monday. It will begin offering the program in the spring.

The new major, which is offered through Rider's College of Business Administration, aims to prepare students for a highly in-demand, marketable career, as business analytics have become a corporate necessity across all industries.

The U.S. could face a shortage of experts with deep analytic and data skills in 2018, according to a widely cited report by McKinsey Global Institute. In launching this program, Rider said it hopes to help fill a critical need for professionals who can look creatively at data and distill it into valuable business insights.

Rider launched a minor in business analytics in 2016, but Rider College of Business Administration Dean Cynthia Newman said the college wanted to provide a more comprehensive course of study.

“The new bachelor’s program is designed to provide students with rigorous, multidisciplinary training so they can turn data into actionable insights,” Newman said. “Graduates of this program will be able to articulately communicate these insights to improve business decision making.”

Students can customize their course study by taking electives within the six tracks available: marketing, finance, programming, statistics, global supply chain management or health care management. Each specific track allows students to prepare themselves for careers as operations research analysts, market research analysts, management analysts and finance analysts.

The business analytics major will also emphasize experiential learning, which is a main facet of Rider’s Engaged Learning Program. In addition to multiple projects embedded in certain required courses, students will complete a capstone course in which they will solve a real business problem and communicate their findings to a real-world client.

“We want to ensure students in this program can showcase the skills they’re developing in the classroom in a real-life situation,” Newman said. “Business analytics majors will be thoroughly prepared to help businesses make better decisions using a variety of statistical and quantitative methods.”

For more information about the business analytics major, contact Dr. William Amadio at amadio@rider.edu or 609-896-5254.

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