Demystifying MIT: Answering the Top 5 Questions about the Masters of Business Analytics
Opinions from an alum
I graduated from MIT’s Masters of Business Analytics (MBAn) program in 2021 and now work as a Data Scientist at Meta. I often get asked about my experience in the program, and rather than repeat the same answers each time I figured it’d be more efficient to jot down these thoughts in a sharable format.
Also, I help prospective students and new grads with interviews and resume consulting — if you’re interested, let’s link up.
Before I start, take a read through the actual FAQ from the official MIT MBAn page. Most of the operational questions are likely answered here already.
Without further ado, here are my opinions on the top questions (as ranked by Google Search).
- Is the MBAn program worth it?
This question is clearly subjective, but I’d argue that most students will find it very worth.
Cliche, but the community is tight and the peers are brilliant. The class size is relatively modest — my cohort was 60 students, though the program has expanded in recent years. We all lived close by in Cambridge (both on and off-campus), where weekdays were spent drilling through psets and weekends were filled with shenanigans. You’re surrounded by some very smart people, and it’s not uncommon to see peers dive into their own startup. Honestly, just doing the program for the people and connections is worth.
Financially, the program has a tuition cost of around $60,000 (similar to other programs), but after factoring in stipends from doing (optional) on-campus research, the net cost is surprisingly affordable. During my time at MIT, I did three semesters of part-time research netting around $22,000 in income, plus some additional relocation and COVID benefits brought the academic cost to under $30,000. However, Cambridge has high living expenses — I shared a 2B1B with a roommate and paid $2000+ each month including food.
Also, the MBAn employment report is publicly available, which is not always the case for other top programs. If you’re like most students, you can expect a leap in expected earnings — for me this was about a 2x increase in salary. Prior to MIT I had an offer to join Amazon’s finance team, but decided to pivot into tech after joining the MBAn program. Career outcomes are industry-leading and you’ll have a lot of direct access to recruiters at top companies.
2. Is the MBAn program good?
Objectively, yes the program is good.
However, the program name is misleading — it’s about 20% business and 80% analytics. It’s much more data science than it is business analytics, though I suspect the naming justification was a strictly political affair. Regardless — you’re learning and working with some of the smartest people in the world. It’s consistently ranked as the top program in its area and is more technically-focused compared to its peers.
The capstone experience is arguably one of the best in its field, as each project is owned by only two students and return offers from the sponsors are common. Other programs may be stretched too thin with groups of four to five students. It’s also one of the few programs that offers research opportunities, and about half the students in my class did research or teaching assistantships. If you’re particularly motivated you can aim to stay and continue for a Ph.D., though this was less than a few students each year.
3. Is the MBAn hard?
Yes.
For perspective, I did my undergrad at a run-of-the-mill state university (UNL), where I found classes to be relatively easy and probably ranked in the top 1% of students. At MIT, I was definitely in the bottom half in terms of academics. Classes and homework are just straight up more intense and imposter syndrome is a common occurrence.
The curriculum balances both theoretical and practical learning, with the first semester being the most time-constrained and technically challenging for most students. You’ll take several ML and optimization courses, plus an applied project with a company sponsor. For students that do research on the side, that’s another 10–20 hour/week commitment. Pretty much all the textbooks, research papers, and psets are written by MIT professors or Ph.D. students, which is both a blessing and a curse. Luckily, all classes have extremely brilliant TA’s that are generous with their time.
Second semester is a lot more flexible and likely less stressful — you’ll apply the theory you learned in the first semester to your 7-month long capstone project, and the elective classes are pretty much choose-your-own-adventure. I took a mix of technical ML and business classes (e.g. NLP and Digital PM), and you can cross-register at Harvard if anything looks interesting (e.g. Statistics).
4. What is the acceptance rate?
Specific numbers aren’t published here, but each year the program receives over a thousand applications. My cohort had 60 students, so the acceptance rate is likely between 6 to 8 percent.
The class profile is posted online, though it does shift slightly year over year. Most students come from STEM backgrounds and have substantial experience with either industry, internships, and/or research.
5. Am I a good fit for the MBAn program?
Maybe! Some things to consider…
Are you confident in your quantitative and coding skills?
- Many of the courses will pull knowledge from calculus and linear algebra and utilize Python/R. If you’ve never programmed before, the learning curve will definitely be steeper, but you also don’t need to be an expert coder. For reference, I took a couple CS classes in undergrad and did a few summer side projects in Python.
Do you have a history of strong academic performance?
- GPA isn’t everything, but it’s definitely correlated with success. The median over the years is 3.9 — if you’re much lower than this I’d imagine it’d raise some eyebrows.
Do you want a career in data science/machine learning?
- The vast majority of students graduate and enter industry, with a skew towards technical roles within tech (Meta/Google) and consulting (BCG/McKinsey). If you’re aiming for an eventual Ph.D. payoff, you may want to look elsewhere.
The official website has lots of information for prospective students. If you have specific questions about the strength of your profile/experience, we can connect and discuss.
If you’ve gotten to the end of this article, I assume you’re quite interested in analytics and tech. I do interview and resume consulting — if you’re interested, let’s connect. Also, if you have unanswered questions, let me know and I can do a followup. Thanks for reading!
All information listed above is solely my opinion and does not express the thoughts of MIT or the MBAn program.
