Pre-Skills

View Recording of June 27, 2025 MSBA Academic Pre-skills Student Chat with Academic Director

Students join the Smith School with a variety of technical skills and educational and professional backgrounds. In the MS in Business Analytics program, students will use Python, R, SQL, and Tableau in their first semester. Incoming students do not need to be proficient with these tools prior to the start of classes, however, having some prior experience will be helpful. The resources below have been compiled to assist incoming students with preparing for their master's coursework.

UMD students have unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning, an online library of instructional videos covering the latest software, creative, and business skills.

MS in Business Analytics students must have the following software ready to use on their personal computers before the first day of class:

Incoming students do not need to be proficient with these tools prior to the start of classes, however, having some prior experience will be helpful. 

MS in Business Analytics students will also be utilizing the following software in their first fall:

  • Lumivero (formerly Palisades) Decision Tools Suite (including AMPL and @Risk; access at http://vsmith.umd.edu; can be downloaded to a Windows-compatible personal computer with code from instructor)  
  • SQL (access at http://vsmith.umd.edu)

 

Required Pre-Semester In-Person Workshop

There will be an in-person workshop offered for BUDT 730: Data Models and Decisions with Professor Sujin Kim. This workshop will provide a good foundation for success in this course. This workshop is required and provided at no cost during New Student Orientation.

 

Required Pre-Semester Asynchronous Courses 

First semester courses will focus on analytical principles to guide complex decision-making. A strong understanding of basic business math, basis statistics, and spreadsheet skills will be critical to successfully completing the semester. Students who do not already have a strong familiarity with these topics should complete the following no later than August 17, 2025:

 

Required Pre-Semester Online Synchronous Workshops

The Smith Master Student Association (SMSA), together with the Masters Programs Office, frequently hosts Academic Skill-Building Workshops for current students. There will be three sessions offered that are required for incoming MS in Business Analytics students who do not have prior experience with these topics. 

Workshop 1: Introduction to Data Science with Python Workshop

Content includes:
-- Basic programming in Python
-- Reading different file formats in Python
-- Data Manipulation: Exploration and Cleaning NumPy and pandas
-- Data Visualization with seaborn
-- Saving different file formats in Python

Date: Sunday, August 3, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon 
Registration URL: Coming Soon

Workshop 2: Introduction to Data Science with R Workshop

Content includes:
-- Basic programming in R
-- Reading different file formats in R
-- Data Manipulation: Exploration and Cleaning dplyr and tidyr
-- Data Visualization with ggplot
-- Saving different file formats in R

Date: Sunday, August 10
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon 
Registration URL: Coming Soon

Workshop 3: Introduction to Structured Query Language (SQL)

Content will include:
-- Basic SQL concepts
-- How to access and manipulate data with SQL

Date: Sunday, August 17
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon 
Registration URL: Coming Soon

 

Optional Asynchronous Assignments and Reading

Incoming students do not need to be proficient with all of these tools prior to the start of classes, however, having some prior experience could help them learn more effectively.