Columbia MSBA Curriculum: Courses, Electives & Concentrations

The MSBA program is a three-semester STEM program that can be completed within 12 months. The program is in partnership with two Columbia Business School divisions: Decision, Risk, and Operations (DRO) and Marketing.

Students enter in the Fall term and can finish as soon as the following August, or engage in a summer internship to complete the program by the end of the following Fall. Students are required to take the equivalent of 12 three-credit courses (36 credits), in the following areas:

  • a minimum of 18 credits within Columbia Engineering, IEOR Department
     
  • a minimum of 15 credits within the Columbia Business School; see the listing of historically approved Business School courses
     
  • and the remaining courses (if any) can be taken from Columbia’s other graduate schools, including the School of International and Public Affairs or the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Students are also required to attend a year-long, zero-credit IEOR E4598 Business Analytics Practitioners Seminar Series course (sample syllabus). 

A program plan is available for students to use to plan their studies. This program plan will be used to facilitate a dialogue with the advisement team and your designated faculty advisor. For more course information, students can check out the IEOR course listing.

Core

Core - 12 credits

*Students are expected to be proficient in Python when starting the MSBA program.

Note: IEOR E4650 Business Analytics will not count towards DROM B8101 core requirements.

Core - 6 credits

The MSBA program requires that students take a minimum of 15 CBS and 18 IEOR credits to graduate. Students should plan their electives accordingly.

Students may satisfy the 15 CBS credits from our pre-approved list of courses across various CBS Divisions. 

Note: only select CBS courses may be available for ranking and add/drop each term in Course Match.

Breadth Electives

Electives are selected under the advisement of the student's advising team. Courses taken from the School of Professional Studies will not be counted towards the M.S. degree (i.e. courses with the following prefixes: ACTU, BUSI, COPR, IKNS, SUMA, FUND, and more).

Concentrations

Students may complete 1 or 2 concentrations to fulfill the remaining credits for the degree.

Select at least (9 credits) from the following

Select at least (9 credits) from the following

*Students may take MRKT B8602 or MRKT B9656, but not both.

Select at least (9 credits) from the following

*Students may take MRKT B8602 or MRKT B9656, but not both.

Select at least (9 credits) from the following