MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics
Overview
The Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics MS-AIBA, formerly known as the Master of Science in Business Analytics and Information Systems, prepares students for growing needs in industry for expertise in business analytics, data science, data engineering, and information technology across a wide range of sectors including technology, banking, healthcare, consulting, energy, retail, entertainment, telecom, and many others. Our graduates secure internships and jobs in companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Tesla, Samsung, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Cap Gemini, Booz & Company, Deloitte, Citi, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Capital One, SAS Institute, Amgen, Verizon, Disney, Paypal, TechData, Raymond James Financial, Quicken Loans, Publix, and Spectrum Brands. Starting salaries of our graduates are typically in the $100,000-125,000 range, with higher salaries for jobs on the West Coast.
We offer a strong industry-relevant curriculum emphasizing technology skills such as business analytics, machine/deep learning, SQL and NoSQL databases, agile methods, coding and scripting, networks and security, cloud computing, and big data. An advisory board consisting of senior business leaders and information systems executives works closely with the department to ensure that the program stays relevant and maintains high standards. Classes in the program are taught by a world-class faculty with PhD degrees from Harvard Business School, Princeton University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Maryland, University of Texas at Austin, Purdue University, University of Michigan, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, Georgia Tech, University of Arizona, and many others. Students have the option of working in full-time or part-time internships and customized independent study opportunities with professors as part of the program.
The program also offers a suite of extra-curricular activities to complement our curriculum and to help our students improve their technology skills, internship and job placement potential, and career success. These activities include free technology bootcamps, certification programs, resume workshops, LinkedIn workshops, interview workshops, career fairs, and many others. Outstanding students will also have the opportunity to participate in practice center projects (mentored internships managed by the department) and get employment opportunities as teaching assistants or graduate research assistants throughout USF campus.
ADMISSIONS
Admission to our program is extremely competitive. We receive thousands of applicants each year and admit only about 250 students annually. We admit students in both the Fall and the Spring semester. We evaluate applications on a rolling basis and close the process when our student intake capacity is reached.
For international applicants, we try to make our final admission decisions by April to give them sufficient time to get visa appointments at their local U.S. consulate or embassy. We admit most of our students in Fall, and Spring admissions are very limited.
Our admission decisions are based on “portfolio criteria” that includes the following components. Please note that incomplete applications (e.g., missing GRE scores, unless explicitly waived by us) will NOT be processed until they are completed
Admission Process Steps
Applications are first reviewed by our Office of Graduate Admissions and are then forwarded to our MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics program for further review. The MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics program makes an accept/reject decision, and the Office of Graduate Admissions will notify you of our decision. The admission decision usually takes 1.5 to 2 months, and visas for international students may take an additional 3 to 4 months. Our admission decisions are first come, first served, and will close whenever we reach our intake capacity for the academic year. To help the process move smoothly, we recommend that you do the following:
- Examine our application criteria above to determine your suitability for our MS-BAIS
program. If you wish to apply, submit your application, complete with GRE/GMAT scores,
college transcripts, and other necessary details to USF Office of Graduate Admissions
using our online portal.
- The Graduate Admissions Office will notify you the receipt of your application, assign
you a U number, review your application and supporting documentation, and if complete,
will refer your application to the MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business
Analytics program. This process may take up to one month, depending on their workload.
- If your application is incomplete (e.g., missing TOEFL score, missing application
fee, etc.), it will not be processed beyond this stage. Please check our online portal
to see what is missing from your application. You can also contact the Graduate Admissions
Office at 813-974-3350 or GradAdmissions@usf.edu (not the MS in Artificial Intelligence
(AI) and Business Analytics program director) for further help in this regard.
- If your application is forwarded to the MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business
Analytics program, we will notify you by e-mail our receipt of your application and
ask you to provide additional supplemental information via an online form. If you
did not receive this e-mail, your application is likely still pending at our Graduate
Admissions Office; contact them for the status of your application.
- The MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics program will review
your complete application and notify you the final decision on your application. Expect
this process to take another 15-20 days. This is an unofficial decision; the official
decision will come from the Graduate Admissions Office. This is the end of the admissions
process, but you still have a long way to go to join our program.
- International students will now have to provide proof of funds for our Office of International
Students to issue you an I-20. This may require a bank statement or a bank loan. Domestic
students may skip to Step 8.
- After receiving your I-20, schedule a visa appointment at your nearest US consulate
or embassy. Depending on applicant volume, it may take months to get a visa appointment.
If you don’t get your visa appointment in a timely manner, you may have to defer your
joining date to the following semester. Let us know if you choose to defer. If you
change your mind and want to join another university, you will have to restart your
I-20 process with your new university and get a new visa, which may further delay
your arrival to the USA by several more months.
- In parallel with your visa process, please ask us to for a prerequisite check. We
will examine yoru transcript and prior work to determine if you meet our program prerequisites.
If you do not , we will suggest you online courses that you can take to meet these
prerequisites. You must complete all your prerequisites and e-mail us the certificate
of completion before we can register you for classes for your first semester. Students
not meeting prerequisites will have to take remedial classes first, which may add
to their cost and delay graduation from our program.
- Plan to arrive to our campus at least one week before the start of the semester. This
is the time when we do orientation sessions and conduct free workshops (bootcamps)
on R and Python – the two programming languages you must know for your first day of
class. If you miss these bootcamps, it will be your responsibility to learn these
tools on your own. Our professors don’t teach programming in class; they assume that
you attended the bootcamps, are conversant in these tools, and are ready to use them
to build statistical models and machine learning models in your first semester. This
extra week will also help you find an apartment to stay, which is quite difficult
to get at the start of any semester.
- Upon arrival to the USF, apply for a USF ID card and NetID. NetID is your single sign on (SSO) access for USF computer systems, including our library, Canvas learning management system (which hosts all our class information), Student Self-Service system, Banner grade system, and many others.
COSTS
Florida has one of the lowest tuition costs of all states in the United States. Our tuition and fees can be calculated using our online tuition calculator at http://usfweb.usf.edu/graduate-studies/tuition-and-fee-calculator/ (enter ‘Graduate (Business, Engineering)’ in the Program Level drop down menu; the MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics program is a minimum of 33 credits, not including any outstanding prerequisites).
As of 2022, the out-of-state tuition and fees for a two-year MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics degree for an international student is approximately $30,000. Students should also include another $15,000-20,000 for two years of living expenses while in the program.
GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIPS
We have a limited number of graduate (teaching) assistantships, which typically make students eligible for a lower, in-state tuition and pays for their health insurance during their term of assistantship, in addition to providing them a monthly stipend. Assistantship decisions are highly competitive and made on a semester-to-semester basis, based on students’ performance in prior semesters at USF, their work ethic, and their ability to assist us with undergraduate and graduate classes. For example, we will only hire students with a strong background in statistics as teaching assistants for our statistics classes. Assistantships are not available in your first semester at USF, but will be available from the second semester onwards, based on your performance in prior semesters at USF. Note that assistantships are not merit-based or need-based scholarships, they are on-campus jobs, for which you are expected to work for 20 hours/week as assigned by your supervising professor.
Additional on-campus job opportunities are available as graduate assistants in other offices, departments, and centers on the USF campus, for example, at our Dean’s office, the Provost’s office, at USF Library, our INTO program office, USF Morsani Center of Medicine, USF Center for Urban Transportation Research, and other departments on campus. These jobs typically require specific skills such as Power BI, coding, and so forth. These are university-wide positions, and students are selected based on their fit with job requirements. Our students are often considered favorably for these positions because of their strong technical skills. Only students already enrolled at USF have access to such positions on an internal USF portal, called Handshake. Incoming international students cannot apply for these jobs from their home countries.
Students can also do paid full-time or part-time internships at a US company for a maximum of 12 months as part of the curricular practical training (CPT) option of the program, while fully retaining their 18-month optional practical training (OPT) to secure a job and a work visa upon completion of their MS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics degree. You must complete two fu semesters of coursework at USF to be eligible for an internship. Our students often get internship positions in prestigious companies like Amazon, BMW, and JP Morgan Chase, and many of these internships often convert into full-time positions upon graduation.
GLOBAL EXECUTIVE PROGRAM
This Global Executive Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics program is designed for full-time, working professionals worldwide. This is a fully online program with 100% live instruction that combines information systems and business analytics courses. This program offers a predetermined set of required and elective courses in a lockstep format, without the flexibility or customizability of our regular program. Since students in this executive program are already full-time working professionals, our extracurricular support (bootcamps, internships, job placement, etc.) are not available to students in this program.
CONTACT
Han Reichgelt
Graduate Coordinator, MS in Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics
School of Information Systems
Muma College of Business
Phone: (727) 873-4786
muma-msaiba@usf.edu