The BS in Data Science and Business Administration combined major integrates a technical degree with the theory and practice of management through active learning, problem-driven research, corporate partnerships, and experiential assignments. This program reflects the impact of data in modern business practice.
What is a Combined Major?
A combined major combines two majors in a way that allows a student to fulfill all requirements within the standard 8 academic semesters. For details, see the BS in Data Science and Business Administration program requirements.
This degree can be accomplished using either the four- or five-year co-op plan. There are also business concentrations and business minors to help you customize your unique Northeastern educational experience.
BS in Data Science and Business Administration Curriculum
The curriculum below is an abbreviated sample of the business administration academic requirements for the BS in Data Science and Business Administration degree. Please refer to the program information in the Registrar's Undergraduate Catalog for the full curriculum appropriate to your class year. Course numbers and titles are subject to change.
Business Administration Requirements
ACCT 1201. Financial Accounting and Reporting. 4 Hours.
Covers the basic concepts underlying financial statements and the accounting principles followed in the preparation of the balance sheet, the income statement, and the statement of cash flows. Offers students an opportunity to become familiar with accounting terminology and methods designed to enable them to interpret, analyze, and evaluate published corporate financial reports. Wherever appropriate, the course relates current economic, business, and global events to accounting issues. Analyzes how financial reporting concepts affect the behavior of investors, creditors, and other external users. Emphasizes the importance of ethics in financial reporting. Requires second-semester-freshman standing or above.
ACCT 2301. Managerial Accounting. 4 Hours.
Focuses on the development and use of information—especially financial information—for managerial decisions within the firm. Introduces managerial accounting concepts, analyses, and practices that support business decisions through class discussions, exercises, and case analysis. Topics include budgeting, cost management and behavior, cost-volume-profit analysis, relevant costs for decision making, cost allocation issues, and performance evaluation. Emphasizes the importance of ethics.
FINA 2201. Financial Management. 4 Hours.
Designed to develop the financial skills and logical thought processes necessary to understand and discuss financial policy decisions in a global economy. Specific objectives include developing an understanding of the time value of money; using financial statements in decision making; and understanding the nature of financial markets, the cost of capital, valuation of stocks and bonds, management of short-term assets, short-term and long-term financing, capital markets, and multinational financial management. Addresses the impact of legal, social, technological, and ethical considerations on efficient economic outcomes. Requires a financial calculator and provides an opportunity to develop computer spreadsheet skills.
INTB 1203. International Business and Global Social Responsibility. 4 Hours.
Introduces the student to forces and issues confronted in our era of rapid globalization. Managers must understand forces from interconnected social, political, and economic national environments that affect their company's operations. At the same time they need to draw on their ethical foundations to address and act on social responsibility imperatives across national borders.
MGSC 2301. Business Statistics. 4 Hours.
Offers students an opportunity to obtain the necessary skills to collect, summarize, analyze, and interpret business-related data. Covers descriptive statistics, sampling and sampling distributions, statistical inference, relationships between variables, formulating and testing hypotheses, and regression analysis in the context of business. Use of the SPSS statistical programming package is an integral part of the course.
MKTG 2201. Introduction to Marketing. 4 Hours.
Provides an overview of the role of marketing in business and society. Considers the planning, implementation, and evaluation of marketing efforts in consumer and business-to-business companies, in service and goods companies, and in for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Also examines contemporary issues in marketing that can affect organizational success. A term project is used to enable students to apply their learning about the fundamentals of marketing.
ORGB 3201. Organizational Behavior. 4 Hours.
Provides an overview of the actions and behaviors of people in organizations. Uses case studies, videos, experiential exercises, lectures, and discussions to explore the effects of individual, interpersonal, group, organizational, and cross-cultural factors on human behavior. Topics include groups and teams, motivation, leadership, organizational change, organizational culture, structure, conflict resolution, and communication. Both the underlying theories and principles of these topics, as well as their practical applications and implications for organizations, are covered.
Business Administration Electives
Complete two of the following
ENTR 2301. Innovation!. 4 Hours.
Designed for students across the entire University who wish to learn about innovation—the creative process, the different types of innovation, how innovations are created, and how innovations can be transformed into commercial reality either as new products or new services and either in startups, existing corporations, and nonprofit entities. Offers students an opportunity to obtain the fundamental insight needed to understand the innovation process and to become a player in it.
MISM 2301. Management Information Systems. 4 Hours.
Explores how a wide range of enterprises around the world use information and information technology to create better-managed, more innovative, and successful organizations. The twenty-first-century enterprise runs on information, and every part of the business has been transformed by the use of information technology. Today's business leaders, therefore, must have ready access to timely, accurate, and relevant information to manage effectively in the global economy.
SCHM 2301. Supply Chain and Operations Management. 4 Hours.
Focuses on the integrative management of business activities intrinsic to the smooth flow of goods or services, information, and financial transactions across firms from raw materials to the end customer. This collaborative approach creates competitive advantages for all members of a supply chain. Emphasizes the responsibilities of managers regarding decisions concerning the design, operation, and control of supply chains and operations. Considers customers, globalization, corporate strategy, resources, sustainability, ethics, and diversity. Topics covered include customer-centric management; supply chain and operations strategies; process structure and control; and supply, inventory, and quality management. Emphasizes the key role of information technology, logistics network design, supply chain relationships, and process evolution.
STRT 4501. Strategy in Action. 4 Hours.
Provides for the integration and application of administrative theory, knowledge, skills, and experiences for effective strategic performance in an organization. Offers students an opportunity to acquire a better understanding of the relevance and limitations of business and management concepts and techniques when making and implementing strategic decisions.
Integrative Course
BUSN 5001. Data-Driven and Technology-Enabled Value Creation in Digital Economy. 4 Hours.
Designed to prepare students for careers that demand an understanding of the intersection between the growing data-driven and technology-enabled possibilities and various ways in which they can be creatively leveraged for designing better digital products and markets. Rapidly emerging new digital ecosystems, platforms, products, and services have been fundamentally transforming business practices and market landscapes in almost every industry. Using real-life case studies and projects, students examine and apply fundamental economic principles and conceptual business frameworks that are essential for understanding how emerging data opportunities and new computing technologies can be used for value creation. Considers various approaches for establishing fair and appropriate rules, regulations, and policies to mitigate potential biases, ethical challenges, and discrimination arising due to the digital transformation.
Example Data Science Courses
- Discrete Structures
- Database Design
- Information Presentation and Visualization
- Machine Learning and Data Mining
- Large-Scale Information Storage and Retrieval
Choose a Business Concentration
Note: If the Marketing Analytics concentration is selected, an additional general elective is required.
Undergraduate Concentration in Accounting
Undergraduate Concentration in Corporate Innovation
Undergraduate Concentration in Entrepreneurial Startups
Undergraduate Concentration in Finance
Undergraduate Concentration in Fintech
Undergraduate Concentration in Healthcare Management and Consulting
Undergraduate Concentration in International Business
Possessing a knowledge of how people, firms, and institutions interact across borders provides International Business concentrators with a competitive edge.