Hello,

I am from Pakistan. I have an admit from three universities. I need your advice on selecting one.

MS Marketing (Analytics track) in UT Dallas and Temple University Philadelphia. I have asked these two universities for program change to MS in Business Analytics (Marketing Analytics track) as it is STEM recognized. I am positive they will agree to the change.

UTD: 18 Months program, 36 Credit Hours

Temple University: One-year program, 30 Credit Hours

University at Buffalo: Full-Time MBA (Analytics Concentration), 55 Credit Hours, Two Years

I studied general business during my bachelor's. I want to make a shift to the field of Customer Analytics. Please advise which option would be better?

[Edited by sumeet on Mar 19, 2017]

Temple is a great school for analytics, and that's a good program. If it's that versus UTD I'd go with Temple. The MBA at SUNY is also really decent, but it would give you a broader coverage of business topics.

For a management-level career, the MBA would probably be the better choice, unless you know you want to stay in analytics.

Thank you for responding. I was more of interested in pursuing MBA with Analytics as the concentration. But I think UTD's business school would be a better choice.

All of the seniors I contacted to suggested me to go with UTD over Temple as UTD is probably ahead of Temple in this program in rankings. Can you please explain why'd you prefer Temple for MSBA over UTD's MSBA?

I'd personally go with UTD provided you can get into Marketing Analytics (and assuming you have cross checked that it is STEM approved).

I just checked UTD's website and they have provided statistics regarding class profile, placement numbers that will help you assess your profile for post-MBA career and make an informed decision. Also Dallas is a much favorable location than Philly or Buffalo.

I would personally not go anywhere near Buffalo, though SUNY provides a good bang for the buck - the winter there is just too harsh from me. From a beautiful sub-tropical country like India / Pakistan into 6 months of snow and artic storms is just not for me. I won't go for Temple either simply because Philly is not where I want to be.

The location, regional brand recognition of UTD, and available statistics on placement would make UTD #1 choice for me, #2 will be Temple, #3 will be SUNY.

P.S - Make sure you understand the risk of coming to US, and finding a job here. I am working as a Management Consultant and on H1-B. It's difficult even for people like me to find employment easily/quickly. The attitude of people/companies have shifted. Although most of news that you hear is inflated - the sentiment is not.

Thank Ayon. I agree with everything you said.

I had earlier applied for MS Marketing (Analytics track). That is not STEM recognized. After admission, I checked that I can study almost same courses in MS Business Analytics (Marketing Analytics track, about 12 CH of Marketing analytics and 3 CH of basic marketing course) - which is STEM recognized. I requested them for the change of program. As per their response, I would have to either apply again for MSBA or study MS Marketing for one semester and then request them for the change of program. Please advise how should I go about it?