The Merage School Experience
The Merage School’s differentiators include our collaborative culture and focus on leadership development for our digitally driven world. The Master of Science in Business Analytics Program welcomes a globally diverse student body that makes the Merage experience unique. High caliber faculty, dedicated staff, talented classmates,and curated experiential learning with our industry partners all combine to enhance your experience to help you achieve your professional goals.
Irvine: The Heart of the Tech Coast
Located in the heart of California’s Tech Coast, the UC Irvine campus combines the best of Southern California in a bustling, lively economic hub in a beachside city with global connections. Irvine is also bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by Los Angeles County and on the south by San Diego County.
Its warm Mediterranean climate and 42 miles of year-round beaches make it an ideal place to live and work. Of course, the OC is also home to such popular tourist attractions as Disneyland and Surf City, USA, also known as Huntington Beach. Rated one of the safest, best places to live in the United States, the city of Irvine offers an amazing quality of life.
Studying at UC Irvine’s Merage School of Business provides resources and capital for entrepreneurs, combined with the intellectual capital of a top-ranked research university. Irvine boasts more than 15,000 businesses, over one-third of all Fortune 500 companies have roots here and it produces a $5 billion annual economic impact in Orange County. Coupled with a world-class, forward-thinking education, the Merage School’s location gives you tools to succeed in a corporation, start-up or any other business endeavor you want to pursue.
Connect and Network
The Master of Science in Business Analytics program provides an immersive education and experiential learning. Your time at the Merage School is focused on developing your skills and gaining exposure to the cutting edge of analytics, while expanding your connection and network to realize your full professional potential.
Between our Orange County corporate connections and our combined faculty experience, the Merage School’s global network is prominent. A large number of our alumni stay in Southern California, and our vast network spans across the world. No matter where your education takes you, the connections you make here will positively impact your life and career. We focus on the quality of professional and academic relationships that you build while here.
The Merage Analytics Club (MAC) is a student-run organization that aims to help members with networking opportunities, organizing small workshops, engaging with industry speakers and be a resource for members interested in the field of analytics and data science.
The SOCAL R User Group is a community-based organization for data scientists, data analysts and people generally interested in data. SOCAL RUG holds monthly meetups, special events and conferences. The group explores topics such as statistics, machine learning, visualization, data mining, and predictive analytics. While the focus is on the R programming language, they are inclusive of all languages and data tooling. In partnership with the Master of Science in Business Analytics program, the SOCAL RUG has supported our MSBA students by hosting data science hackathons and training events.
The partnership brings together students, academics, and professionals to build a data community to collaborate, learn, network and have fun.
Student Ambassadors
The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine attracts a diverse cohort of students from across the country and around the world, as well as from a range of academic and career backgrounds. We aim to assist our prospective students in preparation for graduate school by providing outreach to those students through our Student Ambassador program. Our Ambassadors are a select group of current student leaders dedicated to representing the MSBA program and acting as guides for prospective students. The Ambassadors aspire to enrich the student experience of our candidates during the admissions process by answering questions and joining Information Sessions, all while fostering a strong sense of community within our program.
Student Ambassadors contribute to the current and future student cohorts by sharing their perspective about what life is like as a MSBA student at the Merage School. Want to learn more? Our student ambassadors are available to answer questions or share experiences with you.
2023 Student Ambassadors
Tell us a little about yourself and about your professional goals.
Upon graduation, I want to work as a Market Analyst implementing my learnings from the program in product positioning, branding, pricing, and market forecasting. I also wish to leverage analytics at the core of my research to forecast new solutions and explore areas for improvement in the applications such as Energy Production, Energy Storage, Energy Equity, and Electric Vehicles with the goal of making human practices more sustainable and viable for the earth.
Tell us about your past leadership experience or community involvement.
I’ve worked in construction project management for over 5 years now, so I have experience with leading teams to reach goals and complete projects. I have been in the position of having to make hard choices in order to reach guidelines. I enjoy being someone that a group of people can come to and seek guidance on what they should be doing, and teaching them from my own experiences.
Tell us a little about yourself and about your professional goals.
After I graduate from the MSBA program, I plan to get a job as a data analyst or a consultant in the United States. I want to be able to get at least 2-3 years of experience before I go back home to Indonesia. With the experience and the education I have received from the States, I hope to implement new data systems in order to further modernize our business practices back in Indonesia.
Tell us about your past leadership experience or community involvement.
Leadership has played a central part in many of my personal and professional experiences. My previous role as an Investment Analyst at LDA Capital gave me the opportunity to originate equity investments into globally listed companies, requiring immense management skills. I was responsible for reaching out to the executive team of hundreds of companies to discuss their company profile in detail while stimulating their interest in our firm. Keeping track of the many moving pieces of the transaction process taught me valuable time and project management skills which I will carry throughout my career.
Tell us about your past leadership experience or community involvement.
Being from a small, close-knit family unit instilled within me values of altruism and generosity very early on. Given this, I’ve spent time in my high school and undergraduate institutions ensuring that I was not only sharpening my academic knowledge base, but that I was also intentionally engaged in community-building activities that helped me to become a more well-rounded person.
Tell us about your past leadership experience or community involvement.
Working in an agency environment I have learnt how to think from the customer’s perspective and work in a highly agile, stressful culture. My experience in bifurcating and calibrating survey data for better understanding helped me recognize the importance of Marketing Analytics as a business function. Currently, working with the UCI athletics department, I aspire to work as a marketing analyst and consultant.
Tell us about your past leadership experience or community involvement.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree from one of India’s top-tier colleges in the field of Information Technology. During my engineering course, I formed a team and led them to secure 5th position in the world’s biggest ever open innovation summit, the Smart India Hackathon 2k17, initiated by the Government of India. I participated and won in many paper presentation events.
Tell us a little about yourself and about your professional goals.
My goal is to become a business analyst that applies data analytics techniques to drive growth in the business-to-consumer industry. With analytical tasks such as managing sales targets and customer relationship management, it is crucial to examine data and extrapolate meaningful conclusions.
Tell us a little about yourself and about your professional goals.
My professional career goal is to be a data analyst in a Data Analytics team of an entertainment company, specifically at The Walt Disney Company. I want to build new models and improve on existing ones to find opportunities for growth with respect to the company’s technological products, such as streaming services, as well as set in motion new and innovative ways to look at the data being analyzed.
Tell us about your past leadership experience or community involvement.
I had the pleasure of becoming a leader in the United States Army reaching the rank of Staff Sergeant with a team of 30 soldiers, and responsible for training and oversight for the medical sector of our entire Unit, which contained 210 soldiers. The training for leaders in the US Army made me view leadership in a different perspective as they challenge us in all aspects of leadership: taking care of your team, creating a welcoming environment, challenging your team to become the best version of themselves, listening to feedback from your team and implementing changes, and much more.
Tell us a little about yourself and about your professional goals.
I have a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology, and I was an experienced medical representative. I worked for pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Novartis for 7 years. My short-term professional goal is to hone my technical skills in Python, R, SQL, and Tableau to intermediate or advanced levels through curricular courses and extracurricular sources. After graduation, I hope to land a job in the big tech or healthcare industry.
Tell us a little about yourself and about your professional goals.
My short-term goal is to work for the automobile industry, such as Mazda’s garage team, as an Audience Performance Analyst. This is a very exciting and suitable career for me, as I am not only passionate about automobiles, but I will also have become a competitive business analyst after receiving the training at Merage School and the crucial assistance provided by UCI, such as Virtual Career Fair, Student Job Services, and Career Services Council.
Tell us a little about yourself and about your professional goals.
I am a graduate from UCI’s physicals science department. In my undergraduate study, I was a learning assistant in physics class leading undergraduate study groups. In attending the MSBA program at UCI, I hope to gain academic knowledge and obtain different perspectives from people to strengthen my communication and leadership skills. I want to be a professional business analyst in the animation industry.
2022 Student Ambassadors
Why did you choose UCI Merage?
I chose UCI because the Merage MSBA program balances both academics and experiential learning. The STEM focus with the business foundation is ideal for my short-term and long-term goals. In addition, Merage provides the opportunity to engage with an intellectually and globally diverse cohort to further expand my leadership, entrepreneurial, and professional skills.
Based on your values, what impact do you want to have on the Merage Community?
I want to continue and expand onto Merage’s mindset of fostering a collaborative culture – working progressively in a diverse multicultural environment. My academic merit, technical acumen, and professional ethos make me confident to emerge as a fruitful contributor, sharing my perspective and insights with the Merage community. I aspire to emerge as a proactive leader and a collaborator who goes the extra mile to support team members and get the task done. In the long run, I want to contribute to UCI’s tight-knit community by developing enough wherewithal to support the incoming batches, providing them counseling, mentorship, and cognitive assistance, to help them acquire lucrative professional opportunities.
Based on your values, what impact do you want to have on the Merage Community?
“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”. Working with cross-cultural teams with different mindsets, capabilities and skill sets, throughout these years has led me to introspect my actions and made me a firm believer of the famous aforementioned proverb. During my time in the University and after, I wish to learn and grow with the Merage community.
Why did you choose UCI Merage?
I believe the coursework of the UCI Merage MSBA program will further my hands-on experience, beyond providing the learning opportunities and skill development that I seek. The six-month capstone project presents a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between classroom learning and practical application by solving real-world data science problems with feedback from the faculty and industry professionals. I had attended numerous UCI career fairs representing BOSS ZHIPIN from 2018 through 2019 and learned of Merage School’s outstanding reputation and an impressive network of local companies. I believe it will be a great foundation for building connections with my target companies.
How are you looking to contribute to your industry with the skills you'll acquire in the program?
Like any industry, healthcare industry is generating a lot of data that can be utilized to improve patient outcomes. I want to build processes, models or tools that can be employed across different domains of healthcare to improve quality healthcare, patient engagement and consequently patient outcomes.
How are you looking to contribute to your industry with the skills you'll acquire in the program?
I am very passionate about the automobile industry. With the world moving towards sustainable and eco-friendly source of energy, I am looking forward to contributing to this new innovation with appropriate data crunching and forecasting.
How are you looking to contribute to your industry with the skills you'll acquire in the program?
I am looking to contribute with both the hard skills (coding, analysis, business…) and the soft skills (leadership, communication, teamwork…) that I am going to acquire through this program. The MSBA at UCI gives a practical approach to gain these skills in order to excel in the professional world through the capstone project, case studies and numerous team projects. Ultimately, the program is going to give me the confidence to not only enter the work force but to excel and make a positive impact in the company.
Tell us a little about yourself. How your background relates to your career and why you chose this field?
During undergrad I decided that I wanted to work in clean energy marketing. After a summer internship working on the data science and analytics team of a marketing firm, I decided that would be my niche in the industry. Data is becoming more and more valuable in the modern world and as that value grows, so too does the value of those who know how to use said data.
Tell us a little about yourself. How your background relates to your career and why you chose this field?
After graduating from NYU with a degree in management, marketing, entertainment, media, and technology, I ended up working in research for the private equity sector. After two years in research consulting services, first as a research analyst, then a project manager, and finally, as a client associate, I wanted to dive into a more technical, data-focused role where I could work with tangible data to develop insights that would create real impact. I made the decision to pursue the MSBA degree at UCI to gain technical skills, expose and immerse myself to the data industry, and get my foot in the door of this burgeoning market. My goal is to use this program as a stepping stone towards transitioning my career path towards a more data-driven role.
Tell us a little about yourself. How your background relates to your career and why you chose this field?
I’ve always been interested in people’s behavior and started my career in hospitality operations. I realized I wanted a more data-oriented career and discovered analytics - a field that combines my love of numbers with my interest in people’s habits, decisions, and motivators. Data analytics is expanding fast across all industries, and this is an exciting time to be growing in this field!
Based on your values, what impact do you want to have on the Merage Community?
An impact I would like to make on Merage would be to maintain the good learning environment throughout the school. I believe that when people come from such diverse backgrounds no one is bound to learn in the same way. I think that as long as you continue to maintain a stable learning environment no one has to feel that they are any better or worse, but everyone is free to learn through their own methods, at their own pace.
Why did you choose UCI Merage?
I chose UCI Merage due to the community and what the programmed offered. The program is extremely diverse and includes people of all ages and backgrounds, making every interaction more meaningful. The program also offers a lot of support towards a career through the hands-on capstone project, professional development through ProSeminar, and much more!
What do you think are critical skills you need to attain a job after graduating?
In terms of professional skills, the experience of using data visualization tools, machine learning technics and data manipulations skills will play the crucial role to attain a job. I think soft skills related to verbal/written communication and leadership will also make the candidate stand out during the job applications. Most of the time a business analyst/data analyst will collaborate with different departments, so being able to communicate in a cross-functional team is also a fundamental skill.
Based on your values, what impact do you want to have on the Merage Community?
Creativity is a value and fearlessness a perspective. These traits, tempered and shaped with stamina and endurance, are uniquely manifested in me. I left my job in Kazakhstan to avoid stagnation. I was giving up a comfortable lifestyle, I was moving away from my friends and family, but I was regaining my vision of my future self as an adventurer. Now I have been in the USA for three years, and I am ready to define my career path. I appreciate that most of the students at Merage all have the same goal, and I think that many of them would benefit to hear my story of why I came to the United States in the first place. When I think about what I bring that will benefit the Merage community most uniquely, it is my personal experience of taking a risk to start over, humbling myself, and going against the status quo by pursuing my dreams. Each of the students will, sooner or later, reach some decision point in their career about where they want to live, what industry to be involved in, and what actually makes them happy. I will consider myself to have served them well if, after knowing me, they do not let fear hold them back from expressing their creativity or pursuing their vision.
Tell us a little about yourself. How your background relates to your career and why you chose this field?
Hi! I'm Phillip and am currently a MSBA student here at Merage. During my undergrad here at UCI, I experienced a variety of internships in different industries and functions within business. A common theme that I picked up upon throughout my roles was my interest in analytics. I enjoyed solving business problems and found myself constantly curious in learning how to improve my analytical skillset. It was fascinating learning how to utilize an eclectic array of tools in deriving business insights.
What impact do you want to have on the Merage Community?
I would like to continue the trend of diversity within the MSBA Program. The Merage School has done a great job attracting top talent from across the world and I would like to continue that. The Merage School is also focused on growth and evolving the program to meet industry needs. I am excited to be a part of that progress.
Why did you choose this field?
With three years of experience in accounting and financial industries, I happened to work many times with the data analysts to generate business plans for the company. I was impressed and became fascinated with the power of data analysis, which can turn dreary and complicated problems into easy and simple solutions.
Why did you choose the Merage School?
Diverse student body and capstone project. The Merage School has a diverse group of students where I can learn different style of working, communication and point of views on top of my academic study. I think that is even more important because it prepares me to work in global companies where my colleagues are from very different cultural background.
Tell us about your background. Why did you choose this field?
I come from a non-technical background and have experience in demand planning, inventory management, and production forecasting. I chose this field of business analytics because data is omnipresent and prevalent. Having the technical skills to understand, manipulate, and visualize data is essential in today's digitally driven world.
What impact do you want to have on the Merage School community?
I believe in education is important for communities to grow and that makes me a strong believer in education and its importance. I hope to communicate this with incoming students.
Tell us a little about yourself.
My background is in Astrophysics and this was where I got exposed to working on big data. I enjoyed working with data and the process of data manipulation. You can use data to solve different types of problems and discover patterns that you did not know was there previously.
Tell us a little about yourself. How does your background relate to your career and why did you choose this field?
Choosing business analytics as my career goal is not only because BA with big data is becoming a hot trend, but I figured out it is so important to expand my current stage of knowledge. Gathering the data in the market helps us determine what reasons are affecting consumer decision making.
I want to become like these analysts, who know what data they want to use and where to find relevant raw information using specific skills.
How does your background relate to career goals?
I graduated with an undergraduate degree from UC Irvine in June 2020, with a double major in Business Information Management and Informatics. Something which fascinated me a lot was the exploration of business trends by means of technology.
What do you think are critical skills you need to attain a job after graduating?
My aspiration of becoming a data scientist requires for technical knowledges in both coding languages and incorporation of machine learning. With the curricula at the Merage School, I am confident to be well equipped for post grad.
How are you looking to contribute to your industry with the skills you'll acquire in the program?
My goal is to provide entertainment companies with decision making process. I want to help companies foresee the future and provide creative insights and predict future trends that will offer unique experiences for new generations.
Why did you choose the Merage School?
I chose the Merage School because of the strength of the business analytics program as well as the faculty and staff members of the school. During the decision-making process, I reviewed and compared all required courses with the help of some mentors who work in the industry.
Based on your values, what impact do you want to have on the Merage School community?
I love that the program has cohorts and teams where we work and learn together. I want to build on that by continuing to work with other people, learning from them, and letting them know how we help each other and learn from each other. I hope that will foster behavior in me and in others so that after our time here, we all will embody the collaborative environment that the Merage School champions.
2020 Student Ambassadors
What was your most memorable experience during the MSBA program and why?
My most memorable experience was presenting our project from our Machine Learning Analytics class to the city of San Diego. We analyzed app data from the city’s “Get it Done!” app to see where the city could make improvements. What made it so memorable to me was that our whole team went above and beyond to present this even though we could have stopped doing the work after our class ended. We took that extra step to make something that could actually be beneficial to the City of San Diego and something we would be proud of.
What were some obstacles that you faced before and during the program and how did you overcome them?
The major hurdle I experienced before coming into this program was definitely my insufficient coding skill. Since the program required mandatory completion of courses on DataCamp, I was able to learn successful coding techniques in a short amount of time. In addition, working on group projects every quarter was definitely the fastest way to help me improve my technical skills.
What lessons did you learn and how will you continue to take them into your career?
I learned what exactly it takes to efficiently lead an analytics-driven team. Throughout the cohort and largely team driven work throughout the curriculum, I gained invaluable experience of leading a team with a common goal aimed towards achieving a data-driven result.
What was your most memorable experience during the MSBA program and why
My most memorable experience of the program was publishing my group project on TowardsDataScience.com. Within 6 months of joining the program, I had gone from being a novice to having my own publication on a reputed website. It was the feeling of collective pride and group achievement which made it so memorable.
What lessons did you learn and how will you continue to take them into your career?
I have learned more valuable skills and lessons from this program than I ever thought possible. If I had to choose one, I would say that following what you are passionate about yields results and a level of effort that motivates you to keep going. When you care about something, you are willing to go the extra mile.
What are your career goals?
In terms of my career goals, I hope to be able to land a job as a business analyst in the gaming industry for companies such as Riot, Activision, Nintendo, etc. I have a passion for video games, and I hope to make that passion a part of my job. In order to achieve this goal or any other goal, there are obstacles that I must overcome.
What were some obstacles that you faced before and during the program and how did you overcome them?
Since it is a one-year course, I think a major obstacle was learning as much as I could, working on as many projects as possible while prepping for interviews all in this one year. It makes this year very fast-paced and a little stressful, but each new day also brings with it a lot of new things to learn. Good time management and prioritizing goes a long way, skills which I know I will cherish for the rest of my career as well.
What was your most memorable experience during the MSBA program and why?
I had a wonderful experience during the MSBA program where I met some of the most dedicated, creative, and intelligent people. Besides my classmates and coursework,I was most excited about the Capstone project since we would be working with a real company to solve current issues they are facing. My team and I worked with Edwards Lifesciences and it was truly the most rewarding and memorable experience of the MSBA program. We went above and beyond to create recommendation and predictive tools along with dashboards by leveraging many aspects of analytics and data science such as natural language processing, predictive analytics, and machine learning. I learnt so much during the process from my classes, peers, research, and the Edwards Team and I am truly grateful for that!
What lessons did you learn and you will continue to take them into your career?
Aside from the new slew of technical skills, I really learned the importance of data storytelling. While it’s great to create complicated models and use advanced techniques of statistical analysis, it doesn’t mean much if the analysis isn’t explained well. With that in mind, I am constantly trying to see how each step fits together in order to tell a cohesive and interesting story.
What were some obstacles that you faced before and during the program and how did you overcome them?
Prior to the MSBA program, I have little to no knowledge in coding, however, I always been eager to learn on how to code. Upon finishing the program, I learned something beyond ordinary coding skills and techniques. Instead, I am now capable on solving complex business problems in today’s digitally driven world through the integration between meticulous analytics insights and sophisticated programming approach.
What was your most memorable experience during the MSBA program and why?
The capstone project is definitely one of the most memorable experiences during the MSBA program. It provides me an opportunity to working closely with industry professionals and solving real-life data science problems. The capstone project allowed me to strengthen the skills I learned from my business analytics class.
Yu Zhang has a background in Management Information System and experience working in a variety of data analytics projects with her most recent focus being on marketing analytics. While in the MSBA program, Yu completed the capstone project working with J.D. Power to predict US automotive OEM sales performance. She also had internship experience in strategic consulting, project management and product marketing experience in IT, education and logistic industries. She will continue striving for making a positive impact on her career path and make a difference in the world.
I joined the Women in Business Club as Vice President and was able to put on some great events connecting leaders in the OC business community to the students. The OC community is a great place to launch an analytics career, due to the wide variety of industries and companies - ranging from healthcare and tech to marketing and entertainment.Claire Minorsky, MSBA ‘22, Project Manager, National Veterinary Associates
