10 Most Affordable Bachelor’s in Business Analytics

For stu­dents look­ing for a cheap ana­lyt­ics degree to begin their career in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics, there are sev­er­al strate­gies that might work. Per­haps the cheap­est ana­lyt­ics degrees include col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties with online degree pro­grams. Whether a stu­dent is eval­u­at­ing online or on-cam­pus pro­grams to find a cheap ana­lyt­ics degree with valu­able con­tent, it’s impor­tant to ensure that the schools they research align with their career path.

The real ques­tion is do cheap­er schools pro­vide the same lev­el of edu­ca­tion as more expen­sive ones. Low­er costs do not nec­es­sar­i­ly equate to wors­en­ing qual­i­ty. It’s more impor­tant to look into what the school has to offer and whether it aligns with a student’s aspi­ra­tions to become a busi­ness analyst.

Methodology: Ranking the Most Affordable Business Analytics Degrees

The edi­tors at Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter have ranked the most afford­able online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees, focus­ing on accred­it­ed col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties known for val­ue. Pro­grams are pre­sent­ed accord­ing to cur­rent IPEDS tuition data.

1. Miami Dade College

Mia­mi Dade Col­lege offers a BS in Data Ana­lyt­ics that ranks among the most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees in the south­ern Unit­ed States. Mia­mi Dade College’s busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree requires 120-semes­ter units, with an esti­mat­ed com­ple­tion time of four years. The fea­tured course­work for Mia­mi Dade College’s busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree includes bid data min­ing algo­rithms, data­base con­cepts, and SQL, machine learn­ing mod­els for data clas­si­fi­ca­tion, and sta­tis­ti­cal data analy­sis. Stu­dents find reward­ing work as intel­li­gence ana­lysts or data­base archi­tects, to name a few.

Mia­mi Dade Col­lege was found­ed in the late 1950s on the farm of a Dade Coun­ty, high school. Mia­mi Dade Col­lege now oper­ates with eight cam­pus­es and more than 20 aca­d­e­m­ic out­reach cen­ters through­out the south­ern por­tion of the Sun­shine State.

What We Like: With more than 100,000 stu­dents, Mia­mi Dade Col­lege is the largest col­lege in the Unit­ed States.

Degree: Data Ana­lyt­ics, BS

2. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty-Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty Indi­anapo­lis (IUPUI) offers a BS in Applied Data and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence (ADIS) that is con­sid­ered as one of Indi­anapo­lis’ most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees. This under­grad­u­ate degree from IUPUI offers two aca­d­e­m­ic spe­cial­ties in applied infor­ma­tion sci­ence or applied data sci­ence. Fea­tured core class­es include infor­ma­tion infra­struc­ture, nat­ur­al lan­guage pro­cess­ing, and applied cloud com­put­ing for data-inten­sive sciences.

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty-Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty Indi­anapo­lis oper­ates as the core Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus, offer­ing Pur­due pro­grams and degrees. This space-grant uni­ver­si­ty main­tains sev­er­al cam­pus­es in Indi­anapo­lis, Fall Creek, and White Riv­er. Near­ly 30,000 under­grad­u­ate and post­grad­u­ate stu­dents attend class­es on-cam­pus and online each year.

What We Like: The Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty-Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty Indi­anapo­lis cam­pus was found­ed in the late 1960s and is locat­ed in down­town Indi­anapo­lis, a short walk to Indiana’s state capitol.

Degree: Applied Data and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence, BS

3. Florida Polytechnic Unversity

Flori­da Poly­tech­nic Uni­ver­si­ty (FPU) offers one of Florida’s most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees with its Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence (BS) degree in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics pro­gram. Flori­da Poly­tech­nic University’s busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree is offered with these aca­d­e­m­ic tracks – health sys­tems engi­neer­ing, qual­i­ta­tive eco­nom­ic & econo­met­rics, logis­tics and sup­ply chain man­age­ment, and intel­li­gent mobil­i­ty. Fea­tured class­es for Flori­da Poly­tech­nic Uni­ver­si­ty s under­grad­u­ate degree include Six Sig­ma, data­base research, data and text min­ing, lean oper­a­tions man­age­ment, and ben­e­fit-cost analy­sis, plus a cap­stone and practicum, to name a few.

Flori­da Poly­tech­nic Uni­ver­si­ty (Flori­da Poly) is a mem­ber of the state uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem of Flori­da, found­ed in 2012. Orig­i­nal­ly, Flori­da Poly was an aca­d­e­m­ic facil­i­ty of the near­by Uni­ver­si­ty of Cen­tral Flori­da. Flori­da Poly­tech­nic University’s cam­pus cov­ers more than 150 acres and serves more than 1,200 stu­dents each year.

What We Like: Flori­da Poly­tech­nic University’s sub­ur­ban cam­pus is home to a media and cyber gam­ing lab, a robot­ics lab, and a 3‑D print­ing lab.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

4. Indiana University — Bloomington

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty – Bloom­ing­ton offers a BS in Busi­ness — Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics spe­cial­iza­tion that ranks among Indiana’s most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees. Sam­ple required class­es include game the­o­ry for busi­ness strat­e­gy, CRM & Dig­i­tal Ana­lyt­ics, and busi­ness data pro­gram­ming. Poten­tial careers for grad­u­ates of Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty — Bloomington’s busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree include a cor­po­rate infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy spe­cial­ist, busi­ness data analy­sis, or data con­sul­tant, to name a few.

Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty – Bloom­ing­ton oper­ates as a space-grant, research high­er learn­ing insti­tu­tion that was found­ed in 1820. The Bloom­ing­ton cam­pus is the flag­ship and largest cam­pus of the state, with more than 39,000 stu­dents each year.

What We Like: Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty – Bloom­ing­ton is orga­nized into six­teen col­leges and schools offer­ing art, media, music, busi­ness, law edu­ca­tion, pub­lic affairs, med­i­cine, optom­e­try, and social work programs.

Degree: Busi­ness: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

5. Brigham Young University

Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty (BYU) offers a BS in Sta­tis­tics that offers an aca­d­e­m­ic con­cen­tra­tion in Applied Sta­tis­tics & Ana­lyt­ics that ranks among Utah’s most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees. Fea­tured course­work for Brigham Young University’s under­grad­u­ate pro­gram in data ana­lyt­ics and sta­tis­tics include analy­sis of vari­ance, intro­duc­tion to reli­a­bil­i­ty, exper­i­men­tal design, sur­vival analy­sis, com­pu­ta­tion­al lin­ear alge­bra, applied SAS pro­gram­ming, and big data sci­ence 1 & 2, to name a few.

Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty was estab­lished in the mid-1870s and is affil­i­at­ed with the Church of Lat­ter Day Saints (LDS). Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty requires its enrolled stu­dents to adhere to a strict code of hon­or but offers afford­able tuition rates. BYU’s Pro­vo cam­pus cov­ers more than 500 acres and serves more than 33,250 under­grad­u­ate and post­grad­u­ate stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic year.

What We Like: Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty teach­es more than 60 lan­guages each school year.

Sta­tis­tics: Applied Sta­tis­tics & Ana­lyt­ics, BS

6. Iowa State University

Iowa State Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics ranked among Iowa’s most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees in the Mid­west and beyond. Stu­dents enrolled in Iowa State University’s busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree com­plete these fea­tured class­es – sup­ply chain ana­lyt­ics, data­base man­age­ment sys­tems, deci­sion tools for logis­tics, ana­lyt­i­cal meth­ods in finance, and busi­ness data streams, to name a few.

Iowa State Uni­ver­si­ty was found­ed in the 1850s under the Mor­rill Act (the first in the nation) as a land grant insti­tu­tion of high­er edu­ca­tion ded­i­cat­ed to agri­cul­ture and farm­ing. The small city cam­pus of ISU cov­ers more than 1,800 acres and serves approx­i­mate­ly 33,150 post­grad­u­ate & under­grad­u­ate stu­dents each year.

What We Like: ISU’s eight colleges/schools offer more than 350 aca­d­e­m­ic pro­grams at the bach­e­lor, master’s, and doc­tor­ate levels.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

7. Southern Utah University

South­ern Utah Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS or BA in Eco­nom­ics with a Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics Empha­sis that is con­sid­ered among Utah’s most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees. This 120-semes­ter cred­it under­grad­u­ate degree includes these class­es – advanced econo­met­rics, data ana­lyt­ics, sta­tis­ti­cal infer­ence, quan­ti­ta­tive meth­ods for busi­ness & eco­nom­ics, data­base design and man­age­ment, and macro­eco­nom­ics for busi­ness deci­sions, to name a few.

Estab­lished in the late 1890s as the first teacher’s train­ing col­lege in the south­ern por­tion of Utah, South­ern Utah Uni­ver­si­ty now oper­ates as a mem­ber school of the sys­tem of high­er edu­ca­tion in Utah. The Cedar City cam­pus and online plat­form serve more than 11,050 stu­dents each year.

What We Like: Each year, the Sum­mer Games in Utah are held on South­ern Utah University’s col­lege-town campus.

Degree: Eco­nom­ics — Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics Empha­sis, BS/BA

8. Rutgers University

Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty offers one of New Jersey’s most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees with its under­grad­u­ate BAIT degree – Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics and Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy. Stu­dents grad­u­at­ing from Rut­gers University’s bachelor’s degree in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics find reward­ing careers as con­sul­tants, busi­ness ana­lysts, applied sta­tis­ti­cians, risk ana­lysts, and com­put­er design spe­cial­ists, to name a few. Required core class­es for this Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics and Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy degree pro­gram include busi­ness data man­age­ment and time series mod­el­ing for busi­ness, among others.

Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty is among the nation’s old­est schools, with a char­ter date in the mid-1760s. Found­ed as a roy­al char­tered school, Rut­gers now oper­ates as New Jer­sey’’ flag­ship school with near­ly 70,000 stu­dents attend­ing class­es online and on its mul­ti­ple campuses.

What We Like: In addi­tion, Rut­gers oper­ates as a land, space, and sea-grant insti­tu­tion of high­er education.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics and Infor­ma­tion Technology

9. Ohio State University

Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty offers a cam­pus-based BS in Data Ana­lyt­ics with an aca­d­e­m­ic Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics spe­cial­iza­tion that is one of Ohio’s most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees. Course­work for Ohio State University’s under­grad­u­ate degree in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics includes data min­ing and sta­tis­ti­cal learn­ing, prob­a­bil­i­ty and sta­tis­ti­cal infer­ence, cal­cu­lus and lin­ear alge­bra, cloud com­put­ing & data­base design, opti­miza­tion, and visu­al­iza­tion, to name a few.

Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty is a land-grant uni­ver­si­ty that was found­ed as a mechan­i­cal and agri­cul­tur­al col­lege in 1870. Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty is the flag­ship cam­pus of the state’s uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem, with mul­ti­ple cam­pus­es that serve more than 61,350 stu­dents. Ohio State University’s cam­pus­es cov­er more than 16,000 acres.

What We Like: The university’s foot­ball team has a val­ue of $1.5 bil­lion – the largest val­u­a­tion of any col­le­giate ath­let­ic pro­gram across the country.

Degree: Data Ana­lyt­ics, BS — Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics specialization

10. Bethel Unversity — Saint Paul

Bethel Uni­ver­si­ty offers an ACB­SP-accred­it­ed BA in Busi­ness with a Busi­ness Analy­sis and Ana­lyt­ics aca­d­e­m­ic empha­sis that ranks among Minnesota’s most afford­able busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees in Min­neso­ta and beyond. Core course­work for Bethel University’s busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree includes man­age­r­i­al finance, busi­ness infor­ma­tion sys­tems, busi­ness cal­cu­lus, and busi­ness law, to name a few. Grad­u­ates of Bethel University’s under­grad­u­ate degree enter the work­force as busi­ness ana­lysts, IT project man­agers, mar­ket­ing strate­gists, and data ana­lyst con­sul­tants, to name a few.

Bethel Uni­ver­si­ty was found­ed in the 1870s as a sem­i­nary. Bethel Uni­ver­si­ty now oper­ates as a pri­vate, space-grant school with an evan­gel­i­cal Chris­t­ian affil­i­a­tion. The sub­ur­ban cam­pus and online plat­form serve more than 6,450 stu­dents each year.

What We Like: Bethel University’s cam­pus cov­ers about 300 acres along the east­ern por­tion of Lake Valen­tine in Arden Hills.

Degree: Busi­ness Analy­sis and Analytics

How Do I Save Money on a Business Analytics Degree?

Why are online pro­grams among the cheap­est ana­lyt­ics degrees? If learn­ers con­sid­er all the costs, not just tuition, they’ll real­ize that they save mon­ey by study­ing from home. Stu­dents don’t need gas mon­ey to com­mute to school and won’t lose the time that it takes to get back and forth when they can log into lec­tures from their sofa.

Addi­tion­al­ly, some uni­ver­si­ties focus on online edu­ca­tion and do not have the over­head expe­ri­enced by tra­di­tion­al cam­pus­es with build­ings and huge swaths of land. Study­ing online can save stu­dents thou­sands of dol­lars on books and sup­plies. Online class­es rely on dig­i­tal resources, which costs much less to source than print­ed media.

Stu­dents who study online can also save mon­ey on expens­es asso­ci­at­ed with liv­ing on a col­lege cam­pus. This includes buy­ing new fur­ni­ture, mov­ing in and mov­ing out each year and, typ­i­cal­ly, high­er room and board than remain­ing in their cur­rent home

On the oth­er hand, stu­dents who choose to study on a phys­i­cal cam­pus may find that tuition rates have sky­rock­et­ed since the pan­dem­ic and relat­ed eco­nom­ic down­turn. That also means less mon­ey for schol­ar­ships, grants and oth­er finan­cial assis­tance that can help stu­dents reduce the amount of their debt.

Obtain­ing busi­ness ana­lyt­ics cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can help grad­u­ates deep­en their knowl­edge in a spe­cif­ic sub­ject area.

Will a Business Analytics Certification Help My Career?

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics have been slow to emerge, but there are still a num­ber of exams that job hope­fuls can take to assist with their employ­ment search. Busi­ness ana­lysts help orga­ni­za­tions and cor­po­ra­tions find pat­terns, trends and errors that would oth­er­wise remain hidden.

Choos­ing a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in the area they want to spe­cial­ize in can help busi­ness ana­lyt­ics grad­u­ates get the atten­tion of prospec­tive employ­ers. Suc­cess­ful busi­ness ana­lysts need the acu­men to under­stand both the tech­ni­cal and busi­ness sides of data issues. Adding cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can help grad­u­ates cer­ti­fy their knowl­edge in par­tic­u­lar areas. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is equal­ly impor­tant as peo­ple out­side the IT depart­ment need clear expla­na­tions of data issues.

Top picks for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics include:

• Cer­ti­fied Ana­lyt­ics Pro­fes­sion­al (CAP)
• IIBA Entry Cer­tifi­cate in Busi­ness Analy­sis (ECBA)
• IQBBA Cer­ti­fied Foun­da­tion Lev­el Busi­ness Ana­lyst (CFLBA)
• IIBA Cer­ti­fied Busi­ness Analy­sis Pro­fes­sion­al (CBAP)
• IIBA Agile Analy­sis Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion (AAC)
• Sim­pliLearn Busi­ness Ana­lyst Mas­ters Program
• IREB Cer­ti­fied Pro­fes­sion­al for Require­ments Engi­neer­ing (CPRE)
• PMI Pro­fes­sion­al in Busi­ness Analy­sis (PBA)

How­ev­er, there are many oth­er cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics that grad­u­ates can look into. Find­ing a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics that ties into stu­dents’ areas of exper­tise can fur­ther increase their val­ue to future employers.

Learn how much busi­ness ana­lyt­ics majors can earn in dif­fer­ent job roles.

How Much Can I Make with a Business Analytics Degree?

Many stu­dents choose degrees in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics due to the high­er rate of pay. With a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree salary, stu­dents may find them­selves able to pay their school loans off soon­er than less lucra­tive fields. Keep read­ing to learn more about spe­cif­ic busi­ness ana­lyt­ics job salary ranges.

Accord­ing to the 2022 Robert Half Salary Guide, busi­ness ana­lyt­ics salary ranges are some of the high­est salaries in busi­ness or tech­nol­o­gy sec­tors. For exam­ple, a big data engi­neer can make over $163,000 and an AI archi­tect may com­mand $144,000. Mean­while, the busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree salary for a data sci­en­tist can exceed $125,000 and data mod­el­ers can earn $102,000. As a data­base man­ag­er, stu­dents might expect to make $134,000 or more and some data­base admin­is­tra­tors make over $100,000 per year on aver­age. As busi­ness intel­li­gence ana­lysts, many stu­dents will bring home $110,000 or more.

A busi­ness ana­lyt­ics job salary is just one rea­son that many stu­dents will enjoy a career in this field. Whether work­ing on pre­dic­tive ana­lyt­ics or his­tor­i­cal ana­lyt­ics, those earn­ing a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree salary have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to rev­o­lu­tion­ize the way their orga­ni­za­tions do business.

Relat­ed Rankings:

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics