Welcome to William & Mary, and to the Raymond A. Mason School of Business community!

I am Joe Wilck, Faculty Director for the Master of Science in Business Analytics Program, and it is my pleasure to welcome you into our program. We are excited that you have chosen to be with us over the next academic year to learn about analytics and its many applications to business. 

I am really looking forward to greeting you and your classmates when you arrive. During your time here, we will be working very hard to learn as much about business analytics as we possibly can in the span of 10 months. We will learn about where data comes from, how to acquire it, how to cleanse it, and how to analyze it using a wide variety of methodologies from machine learning to artificial intelligence to optimization — but that’s not all! Employers have told us that job candidates often struggle to present complex analyses in plain, managerial terms, and so we will work on these skills as well. These skills are essential to “getting yourself heard” and mastering these skills will propel your career.

We’ll also take time to discuss aspects of “how business works” which will give you essential background so that your analyses are relevant to business and generate value. Throughout the semester we will schedule sessions to help you position yourself for your job search. It is extremely rewarding to develop clear insight from a complex data set upon which a manager can make better decisions. Getting to that point at the end of the business analytics process requires that you negotiate some difficult and meticulous tasks along the way. This program will help you learn how to handle those tasks more efficiently and effectively.

Friendships are built on shared experiences and this program is no exception. I expect that you will build strong friendships that will last a lifetime as you work hard with your classmates during this program. Your class is incredible—composed of many wonderful individuals who are excited about business analytics and are at the forefront of a new movement. While all of you share the excitement, each of you brings a diverse set of skills. I encourage you to get to know all of your classmates well, especially those who might have different backgrounds or different strengths than yourself. Solving complex problems requires skills in handling data, programming, analysis, and communications, as well as knowledge about business. Each of your classmates will have varying levels of expertise in these areas and you will learn a lot from them, especially if you are open to identifying your own personal gaps.

In the coming weeks, you'll be receiving a series of newsletters from other faculty: their stories, their courses, their expectations, and maybe some suggested prep work to really hit the ground running. Once again, welcome to the program and I look forward to meeting each of you!

Sincerely,
Joseph Wilck, Ph.D., P.E.
757-221-2894 (office)
434-390-4576 (mobile)
3072 Miller Hall (office location)