Summer Bootcamps

Since the MSBA program mostly focuses on quantitative analysis skills and students come from a variety of academic backgrounds, SMU provides a series of required Summer Bootcamps for students to refresh basic statistics and programming skills. In 2015, the Summer Bootcamps were held in August and lasted for 3 weeks. It consists of 3 parts: Statistics Bootcamp, R Bootcamp and Excel Bootcamp.

Statistics Bootcamp

Professor: Richard Briesch, Professor of Marketing, Corrigan Research Professor, Research Fellow, National Center for Arts Research.

http://www.smu.edu/Cox/Departments/FacultyDirectory/BrieschRichard

Textbook: None required.

Software: Excel.

Contents: The first half of this course is devoted to learning about basic probability distributions, estimation, and hypothesis testing; the second half is devoted to simple and multiple regression analysis and model building and diagnoses.

Tips: It is altogether 6 classes for this statistics bootcamp. The professor cannot teach every detail on statistics in such a short amount of time, so it is better for students to have a good sense of statistics beforehand. The PPT slides are very concise in contents so that you may need to search for more detailed explanations in your college textbooks or on the internet. The professor will present each statistics concept using examples in Excel, so that you should have basic Excel skills.  The professor may teach very fast for some time, so you should feel free to ask questions in class and review class contents carefully after class by yourself. Remember, this is just a statistics bootcamp, not a semester-long, mathematics-based statistics course. 

R Bootcamp

Professor: Young Park.

Textbook: None required.

Software: R.

Contents: There are 3 classes for this R Bootcamp. It covers basic R syntax, such as Vectors, Matrices, Data Frames, Arrays, Vector and Matrix Operations, Random Sampling and Subscripting, Function, Loops, Reading and Writing Data, Data Manipulation by dplyr, Conversion by tidyr, and Creating Graphics by ggplot2.

Tips: If R is a totally new programming language for you, just keep practicing. The more you practice, the more you will learn by yourself. Do not just copy and paste, try to write those codes by yourself.

Excel Bootcamp

Professor: Stewart Rogers, Adjunct Professor.

http://www.smu.edu/Cox/Departments/FacultyDirectory/RogersStewart

Textbook: None required.

Software: Excel.

Contents: It is only 1 class for this Intermediate/Advanced Excel session. It covers Excel Basics (functions, help, and formula), Managing Data (importing, sorting, filtering, summarizing, pivot tables), Financial Modeling, and Custom Applications with Excel (OLAP, Data Mart).

Tips: Excel is the basis for every business analysis task, so make sure you master it well. You will need the Analysis ToolPack and the Solver ToolPak installed on your computer before class. Sometimes, the Professor presents some Excel operations very quickly, so be sure to follow him, otherwise you will be lost.