20 Feb, 2026
By Kristine Hojnicki
Annie Olecki (M.S. in Business Analytics ’26) spends most of her days working with complex datasets that carry real consequences. After graduating in 2021 with a degree in Economics from Mount Holyoke College, she moved to Washington, DC. Today, she’s a Senior Consultant at Bates White Economic Consulting, supporting merger reviews and antitrust litigation.
While she enjoys the work and pace, she also saw how analytics was quickly changing the landscape.
“I had a pretty strong technical foundation,” Olecki says. “But the analytics space, and data and business as a result, is evolving rapidly. This decision wasn’t about pivoting. It was about improving how I do my job and becoming more thoughtful and impactful.”
That led her to UVA’s M.S. in Business Analytics (MSBA) Program, presented jointly by the McIntire School of Commerce and Darden School of Business.
A Hybrid MSBA Designed for Working Professionals
Olecki knew she wanted a program she could complete while continuing to work full time. “I really wanted something that wasn’t fully remote,” she says. The 12-month program’s hybrid structure of online coursework during the week paired with in-person residencies at the Rosslyn and Charlottesville campuses stood out immediately.
“We meet on the weekends in person, and I really do enjoy that aspect,” Olecki notes. “Getting to know the cohort and my classmates is such an important part of the experience.”
Working while she’s enrolled in the MSBA has been one of the most valuable aspects of the program. “I’ve been able to use a lot of what I’m learning in real time. That immediate relevance has been really cool to witness,” she says.
Where Business Analytics Skills Meet Real Business Decisions
One of the program’s defining features, in Olecki’s eyes, is how tightly technical training is embedded in business application. Even courses focused on coding and modeling are grounded in real-world use cases.
“Every class, even the technical ones, is focused on the business outlook and how you implement what you’re learning,” she says. “There is no course that is strictly data and no course that is strictly business. They all overlap.”
That approach has been particularly important as AI becomes more prevalent. “I think with AI, people think technical skills are less important. But it’s about leveraging AI, then seeing how we can use those results or use what it helped us do to communicate with a business,” she says.
Throughout the program, Olecki and her peers work with tools like Python and SQL, build predictive models, and explore machine learning. But the work always comes back to interpretation and explanation.
“It’s about communicating technical results to people who don’t have that background,” she explains.
Gaining New Perspectives and Problem-Solving Frameworks
Olecki has already seen the program change how she approaches her consulting work. The biggest shift has been in how she frames results for stakeholders. That discipline of distilling complexity into clarity is something the program emphasizes repeatedly. “They don’t need to know what your Python code was. They need to know how they can use it to make a decision,” she explains.
The cohort experience has been another source of her changing perspective. “It’s a unique environment that I think is hard to find in any other setting,” she says. Students come from a wide range of industries and career stages, each with different priorities that enrich the learning experience. “People approach problems in ways I would never think of. It is so energizing to learn from my classmates.”
Staying Ready for Any Changes in Analytics and AI
Looking ahead, Olecki doesn’t see the MSBA as a stepping stone away from consulting, but as a way to grow within it. “It’s really important not to get stuck in how things have always been done,” she says, noting that staying current with analytics tools, AI capabilities, and communication strategies is central to that goal.
For others who are considering the program, Olecki offers some candid advice. “You definitely don’t know as much as you think you do,” she says. “The coding is just the beginning. With every project and every presentation, you learn something new.”
For Olecki, the value of the MSBA program lies in constant refinement: learning how to analyze better, communicate more clearly, and deliver work that decision-makers can trust.
Another highlight is that each module culminates in a client-facing project. “We’ve worked with real organizations,” she says, citing UVA Advancement and Hilton as examples. “We’re using real data and presenting results as if they were a client. Going through the full process is incredibly helpful.”