Drive Change with Analytics + Human Behavior

Shape the future of business insights, user experience research, public service initiatives, and more with social data analytics. In the MS Applied Quantitative Methods and Social Analysis (AQMSA), you’ll learn to blend advanced analytics with a deep understanding of human behavior in as little as one year. Your peers have backgrounds in everything from the social sciences and humanities to business and STEM fields—but you share a commitment to solving social science problems and getting results. 

What Can You Do with the MS AQMSA?

You can apply expertise in social data analytics to any industry. Here are a few examples:

• Empower community organizers with data-driven recommendations to increase direct participation
• Leverage consumer insights and market research approaches to build needed public policies around child safety and wellbeing in public schools
• Explore the impact of FinTech on small businesses in order to build meaningful recommendations around its deployment
• Examine data around COVID misinformation and make recommendations to reduce its impact
• Uncover the toll of work-life balance stressors across identities and make recommendations on how businesses can provide impactful support

Choose Diverse Topics to Match Your Passions

You can study anything from data science and computer science to social theory and ethics, with a choice of five concentrations. Become a professional who can leverage analytics, research, and ethics to solve challenges related to equity, hierarchy, social organization, and social systems. This degree positions you for immediate career impact—and empowers you to drive meaningful change.

Concentrations

• Data Analytics in the Social Sciences
• Computational Social Science
• Network Analysis in the Social Sciences
• Statistical Methods in the Social Sciences
• Information Ethics

Get Paid Experience Solving Social Science Challenges

The MS Applied Quantitative Methods and Social Analysis offers an optional, full-time, 4 to 6-month co-op or internship (frequently paid). Co-op partners have included National Grid PLC, Boston Planning and Development Agency, Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Amazon.com, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Rwanda National Commission for the Fight against Genocide, and more. Many alumni go on to full-time positions.

Prepare for a Fulfilling Career in Any Industry

Be in-demand in a fulfilling role. Our alumni go on to hold roles like Principal Business Analyst for FKC Home Therapies, UX Researcher on digitizing and modernizing the electric grid for National Grid, Senior Agile Project Manager for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Researcher and Data Analytics Lead for a sheriff’s department, and more. Many alumni go on to hold leadership roles, driving positive change.

Learn From Leading Faculty Making an Impact

Learn from leading faculty who provide social science insights for impactful change in collaboration with stakeholders as diverse as Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Justice, Boston Schools Fund, Massachusetts Department of Transportation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and more.

Gregory Zimmerman
Program Director

Dr. Zimmerman leads research on the spatial distribution of violent crime, law enforcement responses to violence, and the development of new tools to fight the opioid epidemic. He is a strong advocate for the experiential liberal arts, online education, and interdisciplinary social sciences and humanities programs.

Thrive in a Flexible, High-Value Program

This flexible, one-year, STEM-designated MS Applied Quantitative Methods and Social Analysis is one of the most flexible in the field. And it carries the prestige of a degree from Northeastern, a top-tier R1 institution for research activity. 

• Open to students with and without a technical or social science background
• Available 100% online, hybrid, or in person (Boston or Arlington)
• Full time or part time
• Automatic consideration for scholarships up to 50% off tuition