First, thank you all for your interest and feedback. To clarify: I've spent the last three years as a Business Analyst and Marketing Analyst. I've worked for two Internet companies, using various technical skills (SQL, VBA, Excel automation, etc) to create reports and build reporting tools that supported decision making in marketing, sales, operations and strategy. I've learned at least a little about each of these topics by being involved in these various projects.
I'd like to expand my skills to do more powerful and complex analysis, which means learn about data modeling and mining, and how to apply them to various functions of business. I see myself returning to the technology sector, although having the option to go into finance (maybe not as a full-blown quant, but something in that direction) is appealing.
To use NYU as an example: they have specilizations in
Data, Models & Decisions and
Financial Systems and Analytics. UMD has the
Decisions, Operations & Information Technologies department (with a terribly outdated website -- the whole Smith site is awful, really) and a possibility of an
MBA/MS in Operations Research (although admissions tells the program is temporarily suspended and may or may not return by the time I'd be approaching graduation).
When it comes right down to it, I think that as a means to an end, a UMD education will get me to the career path I want (possibly even opening doors to the quant world). I'm just having a difficult time shaking the feeling that NYU would be a better experience, surrounded by higher caliber students and in an elite environment. I also want to be proud of attending a school with a world-class reputation.
What do you think? Are most of you looking at business school as the most practical way to get to the job you want, or are you taking into consideration other, less tangible, more emotion-driven factors?