Smruti Iyer, 2020
BS Marketing
At UTD I’m pursuing double master’s degrees in management science and marketing. The marketing program offers many courses covering a wide range of topics. They cater to the interests of all students pursuing marketing, which was the main reason I chose this program. The program continually updates and upgrades its courses to stay relevant with the current industry requirements. Alex Edsel, the program director, also holds course previews every semester, which was one of the most helpful sessions during my master’s experience. It helped me plan my coursework well, allowing me to complement courses in my management degree.
A few of the courses I found really helpful were
- Interactive and Digital Marketing
- MarTech Ecosystem
- Spreadsheet Modeling and Analytics
- Market Data Analysis and Research
- Consumer Behavior
- and the Capstone Marketing Decision Making course, which is offered by very few other universities apart from UTD.
These courses not only helped me gain the theoretical knowledge required but also encouraged practical applications of the concepts to better equip me for industry.
Additionally, my experience as a teaching assistant for the Marketing Area further helped me learn new applications and development software for the industry.
I remember three experiences I enjoyed greatly during my marketing program.
The first was during my Negotiations and Dispute Resolution course. My team had to work through a situation in which we represented a company and had to negotiate with another team representing another company. The goal was to come to an agreement benefiting either or both companies. The exercise taught us to apply strategies and tactics of integrative and distributive negotiation. It was a fun and great learning experience through which we ended up coming to a win-win situation for both parties.
The second was during the Market Data Analysis and Research course. Our project for the course was to contact a company from the industry and build a market research report for it. We had to design a survey, collect and analyze the consumer survey data using XLDA software and, finally, come up with our recommendations to the company. It was an amazing learning experience that seemed overwhelming at first because it moved out of the classroom and into the real world. But as we proceeded with the project, it just got more and more interesting toward the end.
My last experience is from the Capstone Market Decision Making course I’m currently taking. The course involves a business simulation of a company spanning seven years. We have to run the company by making decisions regarding sales, pricing, marketing and brands every week, just like a real company would in the industry. We have to continually analyze the market, competition and the effects of our previous decisions on the company’s progress, to help make better decisions for the next round. This course is unlike any other, which makes it very special as it is one of the most enriching and valuable courses offered in the program.
