Data science program admissions essay (CPP=300)

Please give a Statement of Purpose detailing your goals and career plans. Include your reasons for choosing Georgia Tech's MS in Analytics as opposed to other programs and/or other universities. Your space is limited to 4000 characters.

Today, researchers and analysts are combining machine learning and statistics in order to solve problems for various organizations and create accurate business models in a revolutionary way. I have always been passionate about analyzing datasets to draw data-driven conclusions, and I plan to grow my knowledge and understanding of the field by obtaining a Master’s Degree in Analytics from Georgia Tech.

I started my career working as an applications engineer at CasaTech, a company specializing in computer aided system automation. The nature of work required me to develop a deep understanding of workflow and implementation of data gathering in various chemical plants. The experience from data-oriented management grew my curiosity and led me to explore further options in academia. While pursuing a Chemical Engineering degree from Rice University, I decided to also minor in Applied Mathematics in order to build a foundation for understanding newly developed models in Data Science. I greatly enjoyed and benefited from courses such as Operations Research where I learned how to transform application problems into mathematical optimization models.

I am currently employed as a Product Analyst at a market-leading oil and gas software company, Quorum Software. My responsibilities include creating SQL scripts to fix or retrieve relevant client data, applying analytical skills to resolve code issues, conducting regression testing for quality assurance in collaboration with the Engineering team, and managing four clients as a project owner. The Python and MATLAB coding experience that I had from college allowed me to rapidly integrate into my role, as the job involves a heavy emphasis in coding and debugging in SQL. While I was fortunate to gain invaluable experiences in analytics during the early stages of my career, I feel that I have so much to learn in the fundamentals of data science. As I believe continuous learning is an essential in life, I aspire to learn in depth of massive-scale data analytics, high-performance computing, and statistical modeling from one of the best data science programs in the nation.

With emphasis on core analytics disciplines of statistics, operations research and computing, Georgia Tech’s MS in Analytics program will greatly help me develop a necessary edge to lead the industry. I believe that my mathematical background, along with knowledge of programming in various languages and optimization modeling, have granted me excellent background for successful completion of the OMSA program. The proven excellence from successful implementation of the OMSCS program, built on rigorous on-campus curriculum, lead me to believe that OMSA is the best online master’s program for data science in the nation. Also, the interdisciplinary approach to analytics in Georgia Tech will give me opportunity to garner a unique understanding of cutting-edge analytic techniques. It would be an incredible privilege and greatest opportunity to be accepted into this program.

Thank you for considering my application.