Graduate / I trust the future potential of Data Science, and I trust my own ability to excel at it. SOP [3]

So glad I found this website. I am currently going through application process for MS data science. Below is my SOP. Whoever's willing to help me, thank you so much in advance.

Statement of Purpose - MS Data Science application

The reason I want apply to the Data Science program is twofold: I trust the future potential of Data Science, and I trust my own ability to excel at it.

It wasn't until last year when I finally had a clear understanding of what Data Science is. In 2017, I watched a Chinese TV program called "Smarter than People." The show focuses on testing real-life usages of data science and AI technology. I was amazed by the wide variety of tasks that can be achieved by data scientists and AI practitioners, including self-driving vehicle, facial recognition, speech synthesis, traffic modeling, etc. Besides being amazed, I learned what Data Science really is from the show: other than the technical definition, it is also a powerful tool that can be utilized to analyze the past in order to facilitate future goals. Among all applications presented on the show, one caught my eyes. A program called "Luban" can generate over 1000 exquisite original commercial posters, advertising proposals, or book covers within one second, and the quality of which matched, if not superseded, some of the creation by top designers. Despite having no background in marketing or advertising, I am always curious about the strategies that business owners made to attract potential customers. I realize that such decisions were usually backed up by the interpretation of data involving customer behavior, market potential, and other relevant factors. Therefore, I hope to gain such insights by learning how to collect and process data.

Although I am now determined to pursue a degree and a career in data science, it was not love on first sight. Instead, I spent four years acquiring a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering. However, I believe that my education in engineering was nothing but valuable to my academic and professional pursuit of Data Science. First of all, it helped me developed a crucial mindset that is essential for engineers and data scientists/analysts. Second, we were granted the chance to explore a range of classes, such as fundamental statistics, calculus, and computational tools like MATLAB, which laid a solid foundation for my future academic pursuit. Moreover, I worked on several projects that extensively required the skill to build models that extrapolate patterns from given (or researched) data. For instance, I was in charge of creating an open channel profile for Orange County sewer lines during my senior design project, where over a hundred stations, elevations, and fluid discharge results were included. Instead of using Excel as recommended, I implemented MATLAB and created a computationally efficient function to deliver my goal. The process became faster and clearer, and I was also able to incorporate data visualization into the project.

As aforementioned, my career goal is to become a data scientist or data analyst, and help companies optimizing market performance by formulating marketing strategies and other decisions via application of data science. To achieve my goals, I need a solid education background in basic skills like data mining, data compression, and data visualization; furthermore, I must gain knowledge of other fields of studies, such as business analysis, social media operation, etc.; plus, I want to acquire sufficient work experience to understand how to implement my learning into real-life projects.

In consideration of my goal, I am convinced that ______ is the best choice for me. I realize that the ______ program offers great core courses from Business Strategy to Machine Learning, and have great elective courses with business, economics, and medical emphasis. Moreover, according to the program catalog, two capstone projects are provided, which means I would have the opportunity to work on real-life projects and gain experience that will facilitate my future career development.

I understand that ____ is one of the top Data Science school in the world, so the program must be highly competitive. Therefore, in order to be a more worthy candidate to admission, and a more prepared prospective data science student, I have already started to learn on my own. I have been learning Python and SQL since July; I am currently reading through a couple of books such as Data Science for Business and Deep Learning; I also joined Coursera, and currently taking an online Data Science course offered by ____. I am confident that by the time of my enrollment, I will be ready for tougher challenges ahead of me.