Graduate / My enthusiasm to explore data science. Personal Statement - The Data Science Colloquium at Michigan [3]

Hi This university requires a SOP and a PS, I wonder if my PS meets the requirements and if it is overlapping with my SOP. And is it an attracting start paragraph for PS? Thanks for help

Personal Statement for Data Science

There is something in TV series Person of Interest that always come back to me. The leading actor Finch defined π as all of the world's infinite possibilities rest within this one simple circle. He also maintained that what you do with that information, what it's good for, that would be up to you. Those words truly resonated with me and triggered my enthusiasm to explore data science.

Thus, I choose statistics as my undergraduate major, which is concerned with the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. All statistics and computer science courses equip me with sets of procedures to follow in statistical modeling. Immersed in coding, I enjoy trying out different algorithms, experimenting with different features, and exploring various data sets.

As an enthusiast for newly emerging things, it's fortunate for me to live in a community where deep learning is growing rapidly. Siri can assist me to get things done. Music player will recommend my favorite genre of music. I always believe human behavior can be consistently and scientifically analyzed and predicted via historical data. With the training in Master of Data Science, my dream to become a data scientist will continue to bloom.

Another thing attracts me is, data science requires empathy. There is a lot of love and compassion that is not explainable in terms of neural networks and computation algorithms. In my daily life, some of my friends are very private and they have trust issues about social media. Apart from advanced technical skills, how to utilize data cleverly is one of my interests. The Data Science Colloquium at Michigan will help me understand the ethical implications of this work. Additionally, I have taken several general education courses to analyze cognitive development. I want to go further to tie data to cognition.

The master program of Data Science at XYZ will be in alignment with my undergraduate training, my personal interests and future develop trend.

Graduate / Data Science is a promising profession - University of Michigan SOP [2]

Can anyone provide some suggestion for my sop? Thanks a lot

Statement of Purpose - Data Science

We have become so used to the existence of cell phones, credit cards and surveillance that we won't perceive our personal data is being collected and we are being watched every hour of every day. What contained within these data is birth data, daily routine, latest crush and hidden secrets. It is through intensive study of all information that data scientists come to know our entire life story. The digital age is here and I am ready to embrace the numerous possibilities it presents.

During my undergraduate study as a statistics major student, professors emphasize theoretical knowledge, along with massive proofs and computation in assignments and examinations. In addition, I have been introduced to practical concepts, methods and tools in database management systems, machine learning, data mining. Course assessments composed of group projects and presentations have endowed me with good analysis and cooperation. Relevant knowledge and skills have definitely given me an edge, however, as one of my professors said, even a simple p-value could be interpreted in different ways. Moving beyond distributions, hypothesis testing, interval estimation and regressions, I want to understand data representation and analysis at an advanced level.

To explore big data in real business, I took an internship in a logistics company as a data analyst. The whole team processed delivery data of a pilot city and implemented a data-driven approach to a revolutionary change in the business model of nationwide delivery services. The internship has sharpened my Extract-Transform-Load skills for data processing in real life business. Additionally, I was equipped with the knowledge of privacy concerns and latest methods to protect user privacy while processing data. My professional experience brought to light that in a real business, what matters is not only building machine learning techniques, but also telling the story behind data to augment decision-making. Inspired by the actionable insights developed from vast volumes of data, I solidified my interest in this promising field, yet also realized there's still a lot of room for improvement before I delve into the profession.

In the near future, fueled by my passion for travel, I see myself as a data scientist at a travel website company with numerous registered users, deep diving into user behavior data with my analytics expertise, providing my registered users with abundant valuable information about traveling and recommending personalized travel routes based on integrated and analyzed data. By analyzing user browsing history, I could investigate customer preferences and purchasing power as well as how consumer tastes evolve over time. Eventually, I could build a user profile so as to provide customized and personalized services. Going through the curriculum, many courses will endow me with concepts, methods and tools of personalization technologies and recommender systems. What's more, the capstone project serves as a great transition from academic coursework to real business. Exposure to real business scenarios would help me to develop customer insights and have a grasp of customer retention strategies. Moving forward, my communication and problem-solving capabilities would be improved, hence preparing me for my professional goals.

The department of statistics at Michigan has a great reputation for years and has a lot of connection with my home university, like 3+2 program as well as workshop on statistics and data science. All faculty are not only experts in their research area, but also passionate and energetic about what they do and they will transfer this passion to students. Data Science is a promising profession in coping with this ever-changing world. I am confident University of Michigan offers the best platform and training to reach my goals.