Graduate / SOP REVIEW: MS IN STATISTICS [3]

Please help me review my SOP and LOR. My backgound in Finance and Banking, and I intent to apply for ms in Statistics. My manager, supervior and professor are not native English speaker, and they are very busy. they request me to draft those LORs first. Thank all of you very much.

application to graduate studies in Statistics

+++SOP+++

Millions of banking jobs will be cut in the next decade. Yes, with current advancements in artificial intelligence, human workforce in general and banking staffs in particular seem to be under threat of automation. As a member of the banking industry, I find the present time most appropriate for beginning my graduate studies to broaden my knowledge and perspective. I intend to earn a Masters in Statistics because analyzing data, modeling phenomenon and predicting trends with those model have wide and practical utility. Upon graduation, I plan to work in a data-driven occupation within the private sector or for an agency of the federal government.

I graduated from Banking Academy in Vietnam in 2012 with Bachelor degree in Finance and Banking, major in International Payment and Trade Finance. In my current role as a DEF BANK, I provide expertise consulting services assisting our customers to perform their international business operation smoothly. Current position gives me an opportunity to work with our customers independently or in a team. We often have to work under pressure to meet deadline, which requires high sense of responsibility and effectively coordination of multiple individuals. Therefore, I developed strong detail-oriented and communicative skills. In addition, my other skills, such as, critical and analytical thinking, problem-solving skills have been improved to meet the job's requirement. My daily duty was also to examine letters of credit and determine whether a company is qualified for financial support by assessing its credit history and operational performance. I used to prepare monthly Service Agreement Level reports 3 years ago. In this task, I collect and analyze data about processing time of each transaction in our branches and head office. Based on data from surveys and interviews with customers, I proposed to gather list of frequently asked questions in our field for our customer and cut redundant steps in our processing according to Lean and Six sigma principles. Surprisingly, our business process decreased processing time by 30% and saw a 20% rise in customer satisfaction. I realized that statistic played a significant role to help me summarize and analyze data in these tasks. My experience from work helps me understand the importance of statistics.

I first came to be interested in statistics when I partook in a project of our bank 2 years ago. Our project focused on building a system that can detect suspect transactions to prevent money laundering. My role in this project was to design test plans and set up limit of suspicion. The project involved a big volume of Internet and internal database, organization and analysis. I relied on the knowledge about Normal distribution, Mean, Standard deviation to make some basic analysis and quantify suspicious limit for specific type of transaction. Based on collecting, extracting raw data, manipulating and analyzing them by using that statistical knowledge, we were able to not only identify suspect transactions in the past for further investigation, but also create set of criteria to prevent those transactions in the future. In the end, our project was declared as the best successful project out of five most important project of our bank that year. At that time, I not only gained many things new but also realized that my heart had preference to statistics.

While working a demand job at our bank, I took on reading some English materials to improve critical thinking skill. I thought this skill is very important skill for my surfing the internet, where fake news and fallacious articles have been widespread in my country. I chased to my dream of becoming a knowledgeable person. Through my reading, I knew that studying for GRE test was very helpful to my purpose. Fortunately, after three months of studying GRE preparation books, I found out that some positive changes happened in my mind. Mathematics not only helped relieve my stress after long working day, it also enabled my brain to be more flexible and creative. Our colleagues saw my communication skill was substantially improved despite the fact that I had been a shy, timid and introvert person for a long time before. I felt more confident to debate and share my thoughts with other people about my information collected from the Internet. I kept my reading habit every evening and accidently exposed to an articles of Dr. Nguyen Tuan, Professor of Predictive Medicine of School of Biomedical Engineering of University of Technology Sydney, Australia. The article is about using basic statistical methods like Linear Regression, Outliers analysis to examine distribution of high school graduation grades of five provinces of Vietnam to detect faults. I was very interested in his articles and felt in love with statistics from this moment. Once again, statistics provides a crucial means through which we can extract usable information from data and apply these insights to further our understanding of real world problems.

I became determined to become a statistician for the following reasons. First, I am appealed by the fact that statisticians have exciting opportunities to learn from data. There currently exists an almost infinite amount of data just waiting to be analyzed in a meaningful way because of increase in number of people connected to the Internet. If the precious data from media and social networks, where people are more likely to express their true needs and feelings, are used effectively to drive meaningful conclusions, I can help companies find out consumer's product preferences and make models for their future sales. Second, I love putting my knowledge and skills to work in a variety of areas so as to enhance the diversity of my professional experience. My future work will not be limited to academia because statistics is essential for the proper running of government, central to decision making in industry, and a core component of modern educational curricular at all levels. In addition to this, I will work with other creative, passionate individuals from diversity backgrounds, which enable me to become a more rounded person.

My personal interests and extra-curricular activities have influenced my personality and career development as well. I enjoy reading, cooking, sports, healthy lifestyle, and involvement with community services. All these activities have played a significant role in shaping my career and personality development. Besides, I am more than happy to master new skills that the position may demand of me.

I understand that to become a great statistician one must have good quantitative skills. To prepare myself accordingly, I have started learning math courses such as calculus, linear algebra and statistics again through Coursera. I also enjoy taking part in seminars like "Good data management for sustainable development" in Hanoi, 2018 to get insight knowledge of this field. I have always identified myself as a hardworking and trustworthy student. I am convinced that I am well equipped to start graduate study.

I choose USA for my graduate study mainly due to the fact that the course in the United States would give me a great opportunity to learn from famous scholars and excellent students around the world. Being familiar with working in diverse environments with many different types of job, I believe that I can quickly adapt to new environment, to accept differences, to learn from others and easily get connected in a network. Besides, building an international network connection with expert in Statistics around the world through this course will be also helpful for my future career since it creates a dynamic channel for exchange viewpoints, knowledge and experience as well as cooperation at an international level.

As a university, Texas Tech University ranks 108 in Mathematics among top university in USA. TTU's graduate program in statistics will train me in different methods of statistical analysis, as well as the programming knowledge needed to complete large data-driven tasks. TTU has got a vibrant and multicultural outlook, along with industry links. Besides, being located in Lubbock, TTU has its own advantages too. Lubbock is a peaceful city that enables students to concentrate on studying. After considering all the factors, I am confident that the masters in statistics course at TTU will give me understanding and technical expertise to brighten my careers prospects in every possible way.

In my search for an appropriate program, course relevance and training quality are certainly important. However, large gaps in living standards make it's nothing short of impossible for me to self-support my study abroad, in spite of my strenuous efforts to work and save for education. Financial support from the university, therefore, is vital. The reasons I am attracted to Texas Tech University are obvious. TTU, with its established reputations in higher training, a greatly relevant master program of Applied Statistics, reasonable tuition and living expenses, and last but not least, available opportunities to obtain financial support, constitute a perfect choice. As I am a candidate with background in Finance and Banking in Vietnam and a wide range of useful skills, I will contribute to the program's diversity and enrichment with my unique experiences. I hope to be able to utilize the excellent opportunities provided by the university to further my long-term career goal as a statistician who effectively leverages statistical theory to represent and ultimately resolve critical problems of societal-wide interest. I would like to thank the admissions committee for consideration of my application to graduate studies in Statistics and I hope to be a part of the Texas Tech University.

One at a time.