Statement of Purpose for Masters in Data Analytics

Description:
This is a statement of purpose for the Georgia Tech Online Master of Science in Analytics. It"s a new program starting in the fall, more information can be found here: https://pe.gatech.edu/online-masters-degrees/online-master-science-analytics.

Below is the prompt for the statement of purpose:
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.

Resume is attached.

Below is what I"ve written so far:
The story that sparked my interest in Data Analytics was a New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html) entitled How Companies Learn Your Secrets. The crux of the article tells the story of how Andrew Poole used data to help Target predict if one of its customers was pregnant. The ability to distill the large amount of data on each of the millions of guests into a single prediction was intriguing and filled me with questions. What tools were used? What statistical methods? How confident was Poole in his predictions and how accurate were they?

I have a general idea of what the answers to these questions could be from my undergraduate Industrial Engineering classes at Georgia Tech, but a Masters in Analytics will help me truly understand and develop similar methodologies. Since graduating from Tech, I’ve been working as a consultant in the Logistics and Supply Chain industry; there is an ocean of data stored and more being generated every second, from operations to social media to sales and even weather. In my time in this industry, I haven’t seen a company truly analyze their entire breadth of data; domain experts do not have the background in analytics to see the value in consolidating and correlating these datasets - I want to close this gap in the supply chain world. There is potential to find unique opportunities for businesses to grow and I need a specific set of skills in Analytics that I will gain in this Master’s Program to order to generate actionable ideas.

I studied at Georgia Tech for my undergrad and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The classes were difficult, but engaging. I learned many practical skills, and the theory to back it up. The curriculum was comprehensive in scope and made sure the basics were covered before the moving on to advanced topics. One of my favorite experiences as an undergrad was Senior Design and seeing the Practicum on the curriculum excites me. I expect this Master’s program to match my past experiences and am confident in the online MOOC platform that Georgia Tech pioneered with the Online Masters in CS.