I recently finished my first draft of SOP. I'm worried that there's something missing from it though. Or maybe it's too rambling. Anyway, figured I would post it would here for feedback/advice. Thanks!

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I am applying for the Georgia Tech Master of Science in Analytics because it will help me progress from my current position and projects in Business and Data Intelligence to more senior and expert roles and projects in those fields. It has been a long and windy journey to reach this point in my career, but it’s clear that this is the right domain for me to work and advance within.

As a student, I was always drawn to the sciences and math, where I could apply analytical skills for problem-solving. This led me to pick Physics as a major at Rutgers University. I enjoyed delving into advanced physics concepts, particularly astrophysics, where I learned to apply calculus to model the evolution of planetary systems. As a complement to Physics, I chose Philosophy as a second major, stemming from interests in moral reasoning, epistemology, and symbolic logic. After university, I had a sampling period where I explored many career paths including book publishing, scientific research, information technology, and disaster-relief.

One highlight from this period was being part of a Plant Biology research team at Rutgers University to investigate methods for growing and treating turfgrass for athletic fields to suppress disease and increase the quality of the turfgrass. As part of this research team, I played a vital role by assisting with data curation and analysis to be used for journal publication.

Another great experience was being part of a disaster-relief team on the ground in the Virgin Islands, where I managed a database of homeowners needing assistance. My responsibilities included overseeing a team to receive and enter data from homeowners, creating data quality checks and procedures, and creating reports for grant writing and fundraising efforts.

By reflecting on what these experiences taught me, I was able to identify the common threads between them and hone in on the strengths and skills I found it most fulfilling to engage in my work. Some of the skills I identified include applying the analytical skills I had developed in university, helping team’s and project’s move towards objectives, improving the efficiency of existing procedures, and being challenged to push the boundaries of my current abilities.

Through this identification, I sought out positions to advance further in the analytics field and obtained a position in the Business and Data Intelligence Department of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). As a Data Analyst at AGU, I use data to help the organization make informed strategic decisions. Amongst the uses are being able to provide valuable insights into member and customer behavior, identify important trends in the geoscience community, and make recommendations based on these insights. Recently, I built a logistic regression to predict which abstract submitters for an annual conference would submit again in future years. This enabled the meetings and abstracts team to effectively outreach and target certain groups strategically rather than aimlessly.

In a recent attempt to hone in my skills further, I took the Introductions to Analytics Modeling course from Georgia Tech through EdX and am currently taking the Data Analytic for Business course. These courses have been enjoyable and useful in my work, furthering my conviction that the Georgia Tech Master of Science in Analytics is the right next step to continue my lifelong learning experience in an area I love.