Cohort leaders are student representatives elected by their peers. The cohort leaders are responsible for building cohort cohesion and serving as a liaison between the students and program faculty/staff by organizing events and overseeing communications.
Meet this year’s cohort leaders for the MS in Data Analytics & Business Computing (MSDABC) Class of 2022!
Q: What led you each to apply for the MSDABC program?
Raymond: I applied for the MSDABC program because of its unique focus on China, which will help me and provide me with many resources for Chinese campus recruitment. Moreover, its curriculum fits my interests as it includes many programming courses and data analysis courses.
Yating: First, I like the curriculum of this program very much. For example, machine learning, statistics and data analysis are very useful to our practical work in the future. Our professors all graduated from prestigious universities and have rich teaching experience. Second, the capstone project contains a few famous companies, which is also beneficial for us to find a job. Furthermore, the location of NYU Shanghai is very great. Since I have liked Shanghai for a long time, I hope to continue to develop my career path here in the future.
Q: Speaking of courses, you have now completed Statistics, Intro to Python, and Machine Learning for Business, and now you’re about halfway through Advanced Topics in Machine Learning. What is your impression of the program so far?
Yating: I think Machine learning is very wonderful. In this course, I learned a lot of data models that are utilized in actual work. In addition, Professor Zhang also told us some general situations and required skills of the Data Analytics industry. This helps me become clearer about what I want to do and feel more confident for the fall recruitment. Professor Liao is very patient and friendly to us. Everyone likes Professor Liao very much. Also, I was impressed by several other courses, allowing me to gain a lot of knowledge and practical skills.
Raymond: I think the courses so far are really useful in terms of consolidating students’ foundations of data analysis and using data for real business problems.
Q: What are your career goals coming out of this program?
Raymond: I want to become a business or strategy analyst eventually. I want to be a data analyst or product manager right after I graduate and then later I would consider being a business or strategy analyst as those are more advanced functions.
Yating: I hope to work as a trainee in the fast-moving consumer industry or go to a financial institution to do data analysis of funds and stocks.
Q: What other program resources have you utilized so far?
Raymond: I’ve gone to the CDC, and attended guest speaker lectures for networking and to learn more about different industries. From the CDC I attended the career fair and also found the technical interview workshop very helpful.
Yating: I am involved with The American Universities’ China Association (AUCA) and I have also attended CDC events and guest speakers, which are very helpful.
Q: What are you looking forward to doing while in Shanghai this summer and fall?
Yating: I will focus on fall recruitment. At the same time, I will continue to do internships to enhance my employment competitiveness. Right now I am currently working at the finance center of a government institution where I use Python to do data analysis.
Raymond: I will utilize this time to prepare for fall campus recruitment and I am also working as an intern at Discover. I will also try to spend some free time with my friends and maintain a good work-life balance.