Do you want to impress your university selection committee with your data science personal statement?
There is no shortcut to it but write it as perfectly and flawlessly as possible. The overall appeal of your data science master personal statement depends on a number of factors such as its format, writing tone, structure and more.
In this blog, we will help you get familiarized with all of them and write an impeccable document on your own.
As you read on, you will come across:
- The definition of data science personal statement
- Comprehensive guide on how to write a data science master personal statement
- Data Science Personal Statement Examples PDF
What is Data Science?
Data science is a field of study which focuses on gathering data from various complex and unstructured data sources and converting them into useful information for human understanding.
A Brief History of Data Science
It is believed that the term ‘data science’ was coined by the Danish computer scientist Peter Naur in the year 1974. He, in fact, suggested this name to refer to computer science.
However, William S. Cleveland developed the concept of data science as an independent field of study as we identify it today. Known as the father of Data Science, Cleveland understood the need to make statistics more inclusive, particularly of technical areas rather than theory. He realized that an independent field of data science would make that possible.
Why is Data Science Important in the Modern World?
- With the help of data science, companies can analyse huge chunks of data simultaneously and draw useful conclusions from them.
- Data science enables companies to take data-driven and accurate decisions on critical issues.
- Data science has applications in almost all fields in the modern world such as banking, healthcare, marketing and finance.
What Is a Data Science Personal Statement? Why Is It Important?
Data science personal statement is a written statement by a prospective applicant who wishes to pursue data science showing his interest in the program, future plans, and motivations.
Applicants write this document to impress the selectors so that they can secure their seats at their desired institute.
Your data science personal statement is an important document because:
- It talks to the selection panel on behalf of you at a personal level before any face-to-face interview
- It enables you to show evidence of your achievements
- On your personal statement, you can contextualize your relevant experiences
- With a profoundly written MSc data science personal statement, you can prove your uniqueness and suitability for the data science course
- Your personal statement helps you show how you differ from other applicants
How to Write a Well-Structured Personal Statement for Data Science?
Here is a useful guide for you to get started with writing your data science masters personal statement. If you have reviewed any data science masters personal statement example, the following tips will be of immense help as you put your hand into this.
Investigate the program and its scope:
Read as much as you can about data science and its scope. In order to write a profound personal statement, you need to have profound knowledge about your chosen program and its scope.
Analyse institute requirements and prompts:
Read the university guidelines to students for personal statement writing. Go through their prompts, if given any. Brainstorm for answers to all the questions.
Draw your outline:
Next, prepare an outline by logically and chronologically arranging all the points you have gathered from different sources. An outline is like a content skeleton which you can develop later on.
Start writing
Don’t wait any longer once you have the points, know the requirements and are familiar with the structure. Start working on your personal statement right away. If you get stuck at any point, don’t wait there. Move on and come back once you are finished with the rest.
Revise and correct:
After you are done with the first draft writing, the next step is improvising each sentence. Read each paragraph multiple times and check how appropriately the words are used and sentences are connected. Improve sentences which look dull.
Seek a second opinion:
We highly recommend you seek a second opinion before submitting your data science personal statement. Some of the flaws you may have overlooked as a writer might get noticed by another person when he reads it.
Learn How to Structure Your Write-up Through Data Science Personal Statement Examples
A professionally written MSc data science personal statement will get noticed faster and impress the selection committee. In such write-ups, you will find a perfect format and structure.
If you want to learn how to structure your personal statement data science, read on.
We are dissecting a data science personal statement sample here to help you learn the structure.
How to Write an Impressive Introduction in A Masters in Data Science Personal Statement?
We thrive in a digitized world, where data largely defines our lifestyles, purchasing habits, quality of entertainment, and almost every decision we make. Every morning, I wake up with my smartphone buzzing, and I find Amazon recommending me customized products. Opening Facebook, I come across advertisements that are perfectly targeted to me. Then as I set off to my office, my phone beeps to push notifications each day as I cross Pizza Hut or KFC. Geo-location-triggered alerts also work largely on data. Eventually, I have thought intensively of a career revolving around data, where I can remain within the learning loop throughout my life. Now that I have completed my B. Tech in Computer Science, I am bracing up to pursue a Master’s degree in Data Science from your revered institution.
Be extra careful about writing a meaningful and catchy introductory paragraph for your personal statement.
The introduction should:
- Encourage the reader to read further
- Give the audience a clue about what the write-up is all about
- Provide a sneak peek into the applicant
Second Paragraph – Elaborate on Your Motivation
Being goal oriented and organized, I have channelized my efforts into quality education all these years. Here I stand today, at the juncture of a committed academic life and a dynamic profession awaiting me. Presently, I am well-versed in the fundamentals of numbers, programming languages, and computers. Besides, I have capitalized on my internships as a part of my graduation course to draw relevant insights into data analytics. Particularly, I am drawn towards the field of Big Data and analytics. It is interesting to explore how analytics can solve real-world challenges. My inquisitive mind pushes me further to explore domains such as predictive analytics, Big Data and AI. I look forward to embracing a gratifying career, feeding my curiosity throughout my life, as I leverage operations for my organization.
The second paragraph is quite crucial in your personal statement because this is where you contextualize your interest in data science and elaborate on how it developed into your passion.
- Keep your focus fixed on elaborating on your interest in data science in the second paragraph
- Keep the word count of your second paragraph between 100 and 120 words
- Provide relevant examples that support your interest in data science.
Third Paragraph – Tell How Your Professional Journey Shaped Your Ambitions
My experience at Cognizant as a business consultant and a software engineer over the last couple of years significantly helped me pilot my career. I capitalized on the opportunity to work on data-intensive projects in India. In the process, I got a direct exposure to handling real-world challenges that various organizations face in the digitized world. Data pours in from several sources, and forward-thinking businesses draw valuable insights on evaluating the same. At a time when data serves more value than merely being a digital entity, it’s imperative for me to acquire industry-oriented knowledge in data science and propel my career. The need of this moment for me is to master relevant skills to effectively analyze and manage structured and unstructured masses of historical or real-time data
In this paragraph, elaborate on your professional experiences and the roles you handled and explain how they influenced your goals.
Keep the following points in mind while you develop this paragraph.
- List out the skills you developed during your professional tenure and explain how they eased your responsibilities
- At what point in your career did you realize the need to take up further education in data science?
Fourth Paragraph – Talk About Your Existing Skills and New Skills You Want to Improve
As a part of my career, I have already gained familiarity with data analytics. Complemented with my degree in Computer Science, I believe that my previous academic knowledge further supports me as I strive to gain a professional excrescence in data science. To leverage my career, I need to gain detailed knowledge on all the aspects and processes involved in data analytics. What appeals to me the most is the process of collecting, evaluating, categorizing, presenting and incorporating data. It’s amazing to draw fresh business-oriented insights from raw data, making informed and calculated decisions. Now that I am well-versed in making graphs using Tableau and Excel and am familiar with relevant programming languages, I can streamline my career in data science.
When you write about your skills in the personal statement, it is important to support them with contextual information so that the reader knows that you are not creating stories to impress them.
In this example, the applicant shows how his previous academics have supported him and adds that he wants to improve a specific set of skills in data science such as:
- Data collection
- Data sorting
- Incorporating data into practical applications
Fifth Paragraph – Establish Your Long-Term Goals
Establishing myself as a successful data scientist, I would like to launch my consultancy business. A data-driven and mission-centric system holds the answer to demanding questions. Acquiring industry-oriented knowledge, I can propel my growth as a consultant. Over the last decade, I have witnessed the growing career prospects for skilled and certified data scientists. It would be a challenging, yet gratifying career for me to embrace a dynamic career, helping organizations make intelligent decisions. I look forward to mastering the necessary tools, procedures and methods for evaluating data. Presently, I lack advanced skills in statistical and mathematical theory. The mentioned course will significantly strengthen my career with relevant knowledge of these aspects.
Start this paragraph by giving a summary of your long-term goal as a data scientist.
Develop the paragraph by carefully showing:
- How you wish to see yourself in the future
- How you hope the course to benefit your career aspiration
In addition, make sure that the paragraph does not go overly lengthy.
Keep it within 100 to 120 words.
How to Conclude a Data Science Master Personal Statement?
Five years from now, I would like to see myself working with one of the global companies as an established data scientist. Next, I would channel my efforts to establish my brand, capitalizing on my industry experience and international exposure. All these years, I have been a fervent learner, and focused on my transferable skills to elevate my profile. A berth in your revered university will help me realize my career goals.
Coming to the conclusion of your personal statement for data science pdf, ensure that it is straight to the point and contains the essence of your entire document.
As you write the conclusion, bear in mind that your conclusion:
- Is capable of influencing the decision-making of the admission committee
- Shows your confidence in getting the admission and how that would impact your career.
Personal Statement for Data Science Sample
The fact that data science is in high demand, is exclusively due to the heroic capability of digital data to soar and sink organizations if treated well. Businesses are widely utilizing raw data to make crucial decisions, and at present, one can find a handful of organizations harvesting revenues and profits due to some sheer digital data. The term ‘Data Scientist’ was once a rare word only limited to a few blog posts in online career portals. The spread of technology and the origin of the tech transformation era caused the demand for professionals skilled in manipulating data and creating meaningful decisions from them. These capable individuals started receiving huge shout outs as time progressed, and in this age, Data Science is one of the most valuable and distinguished additions to the tech world. Therefore, upgrading my background with such a qualification will take the professional in me to esteemed places.
I was introduced to the domain of data science during my undergraduate tenure and I gradually became fascinated by the domain. Although data science can be applied in different industries, what interested me the most was how it could be utilized in the healthcare sector. Through my research I learned that data science assists in diagnosing various diseases and also in drug research. I was intrigued by how IoT devices could be used for medical research and analysis. Motivated by these innovations, I decided to take up my final project related to the application of data science in hospitals. I developed a system for Medical Image Analysis that assisted doctors to identify cancer cells and tumors in any part of the body. This project helped me to dive deeper into aspects of data science like predictive analytics and sentiment analytics. I was overwhelmed in learning that this field of study had the power to save human lives.
Because analytics fits with my interests and my ability to solve challenging problems, it has inspired me to seek a career in the field. I made the decision to enroll in an online course for the “Data Science for Professionals Certification” through Coursera after realising that I lacked the necessary knowledge in the field. I gained knowledge of essential data science steps from the course, including establishing a specific business challenge, gathering and analysing data, creating a model, and understanding feedback after model deployment. My internship as a Data Science intern at Infosys further helped me to gather practical knowledge and hone my skills. In my role, I was in charge of finding reliable data sources, automating information gathering procedures, studying vast quantities of data to find insights and changes, and creating prediction systems and data analysis tools. I had the opportunity to collaborate with senior professionals and through their guidance, I have become more diligent.
I have selected the MS Data Science program offered by your institution because I was impressed by the application oriented nature and research aspects of the program. This course will help me understand, observe and apply the knowledge in data science well in advance of my professional adventures in it. The course structure strictly consists of theory and practical workshops, lectures and projects on data science from which I can gain the analytical, computing, statistical and mathematical skills to identify, analyze, process and store massive raw data. Besides these vital skills, the program is stern about making the candidates strong in management skills. Since a blend of technical and management skills is required to enter and grow in the corporate world, the program reflects the same.
Moreover, the course is provided by such a university famed for critical roles in the tech world. Therefore, graduating from this program will be the dawn of a new-age professional whose presence will uproot existing strategies with advanced and peculiar data-driven decisions. I am interested in learning more about tools like Tableau, SAS, Stata, Hadoop, and Python. Students have the option to select either data science or accounting analytics from the cohort selections. I have faith that this programme will help me develop into a well-rounded professional with the analytical and technical abilities needed to excel in the corporate world.
Download Data Science Personal Statement Example PDFProfessional Tips for Turning Your Personal Statement for Masters in Data Science into A Winning One
You have learnt how to compose and structure your personal statement for data science. But you got to write it even more perfectly because the venue is going to be highly competitive.
The following expert tips should help you write it.
Avoid repetition:
Ensure that your personal statement doesn’t contain any repetitive information. Every point must be new and capable of giving new insight about your profile.
Emphasize why this university:
Be specific and clear about your motivation for choosing the specific university and how it will be a good choice for your growth in data science.
Balance your writing:
Engaging tone is needed to keep the reader glued to your essay while professionalism in writing is necessary to impress the reader.
Keep errors out of the way:
There should be no room for any grammatical or spelling errors. Similarly, your essay should be accurate in the use of correct punctuation.
Write early:
Get ready with your personal statement as early as you can. By submitting your write-up earlier, you can have the benefit of early bird selection.
Common Personal Statement Writing Mistakes to Keep Out of Your Way
As a first-time writer of a personal statement, you might not necessarily know what kind of mistakes will ruin the appeal of your essay.
Here is a list of mistakes you must keep out of your way in order to ensure maximum acceptance for your write-up.
Plagiarism:
Perhaps you may have already read personal statement samples. But they should only be for your reference and not for modifying to write your own story.
Flowery writing:
Your proficiency in a language is gauged by how deftly you articulate your thoughts in simple words. So, don’t complicate your write-up using flowery language.
Cliches:
Some cliches like starting a personal statement using quotes are overly used these days. Write uniquely banking on your personal experience to write more impressively.
Not being personal:
As the title indicates, a personal statement should be very personal. If the reader can’t feel a sense of personal touch in your writing, chances are that it would fail to make an impact.
Negativity:
Don’t sound too negative in your writing even if you have a desperate and disappointing past. Instead, try to sound positive and enthusiastic.
Most Popular Data Science Programs and Universities
Stanford University, Stanford | Program Offered: Master of Science in Statistics and Data Science |
Yale University, New Haven | Program Offered: Master of Science in Statistics and Data Science |
University of Chicago | Program Offered: Master of Science in Analytics |
Duke University | Program Offered: Master of Quantitative Management |
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | Program Offered: Master of Science in Business Analytics |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Program Offered: Master of Business Analytics |
Harvard University, Cambridge | Program Offered: Master of Science in Data Science |
Carnegie Mellon University | Program Offered: Master of Science in Information Technology: Business Intelligence and Data Analytics |
Columbia University | Program Offered: Master of Science in Applied Analytics |
Georgia Institute of Technology | Program Offered: Master of Science in Analytics |
New York University | Program Offered: Master of Science in Business Analytics |
Most Chosen Career Paths After Masters in Data Science
- Data Analyst
- Big Data Engineer
- Data Architect
- Data Scientist
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- Database Administrator
- Machine Learning Engineer
To Sum Up…
Writing a perfect data science personal statement is a necessity rather than a choice.
If you want to settle for a prosperous career in data science, you need an impeccable personal statement.
We hope to have clarified all of your doubts.
Are you still left with any questions regarding this topic?
If yes, we are eager to know them. Feel free to write all your suggestions, feedback and questions in the comment section below.
