Data Science Undergrad Journey Part 1
Part 1: Why did I chose Data Science as my undergrad major?
Hello world! I’m Alison. I am a rising senior majoring in Data Science. I have just wrapped up the third year in my undergraduate studies, so I am pretty much done. I finished all of my major courses except for the final capstone project. Therefore, I am sitting in my room in the middle of my summer vacation and thinking to myself: the present calls for some reflection and some future planning.
Let’s start with reflection.
Series Introduction
I am hoping this series will summarize my motivation, my key decisions and my academic and internship experience in the past three years of my Data Science journey. Many people have approached me and asked questions about Data Science (indeed, there are more Data Science programs now, but Data Science undergrads are still relatively rare), so I figured why not share my story and improve my writing skills at the same time? Hopefully, what I am writing will be helpful to you.
In this post, I will talk about how I got into Data Science and why I chose Data Science as my undergraduate major.
Why Data Science?
Before University
I have always loved STEM growing up. I liked Mathematics the most among STEM subjects. I was actually in the STEM class with only 10 girls and 30 boys all through high school (yes, that’s a thing in China). But Chinese high schools are Gaokao-oriented, so I was never exposed to anything not tested in Gaokao (the Chinese SAT, or the Chinese College Entrance Examination). I had zero experience with coding or computer programming before university. I was never tech-savvy and I couldn’t picture myself becoming a programmer of any kind. However, since I liked STEM a lot, I was thinking about pursuing STEM in my future career. But what exactly did I foresee myself doing? I had no clue. Thankfully, our university adopts liberal arts education. All of us go in with an undecided major until we can figure out the most suitable one or two by the end of sophomore year. The trials and errors in major exploration led me to Data Science.
Freshman Year 1st Semester
I originally started with a Mathematics major in mind, because I was selected to take the more advanced Math classes for Mathematics majors based on my Gaokao scores. But I dropped the class and the idea of pursuing a Mathematics major after only one week. I hardly find the mathematical proofs in class interesting. Don’t get me wrong. They are useful and fascinating, but I started to understand that I was looking for something more application-based because I was also taking my first programming class at the same time.
To be honest, I took the introductory Python class to fulfill the requirements of my liberal art, or core, curriculum. As I mentioned, I had no experience with programming before college and could not see myself becoming a programmer. I thought to myself: If I turned out to love the introductory Python class, it would be the kind of wonderful serendipity I was blessed to have. If I turned out to hate it, at least I got this requirement over with so I wouldn’t need to study anything computer-related ever again.
I absolutely loved programming.
Introductory classes were not meant to discourage anyone, so I had fun designing simple yet useful algorithms and solving small programming problems. As the class got more difficult, I enjoyed the challenges even more. It was apparent to tell that I found what I truly enjoyed. While I might easily fall asleep reading Thomas Hobbes or Simone de Beauvoir, I was extra energetic when it comes to solving a programming question. Even Netflix lost its appeal to me when I was deep in thought with for loops and OOP. So in the first semester in my freshman year, I knew my major needed to involve coding, preferably in Python, so that basically narrowed down to Computer Science and Data Science.
Freshman Year 2ed Semester
I chose Data Science because our Computer Science curriculum lacked the Mathematics aspect that I was looking for. Data Science, on the other hand, has a rigorous math component to it. At that time, I was climbing the steep learning curve of Python and neck-deep in probability and statistics. Data Science is a better combination of what I love, Math and programming. Data Science it is!
Wait, it’s not over … not yet.
It turns out that to declare my major as Data Science, I needed to choose a track, or a concentration. Data Science is, after all, a problem-solving tool. You need to choose the domain of problems you want to solve as well. The concentrations include everything from Finance to Genomics to Political Science. I eventually chose Artificial Intelligence as my track because I was engaged in research on robotics during that time.
Then, halfway through my second semester in my freshman year, I managed to declare my major: Data Science with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence.
Until Now
I’ve never thought about changing my major even though all of us can do that relatively easily. Classes are intellectually stimulating and class projects are rewarding. I have had internships and research opportunities in Data Science and AI that allow me to see a direct impact. Overall, Data Science is something I genuinely enjoy. It is what I want to work on in the following years.
Next Post — School Courses I find helpful
In my next post, I plan to discuss in detail the Data Science courses I took to finish my major degree requirement and the relevant classes I find helpful.
Thank you for reading my blog! I hope you find it helpful.
Github: https://github.com/AlisonYao
Kaggle: https://www.kaggle.com/alisonyao
