I have always found statistics exciting and valuable. It is incredible that behind seemingly messy and irregular numbers hides the patterns in data and solutions to many problems. Using statistical methods to analyze data is like solving a puzzle to me. I am currently a senior at the University of XXXX, triple majoring in Economics, Financial Math, and statistics. I chose these three majors because I believed that an economics major provided a venue for applying my statistical learnings. In contrast, a math major complemented my passion with a solid theoretical foundation in quantitative analysis. I hope to be accepted to study for the Master’s Degree in Statistics at XXXX University.

During my junior year, I realized the limitation of simple machine learning algorithms. I became interested in the concept of deep learning and neural network: to allow computers to learn themselves. I finished the book Deep Learning by Ian Goodfellow and started learning deep learning under Professor XXXX's guidance. During the process, I used a neural network mindset to conduct classification on several data sets to detect the picture pattern. I also researched and analyzed the house pricing data in the US from 2016 to 2017. I used random forest imputation to deal with a massive amount of missing data and fit generalized linear models to test for association between the sale price and different house features. Finally, I used a deep learning mindset to predict the log error of Zestimate (a widely used estimated market value for an individual home) and the actual sale price of the house using the data from 2016 to 2017.

Under Professor XXXX's guidance, I also participated in a research project investigating the Chinese stock market during the 2015 stock market crisis. We focused on investors’ margin and short trading behaviors to study their mindsets during the crisis. We also researched and analyzed stock data from ETF 50 and conducted clustering on time series data to find the abnormal company behaviors during the crisis. I am listed as one of the co-authors of the paper, “Dynamics of Boom and Bust: Analysis of Investor Behavior During the 2015 Chinese Stock Market Crash”, in submission to the Journal of Behavioral Finance.

I have experience in R, SQL, Python, MatLab, and Stata. In addition, I am familiar with C, C++, and Mathematica. I am also currently learning SAS.

My previous research compels me to continue research in either the theoretical or applied statistics. As I imagine my career plans today, they include research and consulting regarding statistics. I believe that the master program in Statistics at XXXX University can provide me with an environment where I can improve my knowledge and skills in statistics and help me pursue my career goal.