Plan of Study

1. Introduce my discipline and graduate program:

My major is Data Analysis. About my major, it can help students to learn the

skills about decision making and data driving. There are related to many majors,

such as: Statistics, Computer Science, Data Mining, Mathematics, et al. As a data

analyst, I need hold an ability that choose different topics to analyze. Thus, during

my master’s degree study, I am not only study my basic courses, but also knowing

different areas information that I can used in my future projects. There are total 30

credits in my graduate program, including 12 core courses (3 credits for one course),

15 optional courses, and one 3-credite capstone course at the end of program

(Gorege Mason Universoty, 2018).

My academic goals:

My first semester of my pathway study is going to finish all EAP courses and

one core major course named Applied Statistics and Visualization for Analytics.

During my next study, I set 3 goals by myself. There are passing the next pathway’s

study, having the master’s degree, and study more computer languages.

I set these three goals because I will have three periods that I should study. I

will achieve my goals step by step. I also used the SMART goal to set my goals. It

gives me a lot of reasons to build these goals. The next semester is my last pathway

study. It will be more difficult than this semester and the pleasure is becoming
 heavier. The first goal – passing the pathway is a basis goal and then I can have a

chance to achieve my next two goals. When I pass the pathway study, I can continue

studying and be a real graduate student at George Mason University. My next goal

is to achieve the master’s degree. Under my hard-working, I will achieve my

important goal, and it will help me to make a big progress in my life. At the

meantime, I need realize that I will begin to look for a work to improve my work

experience. Therefore, the third goal, learn more about computer languages, is a

tool to help me easily find jobs, because I will create more value for my future

company comparing with other colleagues chosen during the same period.

2. Provide an annotated disciplinary resources list:

a) R for Everyone: Advanced Analytics and Graphics, 2nd Edition (Lander, 2017)

Though this book, people can build many powerful statistical models to

answer lots of challenging questions. It is very useful for new people who begin

studying the R. there are including 80% modern data tasks and 20% R functionality.

When readers finish read this book, they have the ability to make your code

reproducible with LaTeX, RMarkdown, and Shiny (Lander, 2017).

b) R for Data Science (Grolemund & Wickham, 2017)

This book will teach readers how to do data science with R. Readers

can build models with the guiding of this book. Readers can learn how to

clean data, choose models, and create point, line bat plots using different

kinds of R packages and functions.

c) Data Analysis and Decision Support (Baier, Decker, & Schmidt-Thieme,

2005)

This book is about data analysis, business, and management. The authors

put the methods and network together to analyze. In this book, it also provided

abundant of examples to support their methods. readers also can find some great

answers to improve themselves professional skills (Baier, Decker, & Schmidt-

Thieme, 2005)
3. Course plan:

Times Things

Required Core Credits

May 2018- December 2018 OR 531 3

Pathway
AIT 580 3

Total 6

Core Courses:

Principles of Data Management and Mining,

Big Data and Advanced Analytics,

Theory and Applications of Data Mining,

Elective courses with 15 credits

January 2019

September,2019 concentration:

Graduate Applied Analytics Bioengineering

Business Analytics Data Mining

Digital Forensics Financial Engineering

Health Data Analytics Predictive Analytics

Statistical Analytics

Or

An individualized plan of study

4. Academic reflection:

During my first pathway study, I learned a lot, and I make a conclusion. There

are three points.

Firstly, do not let external factors to affect me. When I began to study Data

Analysis, I do not think too much about influence me to study my major. Step by

step. As long as I work hard, and I do understand everything that my professors

taught me in the classes. I think I have no reason to fail my exams.

Secondly, I have already learned to preview and review. When I study my

major. I found that before I went to the class to study a new chapter, if I previewed

this chapter I felt easily when my professor taught in the class. And then, If I

reviewed this chapter and did the homework, I found that I would save at least one

third time than before. What’s more, when I began to prepare for my midterm exams,

I found that when I reviewed the note or the book the knowledge will be methodical

to appear into my mind. It is easier to remember.

Lastly, I found the office hour is important. As an international student, my

oral English is not very well. I am always shy to talk with anyone who can speak

English fluently. Thus, at beginning, I did not dare to talk with my professor, and I

was seldom spoke in the class. when I found I have some questions that I cannot
find answers. I always ask my classmates who we came from the same country. One

day, my friends suggest me that I should to make an appointment about the office

hour. I gave myself courage again and again and I sent an e-mail to my professor

told her I wanted to talk some problems during the office hour. My professor replied

me very quickly. Before I went to her office, I had already listed all question that I

wanted to ask. I checked them again, and I found there were a few questions I found

the answers. Thus, I delated these questions and rewrote a new list. I found my

professor was very kind and she was very patiently to explain these questions for

me, although my oral language was not fluently.

In a conclusion, in my first pathway semester, I learned a lot, which give me

more courage to study next semesters.

References
Baier, D., Decker, R., & Schmidt-Thieme, L. (2005). In D. Baier, R. Decker, & L. Schmidt-Thieme,

Data Analysis and Decision Support. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Gorege Mason Universoty. (2018). Retrieved from

https://volgenau.gmu.edu/sites/common/files/course/DAEN.pdf

Grolemund, G., & Wickham, H. (2017). R for Data Science. In G. Grolemund, & H. Wickham, R

for Data Science.

Lander, J. P. (2017). R for Everyone: Advanced Analytics and Graphics, 2nd Edition. In J. P. Lander.

Addison-Wesley Professional.

Lee, E. T., & Wang, J. (2013). Statistical Methods for Survival Data Analysis. In E. T. Lee, & J. W.

Wang, Statistical Methods for Survival Data Analysis. Third edition. Hoboken, N.J. :

Wiley-.