Personal Statement

As a freshman at Loyola University Chicago, I was unsure of the direction I wanted to

take for my college career and my post-college career. I started out as a Psychology major on the
pre-med track. As my freshman year came to a close, I realized that was not the direction for me.
It did not fit my personal interests nor did it fit my academic skills. After going through all the
different majors Loyola has to offer, I finally found a major that suited me: Software
Engineering. Not only was I excited about all the classes I could take, I was also in awe about all
the career possibilities.
My sophomore year was the first time I took any computer science courses and it gave
me confidence that I was in the right field. Not only were the courses academically stimulating,
but they also opened up my curiosity to how many parts of my daily life were made possible by
software engineers. From the operating system in my TV to the stop lights in the streets, I
wanted to know how they all worked and I became eager to to know as much as possible about
the field. One course I took second semester of sophomore year, Ethics in Computing, did not
teach me any programming skills, but it was still just as vital to field. The course was more
similar to my humanities and honors courses, than any of my major courses. In a couple of the
lectures, the professor discussed our duty as future software engineers to be inclusive and to
celebrate the progress in the field. The course helped me become more aware of the inequalities
within the field and for me, its lectures reached beyond the classroom.
In my first semester of my junior year, I took a variety of upper-level computer science
courses in order to explore my career possibilities. Machine Learning is currently a hot topic
within the technological realm and it was easy for to me to see why. Data is everywhere, but we
do not always know what to do with it or how to organize it. Machine Learning is one of the
solutions to this problem, but the technology has room for improvement and the possibilities are
beyond imaginable. One area I may take Machine Learning is to neuroscience. I am currently on
the executive board for Loyolas Neuroscience Society and I have found the two fields have
many commonalities. With my remaining time in my undergrad, I want to explore the
connections between the two fields from a computational angle.
After exploring multiple potential graduate degree programs, I choose to apply for the
software engineering dual degree program because I thought it suited me academically,
personally, and professionally. Through my computer science courses at Loyola, I have explored
several different facets of the discipline and plan to further expand my knowledge in these areas.
As part of the dual degree program, it is my intention to further develop my relationships with
the professors that have inspired and challenged me throughout my time at Loyola and to create
new ones with other professors at the university. I also want to continue Loyola, as it has not
only prepared me for the future, it has taught me to grow and explore my own personal values,
which will remain with me throughout my personal life and professional career.