Scott Zhao enrolled at Wake Forest intending to major in engineering and computer science, but quickly changed his plan.
“Right off the bat, I realized the engineering major was going to take too much time,” Zhao said. “Nothing against the department—it just wasn’t going to work out.”
He stuck with his computer science courses longer, but discovered a new passion before too long. After taking a statistics course to fulfill a divisional requirement, he loved the topics so much that he enrolled in several other statistics courses as electives.
“It got to a point in my sophomore year where I realized that what I enjoyed about computer science wasn’t anything in computer science,” Zhao explained. “The coding and problem solving that was present in statistics is what I enjoyed.”
Over two years later, he’s still thrilled by the ideas he encounters in his classes.
“I could keep studying statistics forever,” Zhao said. “There’s just an infinite amount to be learned.”
He decided to pursue the applied statistics major rather than the statistics major after reviewing the course of study for each major.
“It’s not a strong differentiation between statistics and applied statistics, compared to mathematics versus applied mathematics,” Zhao explained. “Applied statistics [just] requires a couple more courses… all the courses that interested me were required for applied statistics.”
Zhao said the professor who has influenced him most is Nicole Dalzell.
“I took a class with her my sophomore year and immediately I was like, ‘oh, this is what being a good teacher looks like.’” Zhao said. “I’ve had, in total, three classes with her. I’ve also [been Dalzell’s] teaching assistant a couple times… In her classes, I felt welcomed and I was encouraged to try, but it was never easy. It was always a challenge and I had to earn the knowledge.”
He continued: “So I felt she’s probably my favorite professor that I’ve had, but in general, almost every statistics professor that I’ve had has been one of my favorite professors… In my mind, the professor makes the class a lot better than whether or not the content is good.”
However, Zhao still thoroughly enjoys the content of statistics courses. He said there’s a beauty to applying statistical concepts for practical purposes.
“There’s this one [quote]: ‘all models are wrong. Some are useful.’” Zhao said. “And just because there’s so much randomness… I learned that I do really enjoy finding patterns in the chaos.”
These patterns, he explained, guide statisticians’ interpretations of the data.
“Probably what’s been the most valuable thing that I’ve learned through taking applied statistics courses is that it’s not about getting a result,” Zhao said. “It’s about understanding how a decision is made.”
He continued: “From an academic perspective, understanding why a decision is made by a model or by an algorithm means that you truly know how it works. But then on the output side, understanding how a decision is made means that nothing’s a black box. Nothing’s random. Everything’s accountable and has reason to it.”
Zhao’s new job will not draw much from the statistics skillset he developed at Wake Forest, but he hopes to keep his passion for the subject alive. After graduating, he will relocate to the suburbs of Chicago to work in systems technology for McMaster-Carr, a business-to-business product supplier.
“I don’t know if I’m excited about joining the workforce,” Zhao admitted. “At best, I’m curious for what it’s going to be like. And at worst, I’m a bit anxious.”
However, he is excited by the opportunity to explore the hobbies he developed in college—especially drinking tea—in a new environment. Overall, he’s confident that he will meet the unknown with confidence.
“While it is scary, I’m going to confront it, regardless,” Zhao said.
