CMDA Student Experience - Clare Hinds '24

I originally came into Virginia Tech as an applied math major. When I was exploring what I really wanted to do, I knew a lot of people who were math majors and I was like, that seems interesting and pretty broad, so I thought I might as well start there. Then in my degree option, I was tasked with doing four required classes that relate to math. My freshman year, I found the CMDA classes, and I thought they were really interesting, and I knew data science was a really big field that was up and coming. So I decided to try out some of the first CS classes and statistics classes, and I realized I really enjoyed them. After taking those more intro courses, I got to get into more of the CMDA discipline and really apply like my prior math experience, and just feed in all those three core subjects of math, statistics and computer science into figuring out and applying them to real world problems. But then just right before my senior year, I realized I had the room in my schedule, and I also thought that data analytics, that kind of major is something that industries and companies are really looking for. I was like, I have the time and I have the passion for it, so let me add the CMDA major. It's really simple to add the standard option with my applied math degree. There's a lot of crossover with the 4000-level electives so that I'm able to count them for both. I think I've really noticed that the recruiters that you meet at career fairs, when you say data analytics major, they pop up and they're like, oh my god, that sounds amazing. Like I need that. Not that applied math -- -- like they love applied math too -- but data analytics is just such a big thing right now. Any company, any sector needs someone who's all in into the numbers and the analysis. I guess originally with just the math degree, a lot of the people I was surrounded with were interested in grad school. When I realized I wanted to start working in industry and have that experience, possibly before continuing more education, and so having the CMDA background and the more applied math and computer science skills, that makes me way more employable to anyone that is coming to Virginia Tech looking for possible candidates. I could really tell with the CMDA professors they cared about my growth, and I always found them very approachable during office hours, and really wanted me to be the best I could be. I'm really glad though that I ended up adding the CMDA major. The people I've been able to meet, some of my peers, they are really great and we're all like helpful with each other. We want to like the best out of everybody. And I can totally see that with the Capstone course, everybody cares about the project they're doing, and they want everybody to succeed.