"I'm excited about being able to spend my time working on the problems I find most interesting and challenging," shares John Sperger, a Post-Baccalaureate Studies student. After spending three years as a consultant at IBM and two years as the Senior Research Coordinator for the Operations, Information and Decisions Department at Wharton, John is starting a PhD in Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina in the fall of 2017. "I'm interested in how research gets done and making sure it is reproducible—and that's what brought me to want to work and study at Penn," he continues, "A couple of professors at the department here, Dr. Uri Simonsohn and Dr. Joe Simmons are leading the charge in this area."
With an undergraduate degree in social and decision sciences, John took courses through the College of Liberal and Professional Studies to help bolster his academic profile in mathematics and statistics. "I took an applied machine learning course with Dr. Richard Berk, and that changed how I thought about some of the analyses I was doing. In getting ready for a PhD, it was a helpful class because there were a few big papers where I had to show my work. It was an outstanding practice in writing code, doing an analysis and being able to explain my ideas." John continues, "Professor Berk pushed me to communicate in such a way that if I was the only person who knew anything about statistics in a room, I could express my reasoning in a framework that most people can understand."
While studying at Penn, John was able to take master's-level courses ranging from applied econometrics to mathematical statistics. He notes, "the problems are harder in these classes, and there's an expectation that people are working together to solve them, which is particularly useful in my field. In statistics, you can collaborate with people in other fields very easily because it's the math behind how you make inferences."
For other students considering Post-Baccalaureate Studies as preparation for a PhD, John advises, "Talk to your professors. If you have time, they can often use research assistant help. Also, if you are seeking letters of recommendation, take a class where your work is more than just exams so you can give the instructors more to write about. I was very grateful that Richard Berk wrote a letter for my applications."
Looking ahead, John is focusing his PhD research in the area of public health. He explains, "I'm looking into the mathematical models for making research reliable. I find that there are a lot of open questions in medical research and public health, and I want to dig into the technical side of those problems. What motivates me is simply wanting to help people."
