Samantha Zhu is a second-year student in the Master of Biostatistics program. Her hometown is San Diego, California. Samantha studied at the University of Southern California, where she earned her undergraduate degree in Human Biology, with minors in Statistics and Spanish.
What first sparked your interest in biostatistics?
Taking a Computational Genomic Analysis class in my junior year at USC.
What attracted you to the Master of Biostatistics program at Duke?
I was stoked to join a program that was both reputable and supportive. I was also drawn to the variety of directions you could take at Duke, whether it was heavier in purely math or data science or clinical trial design, or if you like theory more than applications, especially since I hadn’t totally decided which specific flavor of biostatistics I wanted to pursue when starting this degree.
What do you enjoy most about this program?
Getting to meet and learn from everyone at Duke. I think Duke’s B&B faculty and staff are stellar people—my professors have been very inspiringly bright, empathetic, passionate, and supportive individuals; the Hock Plaza staff are all very kind; and this ambitious yet collaborative atmosphere is just so special.
What are some of your favorite classes?
BIOSTAT704 (Intro to Stat Theory & Methods II), BIOSTAT719 (Generalized Linear Models)
What skills have you gained from the program?
- How to make confident, well-supported, and patient decisions when starting with just concepts of a plan, perhaps.
- How to speak up among people that may hold PhDs or medical degrees or years of experience. Managing up, they say.
- How to investigate a problem way more thoroughly. We’re not just looking at a p-value and calling it a day anymore.
- How to be concise yet thorough in both my work and how I communicate my work.
What does the program do well?
The program is great at first exposing students to a diverse swath of statistical methods and applications and then enabling us to further explore our interests in the second year.
What's the most challenging aspect of the program?
Balancing school with research, socializing, and healthy habits. Knowing what or how to prioritize isn’t always obvious, but it becomes more and more intuitive throughout the course of this program.
Did you participate in a summer internship?
Yes, I interned at Thermo Fisher Scientific last summer.
What type of work did you do for your internship?
I performed statistical analyses in SAS and JMP and wrote reports in support of biotech companies like Genentech.
What advice do you have for incoming students?
Keep an open mind, have fun learning, and don’t be afraid to be academically vulnerable because everyone coming into this program has their own unique and valuable strengths and perspectives.
What type of work do you see yourself doing in the future?
Finding creative, quantitative solutions to deep-seated problems in healthcare. I would be happy as a clam to work on very interesting human health issues with passionate, intelligent, fun, and diverse people.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Skating, painting, weightlifting, surfing, learning languages, reading and writing, finding a good balance of loafing and keeping myself busy.