Umer Khan '21

Why Umer chose Rider

Umer came to the United States as an international student from Pakistan. He chose Rider University to pursue his Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) as it offered a smaller class size, highly qualified faculty and intensive coursework including data mining and applied data management. According to Umer, “The university has many courses in the program that leads students to become business/data analysts.” Another reason Umer chose Rider was its proximity to two global destinations: Philadelphia and New York City. Rider’s location “has allowed me to connect and learn from many students and faculty members who work there." 

Rider's impact on Umer's success

Umer already had a business background as he had interned at Ernst & Young in the summer of 2018, and he interned at TCS ECOM in summer of 2019. Then, he came to Rider for his master’s degree. Umer felt that the program was a great fit for him to transition to a technical field like data analytics. The courses at Rider “are designed to equip non-technical students with technical skills,” according to Umer. Rider provided hands-on training and projects using the latest analytical tools employed by top companies, including how to query data using Structured Query Language (SQL) and how to conduct deep analysis using Power BI/Tableau. He also learned how to build machine learning models using RapidMiner. “The faculty in Rider’s Norm Brodsky College of Business have played a major role in building my network and helping me to gain confidence in modern technology."

Continued success

In his final semester at Rider, Umer is working on independent projects using publicly available datasets and looks forward to launching his post-graduation career. He is an active member of Kaggle, the largest data science community in the world, where he is ranked in the top 1000 out of 150,000+ users. Umer’s work is available to view at kaggle.com/umerkk12.