Joshua Schaap, 2020
BS Marketing
First Year Memories
In 2017, I was referred to UTD through the website, CollegeChoice. I used this website and other digital resources to evaluate different schools. Ultimately, what drove my final decision was my in-person meeting with MS in Marketing Program Director Alex Edsel in January 2018. Director Edsel made time to visit with me while I was in Dallas for a business trip despite his busy schedule. We discussed topics relating to web analytics, advanced attribution and an in-depth review of the MS in Marketing program. After this meeting, I knew the Naveen Jindal School of Management was a perfect match for me.
Since starting the MS in Marketing Online program in July 2018, my two favorite courses have been Marketing Web Analytics and Insights with Senior Lecturer Guido Tirone and Interactive and Digital Marketing with Director Edsel. Tirone’s style of blending lecture, real-world examples, demonstrations on his employer’s website and hands-on training in Adobe Analytics made his content highly engaging. Director Edsel’s course provided me detailed methods for measuring digital campaign performance as well as utilizing the most common digital marketing platforms. Most notably, Director Edsel’s course provided me with numerous tools and techniques for performing detailed SEO analysis and audits of any type of website. I have used his professional audit process several times to improve goal completions on my company’s website.
Second Year Memories
My last two semesters in the MS in Marketing Online program are a defining moment in my life, professional career and my educational experience. Two professors, Dr. Kannan Ramanathan, teaching Spreadsheet Modeling and Analytics, and Dr. Avanti Sethi, teaching Statistics and Data Analysis, stand out as utterly amazing in my eyes and have pushed my education farther than I could have expected.
Prior to Dr. Ramanathan’s course, I had a detailed knowledge and understanding of Excel, or so I thought. Dr. Ramanathan’s class covered so many different aspects of Excel that after his course was over, I felt as if I could take on many different business challenges. Besides detailed lectures and in-depth text, Dr. Ramanathan provided one-on-one support prior to and after tests using go-to-meeting technology. So I could walk through problems as if I was on campus in his office. This was a game changer for me because I live in Reno, Nevada.
Next, Dr. Sethi’s course walked me through all of the fundamentals of graduate-level statistics without the use of sophisticated software-as-a-service (SAAS )or statistical analysis tools. His lectures and teaching philosophy allow students who really work hard to have moments of profound joy, accomplishment and detailed understanding of many statistical concepts. A large portion of his lecture and homework examples pertain to real-world issues and have many applications in business and in higher education. Between these two courses, I believe I have the tools and capabilities to shine in my professional and academic pursuits, and my education has been highly rewarding.
