Data Driven Decisions

Prologue

Because this is a systems engineering book, I thought it prudent to provide a short historic roadmap first to give you an understanding of my background in relation to the subject matter. So here is a little bit about how this journey all began.

My higher education life began with premedical studies. That was actually the name of the degree, but it looked like a biology course. I graduated with my Bachelor of Science degree in that field, and I found my way to Cornell through a somewhat unusual path.

In 2010, I was accepted to Cornell for the first time to attend their graduate school program in the field of regional planning. I was actually put on a waiting list for the program, and I had applied to the regional planning program because my minor for my bachelor's degree was in political science.

I had really great political science teachers, all of my friends were in political science, and I just emotionally connected with the political side subject matter much more than the science subject matter, which was very memorization oriented and was very much preparing you for medical school.

I decided not to go to medical school, and I decided to apply to this program in regional planning. I did not apply to many. I applied to a couple of schools in New York City, and I applied to Cornell. I visited the program in person during the open house and was able to secure a spot.

My first year at Cornell was actually matriculated as a master's student in the regional planning ...