{"id":16162,"date":"2025-05-28T10:08:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T14:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/?p=16162"},"modified":"2025-06-04T11:48:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T15:48:35","slug":"analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/","title":{"rendered":"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-16182 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Analyzing SOPs to Predict Graduate Enrollment Decisions\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-340x191.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-660x371.jpg 660w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Team Members: Ajay Patel, Francesco Colombo, Ruiyang Peng, Sen Liu, Yijie Bai<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Goergen Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI) aims to discern whether the contents of Statements of Purpose (SOPs) submitted by its master\u2019s in data science applicants can provide insights about applicants and indicate whether they will accept an admission offer to the program. Therefore, the goal of this project was to build a predictive model capable of forecasting an applicant\u2019s decision by analyzing their SOP. To achieve this goal, students used emotion and sentiment analysis on SOPs to determine which sentiments applicants most commonly express. The team then passed these sentiments through predictive models, including logistic regression and random forest models, and incorporated admission and demographic traits to see if they held any relevance. While students were able to measure generally hopeful sentiments and achieved predictions that were better than a random baseline, their correlation analysis and results demonstrated that SOPs alone cannot be used to predict applicants\u2019 admission acceptance decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Team Members: Ajay Patel, Francesco Colombo, Ruiyang Peng, Sen Liu, Yijie Bai The Goergen Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI) aims to discern whether the contents of Statements&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":16182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[92,82],"class_list":["post-16162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2024-projects","tag-education","tag-gids-ai"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants - Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This project examined whether Statements of Purpose could predict applicant enrollment. Using sentiment analysis and models like logistic regression and random forest, the team found that SOPs alone are not reliable predictors of acceptance decisions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants - Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This project examined whether Statements of Purpose could predict applicant enrollment. Using sentiment analysis and models like logistic regression and random forest, the team found that SOPs alone are not reliable predictors of acceptance decisions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-28T14:08:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-04T15:48:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-1200x630.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hsin-I Liu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hsin-I Liu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hsin-I Liu\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/853fca58e2468cfc8d27b9369fef1993\"},\"headline\":\"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-28T14:08:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-04T15:48:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":185,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Education\",\"GIDS-AI\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Fall 2024 Projects\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/\",\"name\":\"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants - Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-28T14:08:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-04T15:48:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/853fca58e2468cfc8d27b9369fef1993\"},\"description\":\"This project examined whether Statements of Purpose could predict applicant enrollment. Using sentiment analysis and models like logistic regression and random forest, the team found that SOPs alone are not reliable predictors of acceptance decisions.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Analyzing SOPs to Predict Graduate Enrollment Decisions\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/\",\"name\":\"Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence\",\"description\":\"University of Rochester\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/853fca58e2468cfc8d27b9369fef1993\",\"name\":\"Hsin-I Liu\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/coe\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants - Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence","description":"This project examined whether Statements of Purpose could predict applicant enrollment. Using sentiment analysis and models like logistic regression and random forest, the team found that SOPs alone are not reliable predictors of acceptance decisions.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants - Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence","og_description":"This project examined whether Statements of Purpose could predict applicant enrollment. Using sentiment analysis and models like logistic regression and random forest, the team found that SOPs alone are not reliable predictors of acceptance decisions.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/","og_site_name":"Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence","article_published_time":"2025-05-28T14:08:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-04T15:48:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2-1200x630.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hsin-I Liu","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hsin-I Liu","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/"},"author":{"name":"Hsin-I Liu","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/#\/schema\/person\/853fca58e2468cfc8d27b9369fef1993"},"headline":"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants","datePublished":"2025-05-28T14:08:21+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-04T15:48:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/"},"wordCount":185,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg","keywords":["Education","GIDS-AI"],"articleSection":["Fall 2024 Projects"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/","name":"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants - Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg","datePublished":"2025-05-28T14:08:21+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-04T15:48:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/#\/schema\/person\/853fca58e2468cfc8d27b9369fef1993"},"description":"This project examined whether Statements of Purpose could predict applicant enrollment. Using sentiment analysis and models like logistic regression and random forest, the team found that SOPs alone are not reliable predictors of acceptance decisions.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ai-advertising-Presentation-2.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"Analyzing SOPs to Predict Graduate Enrollment Decisions"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/analyzing-statements-of-purpose-for-insights-about-applicants\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (GIDS-AI): Analyzing Statements of Purpose for Insights About Applicants"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/","name":"Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence","description":"University of Rochester","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/#\/schema\/person\/853fca58e2468cfc8d27b9369fef1993","name":"Hsin-I Liu","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16162"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16702,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16162\/revisions\/16702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/coe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}