Mechanical Engineer to MS Applied Statistics

[MalTom]

Hi everyone,

I graduated with my bachelor's in mechanical engineering in 2021 and have about two years of experience in my field. As my time and experience in the field progressed, my passion for what I do continuously declined. For around 4 months now, I have started looking at alternative career options and have stumbled upon Data Science. I am strongly considering applying for an online master's in applied statistics for Fall 2024 from schools like Penn State University, Texas A&M, Colorado State University, and Purdue. 

During my undergraduate studies I have took a good amount of math courses and have some minor experience with MATLAB for coding. I ended up with a 3.36 GPA from a state school. Due to my field not having any coding in it, I have spent the last few weeks learning SQL and Python.

The relative math courses which I took I have listed below: 

Calc 1 - A-

Calc 2 - B-

Calc 3 - C

Differential Equations - A

Linear Algebra - A

Statistics - Didn't take in undergrad, will take in Spring 2024.

 

I want to ask you guys specifically what I can do to make my application stronger outside of having a solid statement of purpose? Is there anything else I should learn/take? Would you guys recommend I take the GRE (none of the schools I am interested in requiring it and I see conflicting information on the importance of it). Do you guys think I have a shot at my target schools? I unfortunately don't have any research experience under my belt, nor does my field tie in much with data science/statistics. I am open to any advice or feedback anyone has to offer. Thank you all for your time.