Alec Perrin ‘22 Transitions from Poole College to NC State’s Institute for Advanced Analytics

Alec Perrin made the jump from Poole College of Management to the Institute for Advanced Analytics, a prestigious program at the forefront of data science education, where he is earning a Master of Science in analytics. Perrin is a recent spring 2022 Poole graduate with a Bachelor of Science in economics and a minor in business administration.

Perrin balanced many extracurriculars and academics during his time at NC State including the NC State Cycling Club where he served as treasurer and 180 Degrees Consulting at NC State as a team lead. On top of this, he was a part of the Business Analytics Honors Program (BAHP), a program for select undergraduate students that offers additional preparation for a career in business analytics.

“The BAHP prepared me perfectly to transition to a career focused on data science,” said Perrin. “I learned tools like SQL and Tableau, along with the basics of many statistical modeling techniques for clustering, forecasting and more.”

“I also got to lead a team of five in a semester-long analytics practicum project focused on consumer marketing, where we worked with unique survey data and used PCA to help with segmentation.”

Perrin’s Poole College experience was positively impacted by his economics courses with William Phan, research assistant professor of economics, who taught economic models in an interactive and compelling way. His path to business analytics was also shaped by his advisor, Ayo Agunbiade. 

From starting as a freshman, unsure of exactly what I wanted to do in my time at NC State, Ayo was there as an encouraging mentor for me and provided sound advice to help me make my own decisions.

“From starting as a freshman, unsure of exactly what I wanted to do in my time at NC State, Ayo was there as an encouraging mentor for me and provided sound advice to help me make my own decisions,” said Perrin. “Through online school and COVID, he checked in and made sure I was on track with my plan of graduating early and also completing the BAHP.”

Now in his 10-month master’s degree program, the Institute for Advanced Analytics has been a perfect follow-up to Perrin’s undergraduate experience as it includes a six-month employer-sponsored practicum  experience for a professional business analytics environment. 

As a new Poole College alumnus, Perrin has enjoyed seeing students continue to be successful and watch the student organizations he was a part of continue to grow.