Take the Class: It Might Surprise You by Helena Hernandez
The idea of studying “quantitative methods” does not sound all that appealing. However, add a funny professor,
interactive class, and some coding and it might not be so bad after all. The class is the continuation of QTM I
and II, which are requirements to graduate. QTM III, however, serves as an elective to further explore the
concepts and focus on practical uses. The end goal of the class is for students to be able to use a dataset to
make predictions—sounds easy? Think again! While all the tools needed are presented throughout the duration
of the course, there is much more to R studio and Tableau that can be taught with bi-weekly one hour and a
half class.
To my surprise, I actually enjoyed QTM III. We were introduced to the importance of visualization, basics of
coding, and various types of models. My favorite aspects of the course were visualization and coding. We were
first introduced to Tableau and I wished I had been introduced earlier! Weirdly enough, I was excited about the
possibilities the software had to offer. To serve as an introduction, we watched a video the narrated the history
of humans through a series of graphs with different colored bubbles, ranging in size. I recognized the voice
from the video—I had watched it in my Macroeconomics class. This was when I realized that I was being
introduced to a tool that could help me in different areas of studies and life.
Our first assignment was to use to Tableau to come up with some conclusions—of course being the feminist
that I am, I concentrated in women, specifically the number of women in parliaments throughout the world. One
quick graph and I had already found something interesting: the amount of women in parliament rose in Iraq in
2005. Being that the Iraqi government was mostly male, it was interesting the high rise from 2004 to 2006. This
simply change in the shading of a country represented an entire referendum in the country during late 2005.
While I found the Tableau software fascinating, it was learning to code that I value the most. We were
introduced to the basics of coding through R Studio and it was my favorite part, plus: copy past was
acceptable? Yes! After the class was over, I was still interested in learning more about coding and started
doing online exercises. Fast forward, I was given my first internship assignment and guess what? I had to use
coding—very simple, but still I was using the skills I was taught in a class that I thought I would hate and ended
up loving.
Helena is currently a rising junior at Babson College where she studies Business Administration with a
concentration in Finance and Information Systems Management. She is currently interning in the marketing
section of the legal department operations team at Argopoint, a small legal management consulting firm in
Beacon Hill, MA. Over the course of the summer, she will be exploring different aspects of the firm and
assisting to improve the performance of Fortune 500 companies using legal metrics. Come Fall, she will continue to explore entrepreneurship and learn about the emerging markets during her study abroad program to Russia, India, and China.
interactive class, and some coding and it might not be so bad after all. The class is the continuation of QTM I
and II, which are requirements to graduate. QTM III, however, serves as an elective to further explore the
concepts and focus on practical uses. The end goal of the class is for students to be able to use a dataset to
make predictions—sounds easy? Think again! While all the tools needed are presented throughout the duration
of the course, there is much more to R studio and Tableau that can be taught with bi-weekly one hour and a
half class.
To my surprise, I actually enjoyed QTM III. We were introduced to the importance of visualization, basics of
coding, and various types of models. My favorite aspects of the course were visualization and coding. We were
first introduced to Tableau and I wished I had been introduced earlier! Weirdly enough, I was excited about the
possibilities the software had to offer. To serve as an introduction, we watched a video the narrated the history
of humans through a series of graphs with different colored bubbles, ranging in size. I recognized the voice
from the video—I had watched it in my Macroeconomics class. This was when I realized that I was being
introduced to a tool that could help me in different areas of studies and life.
Our first assignment was to use to Tableau to come up with some conclusions—of course being the feminist
that I am, I concentrated in women, specifically the number of women in parliaments throughout the world. One
quick graph and I had already found something interesting: the amount of women in parliament rose in Iraq in
2005. Being that the Iraqi government was mostly male, it was interesting the high rise from 2004 to 2006. This
simply change in the shading of a country represented an entire referendum in the country during late 2005.
While I found the Tableau software fascinating, it was learning to code that I value the most. We were
introduced to the basics of coding through R Studio and it was my favorite part, plus: copy past was
acceptable? Yes! After the class was over, I was still interested in learning more about coding and started
doing online exercises. Fast forward, I was given my first internship assignment and guess what? I had to use
coding—very simple, but still I was using the skills I was taught in a class that I thought I would hate and ended
up loving.
Helena is currently a rising junior at Babson College where she studies Business Administration with a
concentration in Finance and Information Systems Management. She is currently interning in the marketing
section of the legal department operations team at Argopoint, a small legal management consulting firm in
Beacon Hill, MA. Over the course of the summer, she will be exploring different aspects of the firm and
assisting to improve the performance of Fortune 500 companies using legal metrics. Come Fall, she will continue to explore entrepreneurship and learn about the emerging markets during her study abroad program to Russia, India, and China.
