Drew Kaplan

Kaplan says he felt at home at WashU the minute he set foot on campus. He likes the Collegiate Gothic architecture, "feel of the community," quality of his professors, and work ethic of his classmates.

Why he chose WashU’s Specialized Masters program

“I’m interested in how information is applied. So I wanted to take an analytics program through a business school rather than through a computer science department. WashU’s program includes lots of electives that allow me to tailor the curriculum to my interests.”

His favorite course

Predictive Analytics introduced Kaplan to the “many different topics that surround data mining.” The extracted information can be used to forecast behaviors and outcomes, he says.

Applying program teachings

Kaplan worked on a practicum for a St. Louis-based wholesaler that provides infrastructure to small and independent retailers. He and his team developed a logistic-regression model that segmented the company’s customers based on the customers’ behavior.

“We wanted to find out what type of marketing they liked, what products they purchased most often, and what complementary products our client should recommend. The CEO attended our final presentation. It went really well.”

Kaplan also helped design a conjoint survey for a St. Louis-based telemedicine startup. The goal was to determine the perceived value of the “features, functions, and benefits” of a new product.

“We sent the survey to thousands of people and received hundreds of responses. The survey provided insights on the product’s viability – specifically, what prospective customers were willing to pay for it.”