Course requirements for the Statistics Department graduate programs
All graduate students must consult at the start of each semester with
the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS),
whose signature is needed before course selections beome official.
Ph.D. program
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Fourteen courses are required before students can be admitted to candidacy after the second year.
Usually students take four courses in each semester of the first year and three courses in each semester of the second year.
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Ph.D. students are strongly advised to take the courses highlighted in RED, which are taught every year,
even if they involve some review of material taken in undergraduate courses.
Substitutions are possible with the permission of the DGS.
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The theory qualifying exam is usually based on a combination of
advanced undergraduate material (as covered in Stat 241, 242, and 251/551)
and
graduate material at the level of Stat 600, 610, and 612.
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For the practical qualifying exam, students are expected to be
comfortable with R, and have had experience at working with real data.
Most students gain that experience from a combination of Stat 661, 625
and participation in the statistical consulting clinic (Stat 627).
Ph.D |
Fall |
Spring |
first year |
Stat 610 (Statistical Inference)
Stat 612 (Linear Models)
Stat 661 (Data Analysis)
+ one more course, such as Real Analysis or Measure Theory
from the Math Dept.
Often students also attend Stat 627 (1/2 credit) to gain experience with real data.
|
Stat 600 (Advanced Probability)
Stat 551 (Stochastic Processes)
+ two other courses, such as
Stat 664 (Information Theory) or
Stat 660 (Multivariate methods for the social sciences).
Also Stat 627 for the other 1/2 credit.
|
second year |
Stat 625 (Case Studies) required
+ two electives
| Stat 626 (Practical work) required
+ two electives
|
The electives are often chosen from special topics courses that are offered on an irregular schedule,
determined by a combination of student demand and faculty interests.
See the course lists for typical offereings.
Click here for more details about the Ph.D. program.
M.A. program
Students take eight courses, usually in one year.
It is harder to describe a typical course of study, because students come to the program with widely differing backgrounds.
The minimal requirement is:
- all students must become acquainted with probability theory, at least at the level of Stat 538 or Stat 541.
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all students must learn some statistical theory, at least
at the level of Stat 542.
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all students must gain some experience at working with real data,
at least at the level of Stat 530, but preferably at the level of Stat 661 or higher.
The details of individual programs should be determined in consultation with the DGS at the start of each semester.
Click here for more details about the M.A. programs.