The Graduate Program in Statistics & Data Science has six distinct academic programs – the graduate certificate (available both as a residential and an online program), the Master’s degree, the accelerated Master’s degree, two tracks for the doctoral degree, the regular track and informatics track, and a PhD minor.
For admission into graduate programs, the Recruitment and Admissions committee look for several indicators.
- For a Certificate student, we look for the basic requirement for admission to the Graduate School plus a strong background in linear algebra and multivariate calculus along with some experience with statistics. Certificate students are often nontraditional students, several years removed from the university education possessing considerable work experience. Thus, the recruitment and admissions committee will take into account an applicant’s entire background in making a decision.
- For a Master’s student, we would like to see some background in linear algebra and some understanding of mathematical analysis. This can be obtained with a 2nd year linear algebra course and a 3rd year “proofs” course. Beyond that we like to see some evidence of interest in statistics and understanding of the nature of the subject. This can be achieved with a college-algebra based course in stats or some out of class activity that shows that the student has worked on projects using formal statistical procedures. However, we prefer to see a calculus-based statistics course on their transcript. Background in programming is certainly a plus.
- For a Doctoral student, the requirements in linear algebra and in mathematical analysis should be at the 4th year undergraduate level. We would like strong mathematics background for admission to the regular track and, additionally, strong computational skills for the informatics track. Any grade below B in senior-level undergraduate courses needs to be explained to the satisfaction of the Admissions Committee.
Because practicing statisticians are expected to have good communication skills as a part of their occupation, we expect adequate verbal GRE scores.
More of the requirements for admission can be found on the Admissions webpage.