The Committee on Statistics offers a program leading to the M.S. degree in Statistics. The program is interdisciplinary in the sense that it draws upon faculty research and teaching interests from a number of academic units so that programs of study can be tailored to reflect individual needs and goals. The committee, which sets program requirements and supervises programs of study, is composed of faculty from several departments in the College of Business and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
MASTER OF SCIENCE
The program for the M.S. degree in Statistics provides preparation for either a research-oriented or a practice-oriented career. Requirements specific to this program (see “Master’s Degrees” for general requirements) ensure balanced attention to the theoretical and applied aspects of the discipline of statistics. Flexibility in the program reflects the fact that statistical analysis is one of the most widely used tools of modern scientific reasoning.
Admission. Applicants must satisfy the general requirements for admission to the Graduate College and must, in addition, have three letters of academic recommendation submitted to the admissions subcommittee of the Committee on Statistics. Although most applicants earn the bachelor’s degree in a quantitative area (such as statistics, quantitative business analysis, mathematics, engineering, or computer science), this is not required for admission to the program.
Applicants should have completed the following courses (equivalents at ASU are given in parentheses): calculus (MAT 270, 271, and 272), advanced calculus (MAT 371), linear algebra (MAT 342), computer programming (CSE 100 or 183), and introductory applied statistics (QBA 221 or STP 420). Applicants who lack more than two of these seven prerequisite courses should expect to be admitted with deficiencies or provisionally. The submission of the Graduate Management Admission Test or Graduate Record Examination test scores is strongly recommended.
Supervisory Committee. Upon entering the program, the student should contact the program director for assistance in selecting a three-member supervisory committee. (Typically, the student progress subcommittee of the Committee on Statistics serves as the student’s initial supervisory committee.) The faculty member who directs the student’s work on the thesis or applied project must be a member of the Committee on Statistics and serves as the chair of the student’s final supervisory committee.
Program of Study. The student’s program of study must contain at least 30 semester hours of credit, none of which may be from the prerequisites and at least 18 of which must be at or above the 500 level. The program must include the nine hours from three required theory courses: theory of probability (STP 421 or QBA 560), mathematical statistics (STP 427), and theory of statistical linear models (STP 526). The program must also include either three hours of applied project (QBA 593 or STP 593) or six hours of thesis (QBA 599 or STP 599).
The remaining 15 or 18 hours may come from elective courses chosen by the student with the approval of supervising faculty. A maximum of six hours may be chosen from a related field on which statistics relies (such as computer science) or in which statistics is an essential tool (e.g., biostatistics, quality control).
The required theory courses are fundamental to the education of statisticians and are necessary for more advanced graduate study. The elective courses allow the student to emphasize a particular area of statistical inference, culminating in an applied project report or a thesis on a topic in that area. The student has considerable flexibility in selecting an area of specialty. Possible areas of specialty include, among others, mathematical statistics, biostatistics, applied data analysis, statistical modeling, time series analysis, statistical process control, variance components analysis, statistical computing, and survey research. Sample programs of study for such areas of specialty may be obtained from the director of the program.
Foreign Language Requirements. None.
Comprehensive Examinations. None.
Thesis Requirements. Either an applied project or a thesis is required.
Final Examinations. An oral examination in defense of the applied project or thesis is required. The content of the applied project report or thesis must, in its final form, be suitable for submission to an academic journal or conference proceedings. The thesis must conform to Graduate College format requirements.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Research interests of the current members of the Committee on Statistics include the following: regression, variance components, generalized linear models; multivariate analysis, latent structure models, categorical data analysis; biostatistics, biomedical research; time series analysis, econometrics, statistical process control, statistical decision support systems; statistical computing, statistical graphics; panel data analysis, complex sampling designs; decision-theoretic methods, risk assessment. Students and faculty have access to excellent computing facilities, including mainframes, work stations, and personal computers running a broad selection of statistical software.
Page last updated:
Visits to this page: