As Spring registration approaches, two ambassadors share their favorite STAT courses.
From Mingli Xu:
The first course I wish to recommend is STAT 433, “Stochastic Processes.” This course serves as an in-depth exploration of stochastic processes, encompassing topics such as Markov Chains, Poisson Processes, and Brownian Motions. If you have an inclination towards theoretical statistical knowledge and aspire to enhance your logical reasoning abilities, I highly recommend this course. Professor Alex Stepanov imparts a captivating learning experience, artfully blending humor with lucid explanations of complex concepts. Stochastic processes hold substantial relevance across various fields, including financial markets and biology, rendering the acquisition of this knowledge a valuable asset for modeling and analyzing real-world phenomena characterized by inherent randomness.
The second course I would like to recommend is STAT 420, “Methods of Applied Statistics.” This course delves into the practical application of statistical methods, including topics like linear regression, analysis of variance, and multiple comparisons, with a particular emphasis on their appropriateness and hands-on implementation using the statistical programming language R. This course was my initial exposure to R programming, and prior to my college experience, I had never envisioned myself engaging in any form of programming. Under the guidance of Professor Julie Deeke in STAT 420, I gained valuable insights into performing tasks such as data visualization, statistical analysis, and hypothesis testing within the programming context. This experience highlighted the significance of harnessing modern technology to augment theoretical knowledge and offered me a new perspective on data analysis through visual representation.
(Advising note: STAT 420 no longer satisfies a major requirement in Statistics or Stat&CS. But it’s still a great choice for students outside of our majors!)
From Botao Huang:
There are numerous pathways to fulfill the requirements for a Statistics major, each of which can lead to a distinguished career as a statistician. As a dedicated student with a keen interest in the intersection of financial knowledge and statistics, with aspirations to become a financial analyst, my primary focus lies in selecting courses that will enable me to delve into the realm of data analysis. Two courses that I consider highly relevant are STAT 448, Advanced Data Analysis, and STAT 440, Statistical Data Management.
STAT448, especially when instructed by Professor Darren Glosemeyer, offered me a comprehensive introduction to advanced data analysis. This course covers about 16 advanced statistical analysis techniques and their practical implementations using SAS. Rather than solely delving into tedious mathematical concepts, you will gain valuable insights into the practical applications of these skills, which are pivotal if you aspire to pursue a career in data-related fields. It is noteworthy that the Professor also provides the corresponding R code as a reference to the SAS code, allowing you to develop your own intuition about the course materials. This significantly enhanced my understanding, especially since I had more experience with R than SAS at the time. Consequently, this course prepares you well and solidifies your versatility in using various software tools. STAT440, on the other hand, is a course that primarily emphasizes the utilization of R and its built-in functionalities to generate relevant data wrangling displays and visualizations. This course can be particularly beneficial when dealing with large datasets, as it equips you with more efficient data cleaning methods compared to using Excel.
