by Mia Paelmo
Looking for recommendations on STAT courses? Want some insights on what certain STAT courses might offer you? Read Mia’s thoughts below on her favorite STAT electives she’s experienced so far!
When I first came to Illinois I remember the first thing I received during my orientation was a recommended schedule for statistics courses I should take each semester. The first few semesters listed the required courses (STAT 400, STAT 410, etc.), but the remaining half semesters simply said ‘ STAT Electives’. I remember not having any idea which courses to take, but as an incoming freshman I thought ‘Oh well it’s still too early, I’ll worry about that when I need to’. News flash! College goes by faster than you think, and before you know it you’re on Reddit a few hours before your registration slot trying to figure out what the best elective is. Don’t get me wrong, Reddit can be a very useful source when picking out certain courses, I know I have definitely used it in the past. However, it would have been nice to get advice from a friendly face, someone I could trust. And that is exactly who I am going to be for you! Today, I will be recommending two of my favorite statistics electives I have taken throughout the past 4
years.
STAT 385 – Statistical Programming Methods
The first course that I always recommend to statistics majors is STAT 385, also known as ‘Statistical Programming Methods’. I loved this course, and personally think that it should be required for the major because of how useful it is, not just in real life but in other statistics courses as well. This class is basically an introduction to R and RStudio. You will learn data transformations, how to use base R functions, and you will be introduced to many different packages. And while that is all fun and exciting, I think the main reason why I recommend this class to others is because it helps you become comfortable with R and RStudio. After I took STAT 385, I was in STAT 425 and 426, which are two required courses for the major. In both classes, I did most of the assignments in R, and both of the professors did in class examples using R. In fact, I think I have used R and RStudio in almost all of the higher level statistics courses I have taken. So yeah, as a statistics major here at Illinois, it’s good to know R and RStudio. And while the content in STAT 385 is more about programming rather than data analysis in R, I think I was more comfortable using R/RStudio in my other classes because of my experience in STAT 385. I think this is a very well-developed course where you learn many useful tools, and I always recommend this class to anyone who is starting to think of what electives to take. It sets up a good foundation as you start to take more higher level and applied statistics courses.
STAT 432 – Basics of Statistical Learning
The second course I would recommend is STAT 432, also known as ‘Basics of Statistical Learning’. I took this course the spring semester of my junior year, and I enjoyed the content and structure of the class a lot! In this class you will learn about supervised and unsupervised machine learning. You will learn different algorithms such as logistic regression and classification trees, and you’ll use R (see, I told you!) to create models for each technique. I loved this class because I found the material super interesting and it was the first class where I felt like I was using my skills for real life application. It did not just feel like another college class where I had to get assignments done for a grade, I genuinely wanted to build models and understand how they worked. I also think when you have a passionate professor, they can project that passion and interest onto their students. When I took this class in the spring, Professor Gökçe
Dayanıklı taught it and she was very thorough with the material and always valued the feedback of the students, which I think was a great aspect of the course! The final project encouraged us to collaborate with others, develop different models and evaluate their performance, and summarize our findings in a written report. Overall, this was a well-rounded course that offered real life application for both technical and practical skills, I highly recommend it!
To wrap up, I think all of the statistics courses offered at Illinois are exceptional! And while I do recommend looking into the two courses I discussed today when registering for classes, it is important to remember that the purpose of electives is to further explore topics that interest and excite you. I’m glad I was able to share my experiences and I hope this post gave you a little more insight on a few interesting courses we have in this department!