Type of Degree

M.S., Accelerated Entry into Master's Program

School or College

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

Area of Study

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics

Program Format

On-campus, Full-time

Program Overview

The Statistics Program offers biostatistics, statistics, and probability courses for the entire University community along with traditional degree programs and individually designed degree programs emphasizing statistics applied to other fields. The degree programs are designed primarily for students who plan careers in business, actuarial science, industry, and government or advanced training in disciplines that make extensive use of statistical principles and methods. The Program faculty is deeply involved in consulting and collaborative research in a wide variety of fields, including industry, agriculture and in the basic and clinical medical sciences. These research activities along with the research of other quantitative UVM faculty offer students unique opportunities to apply their classroom training to "real world" problems. Qualified students with the goal of learning statistics to use in a specialized area of application are especially encouraged to take advantage of these cooperative arrangements.

Program faculty have active statistics research efforts in areas such as bioinformatics, sequential analysis, three stage sampling, time series analysis, survival data analysis, discriminant analysis, bootstrap methods, categorical data analysis, measurement error models, and experimental design. Students seeking the traditional graduate degree in statistics (along with coursework in mathematics and computer science, if desired) have excellent opportunities to participate in the faculty's research. The Statistics Program has established an internship affiliation with the Vermont Department of Health. The internship program provides an excellent opportunity to interact with researchers from various disciplines on a variety of projects.

Undergraduates at the University of Vermont are encouraged to consider the Accelerated Master's Program (AMP). Please contact our Graduate Program Coordinator, Professor Richard Single (Richard.Single@uvm.edu), for further information about this opportunity.

Full-time graduate students in Statistics and Biostatistics at UVM typically take two years to complete their M.S. degree.

M.S. in Statistics (UVM Catalogue)

Curriculum

The department offers both a thesis option and a non-thesis option within the MS degree in Statistics.

Under both plans, students must have or acquire knowledge of the material in STAT 211 in addition to their required coursework. Additional specific courses may be required depending on the student's background and interest. Other courses in statistics or related areas are selected with the approval of the student's advisor.

Under both plans, the student is expected to participate in the colloquium series and the Statistics Student Association Journal Club. The student must pass the comprehensive examination, which covers knowledge acquired in the core courses of the program.

Thesis Option

This is a 30-hour program requiring 24 semester-hours of approved coursework. This must include:

  • STAT 1410, STAT 3210, STAT 5230, STAT 5310, STAT 5510, STAT 5610, STAT 6600, and at least one of STAT 3330 or STAT 5350;
  • another 200/300 level statistics course (except STAT 1410, STAT 3410, STAT 4810), or (if approved) other courses in mathematics, quantitative methods, or specialized fields of application;
  • plus 6 semester hours of approved thesis research (STAT 6391).

Non-Thesis Option

This is a 30-hour program requiring 27 semester-hours of coursework. The program must include:

  • STAT 3210, STAT 5230, STAT 5310, STAT 5510, STAT 5610, STAT 6600, and at least one of STAT 3330 or STAT 5350;
  • other 200/300 level statistics courses (except STAT 1410, STAT 3410, STAT 481), or (if approved) other courses in mathematics, quantitative methods, or specialized fields of application;
  • plus 3 semester hours of either approved statistical research (STAT 6810) or statistical consulting (STAT 6850).

Under the non-thesis option, students will be expected to take major responsibility for a comprehensive data analysis or methodological research project, and are encouraged to present the results from the project.

Admissions

The following are required for admission to our graduate programs in statistics:

  • A baccalaureate degree
  • Three semesters of calculus, through multivariable calculus
  • (UVM MATH 1234, MATH 1248, and MATH 2248 or equivalent)
  • A course in matrix methods (UVM MATH 2544 or equivalent)
  • At least one course in statistics. Certainly more background, in terms of formal coursework in statistics and/or experience with data analysis, is highly desirable.

It is possible to be admitted to our programs (but not to candidacy) if some of the course pre-requisites have not been satisfied. All pre-requisites must be completed prior to receiving the MS degree.

For international students taking the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), scores of at least 90 are required for admission and at least 100 for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship. The Institution Code for test scores for UVM is 3920.

All applications must be completed online. For more information visit the Graduate College.

Applications will require three letters of recommendation, college transcripts, and TOEFL scores for those whose native language is not English.

Applicants whose files are complete by January 15 receive full consideration for admission and for financial support starting in the Fall Semester. The deadline for all other applicants is April 1. Typically, we don't consider admissions for the Spring Semester, although we do sometimes make an exception for highly qualified applicants that need to complete some of the prerequisites. Financial support is not available in such cases.

Outcomes

Graduating Students from the Statistics M.S. program should be able to:

  • Design: Critically appraise strengths and weaknesses of study designs and identify designs that are appropriate for addressing specific research questions.
  • Data analysis: Demonstrate statistical reasoning, formulate problems in statistical terms, use exploratory and graphical data analysis techniques, and use a variety of formal inference procedures.
  • Theory: Understand important theoretical results and their role in answering inferential questions.
  • Computing: Demonstrate proficiency in use and application of standard statistical software for data management and algorithmic problem-solving.
  • Communication: Demonstrate strong communication skills to effectively collaborate as part of interdisciplinary teams, including the ability to communicate the results of a statistical analysis through oral and written reports to non-experts.

More

Comprehensive Examination

The comprehensive exam is a 3-hour exam that includes a mixture of questions spanning theoretical and applied statistics, probability, study design, and interpretation of analytical results. The questions are formatted as either numerical computation, derivation, or essay. The student can take the exam a maximum of 2 times. The exam is based on the courses STAT 5210, STAT 5230, STAT 5310, and STAT 5510. The exam is given at the end of August.