The astonishing amount of data being collected today is transforming science and the skills of statisticians are in demand more than ever. Statistical thinking is a centerpiece of scientific inquiry in many areas of science, raising new questions for researchers interested in applied, methodological, and theoretical questions.
The M.S. in Statistical Science is intended to prepare a student for a career as a professional statistician working in business, government, or industry.
The Statistics M.S. program attracts students from a variety of backgrounds and interests. Most importantly, students in our program like to work with data.
We accept people from a variety of backgrounds, including Accounting, Education, and Psychology. Quantitative oriented majors (Mathematics, Economics, Physics, Engineering, etc.) can help, but they are not indispensable. We do require some minimum math training.
Master’s students must take STAT-S 692, “Statistical Consulting.” In this course, you will have the opportunity to apply what you learned in class to real statistical and data analysis problems, under the coordination and supervision of the Indiana Statistical Consulting Center. These projects come from researchers across the university and expose students to problems arising in a wide range of fields.
You can also choose to take an Internship in Statistical Consulting, in which you will work for a semester in a single real data analysis project, under the supervision of professional statisticians, and interacting with subject-area experts.
We have a constant need for teaching assistants for our service courses and in many cases hire M.S. students. We conduct a contest to determine which M.S. students are invited to participate. Assignments are not guaranteed and depending on the needs of the department and the pool of applicants.
Data analyst, Data scientist, statistician, quantitative analyst, data engineer. Also, an M.S. in statistics is helpful for admission to PhD programs in a variety of scientific disciplines. For a list of our alumni and their current positions see: https://stat.indiana.edu/about/alumni/index.html.
GRE NOTE: Our program does require the GRE. This requirement is waived for the academic year 2021-22.
More information about admission requirements can be found on our website: https://stat.indiana.edu/graduates/index.html.
Coursework needed for admission
A good preparation in calculus is indispensable. Also, linear algebra; not necessarily a whole course, but you need to be comfortable working with matrices. Knowledge of coding is very useful, but not indispensable.
