#statistics major

Thank youu :3

Hello! I got a lot of the same comments when I picked stats as my major🥲

Two things are key to persevering through a stats degree, (1) not beating yourself up when you fail and (2) reaching out for help when you don’t understand something. Stats has a lot of disconnected but continually reappearing topics and you’ll get confused and fail sometime- that is perfectly okay and normal, you just have to learn to let it roll off your back and do better next time! This is when my second tip of reaching out to professors, other students, or uni resources come in. Your professors want you to understand the content (or at the very least are paid to ensure you understand the content)- go to them when you don’t understand something! There is no shame in asking for help.

All calc, especially your multivariate calc, is very relevant to statistics, so I’d brush up on your calc 1 and calc 2 skills if it’s been a while since you’ve used them. Additionally, I’d review probability rules, and basic things like finding means and variances. Later on, you’ll cover “distributional results.” When you get to these, absolutely keep a running list of these results that you frequently look over!

For narrowing down your interests, I’d recommend exploring finance courses, science courses (chem/bio), and coding courses. Statistics is a super versatile degree and there’s a lot of freedom and flexibility!

I would 100% recommend a laptop for two reasons. As a statistics student, you will likely be coding a good bit; mostly in R, but probably in SAS, python, and possibly matlab as well. As far as I’m aware, there’s no software that allows you to adequately code in these languages on a tablet/iPad. Secondly, hand writing on paper is much better for retention. I have an iPad as well, but I only really use it for homework to save the trees from all my scratch work😅 you could accomplish the same effect with a white board and marker. All of my notes (and even sometimes my homework and practice problems) are on paper since you retain the info significantly better. My friends in the stats major who also have an iPad or tablet for notes have also switched to using pen and paper over the years to help with retention since there’s a lot you need to have memorized.

Statistics major / intj / Slytherin / Cancer sun / Aquarius rising / Virgo moon / mlm

is statistics really hard? how much time do you spend studying on the daily or weekly to maintain good grades? any tips on succeeding?

thank you !

Sorry for the delay in response!

Firstly, I’ll say it’s a hard degree, but I don’t think it’s not doable. The difficulty comes from the academic rigor- think of it like a math degree but with a focus on a specific discipline of math. If you’re naturally gifted at math it’ll be much easier for you, but if you’re like me, you’ll have to put in some effort. There’s also a component of creative thinking to a stats degree; my professor once told me that it’s not the actual mechanics that we struggle with learning, but the application of the mechanics to new problems that don’t have a stepwise process to complete. I think that’s where the real difficulty comes in with this degree for everyone. That being said, it forces you to think outside the box and with more critical analysis skills than you’ve ever done before, and I love it. I’ve grown so much not only as a student, but in my professional and even personal life because you learn to have an open mind and to think of multiple perspectives when approaching various issues. Many people in my major feel the same! The pain is totally worth it lol.

Studying can be hit or miss for me. My statistical coding courses don’t take me too long, I think the longest I’ve ever spent on a coding assignment was 4 hours and there’s not much studying involved with coding. If I study for these courses, it’s usually just practicing the code we learned in class to other problems. My math based stat courses definitely take more time, and for most people in my major as well. I’d usually spend somewhere between 10-15 hours on the weekly homework, 20-25 hours on take home exams, and I’d spend about an hour a week reviewing distributional results. Memorization helps with a stats degree, but a lot of your studying will be application based and doing practice problems.

My biggest tip for succeeding is do not get discouraged! This is a hard degree no doubt, and at times everyone feels incompetent and like they’re not good enough. You are certainly good enough, you just need to give yourself some grace and some space to grow. The difficulty also fosters a lot of camaraderie among the people in my major, so certainly reach out to the other stats students to not only feel supported but to support others!

My biggest practical studying tip is focus on applying concepts as opposed to memorizing concepts. Memorization helps with distributional results, but the real learning comes from completing the rigorous practice problems. Additionally, I would recommend taking a proofs writing math course at some point in time. It really helps when you get to upper level stat courses. I’d be happy to give you some resources if you feel like personally reaching out! My professors in the stats department believe in open access to education so most of our textbooks and our professors’ notes are free online for anyone to view :)

Hi !! I had to think about why I picked statistics specifically over a few other fields I’m interested in lol, I hope I do your question some justice.

I think math and theory are very interesting and I enjoy working with the kind of math statistics in particular utilizes. I have a lot of fun doing calculus to begin with (although I absolutely hate algebra lol), and I really like how you apply calculus/math to statistical questions.

I also really enjoy statistical coding and programs to analyze data. It really challenges the way I approach problems and makes me think through all avenues of what could be affecting my data, if my math is succinct, where I can improve my analysis method, etc etc.. I’ve found that I’m not super interested in the comp sci approach to statistical research (they are different, but both can reach similar results), which also helped me narrow my interest in statistics specifically.

Plus, all fields need data analyst experts. I’m interested in just about everything, and statistics allows you to get into all sorts of research and study so many different things. I get to apply my knowledge to financial and economic trends/predictions, public health policy/health care providers quality improvement, psychological research, environmental research, and so much more. It makes it hard to feel bogged down and uninspired by your work, which I really like.

Look into:

Stanford University

University of California - Berkeley 

Harvard University

University of Washington

Johns Hopkins University

University of Chicago

Carnegie Mellon University

Duke University

University of Pennsylvania

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

University of Wisconsin - Madison

North Carolina State University

Texas A&M University - College Station

Columbia University

Iowa State University

Cornell University