Stats ?As a general rule, the more Statistics you have, the better for your preparation for entering our modern data-oriented society. Many university departments, recognizing the benefits of studying Statistics, require their students to take at least one paper in the subject. Taking a few additional STAT papers will pay handsome dividends, providing you with a strong quantitative background supporting your major subject. For this reason, six applied Statistics papers that have no mathematical requirements are available at second and third years.If you are to study Statistics as a major, this requires some proficiency in algebra and calculus. However the subject involves far more than the mathematical tools that are used, particularly for the statistician who is interacting with people from other disciplines in modelling and analysing complicated data. Skills in problem formulation, computing, the assessment of evidence, and communication are all valued as highly important. Random variation is an important part of the data collected in almost all subject areas. Therefore Statistics is a useful tool in many arts subjects, as well as the physical, biological, health, social and economic sciences. This means that statisticians have a variety of areas in which they can work. Sometimes they specialize in one particular area, and find themselves called a biometrician, a biostatistician, an econometrician, and so on. Combined degrees that involve statistics together with a second subject are therefore very much encouraged at the University of Otago. Because of the good opportunities for employment and the versatility of a Statistics degree, if you are starting your university studies with a good Mathematics background from high school, you should definitely consider pursuing such a degree, or at least making Statistics a significant part of your degree. Useful linksNew Zealand Statistical Association: www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/nzsa/Statistical Society of Australia: www.statsoc.org.au American Statistical Association: www.amstat.org International Biometric Society: www.tibs.org |
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WHY STATS?
