I am thinking of switching majors into statistics and i was just wondering if anyone on here is or was a statistics major and if they could give a little advice and what they do/plan to do for a living

5/15/2006 12:17:54 AM

numbers.

lots. of. numbers.

5/15/2006 12:20:11 AM

I was a stat major , and now I develop statistical software.

5/15/2006 12:55:43 AM

My pal was a Stats. major

He went on for his Masters in Math w/ a focus on Statistics

He's going to become an Actuary, but that ain't easy. He hadta make stellar grades and there's lots of tests to pass to work your way as one, and they all live in either Washington, D.C. or Conn.

5/15/2006 1:05:16 AM

Statistics majors work a LOT with data. You can be the person that designs the experiment/collects the data, or the person that takes the data/cleans it up/analyzes it. Most of the undergraduate degree focuses on the second part, as that's what most employers desire out of a statistician ... "Ok, we have some data, make some sense of it". With the data, you generally program in SAS to get the analysis out of it.

With an undergraduate degree, you'll probably be the person who does a lot of the analysis per the direction of somebody else. That somebody else will either have a Master's degree in Statistics, or will be the PI of the research project, in whatever discipline they have their PhD in. The difference between the undergraduate degree in Statistics and the graduate degree in Statistics is REALLY understanding what you are doing / the fundamental underlying concepts. The graduate program at NCSU doesn't do many Master's degrees ... almost all PhD's. The program IS top-notch/high-ranked nationally if you are interested in going that route.

Undergraduate classes are half male/half female. Research Experience for Undergraduate (REUs) are plentiful and allow gainful summer employment. Coops aren't nearly as common, though they are available if you are interested. Also, they started up a professional mentoring program not long ago that allows you to pair you with a person from industry once a month or so for lunch.

Bleh, there's the Statistics program in a nutshell. Go talk to Dr. Gumpertz, the undergraduate advisor. She is wonderful, and can help you determine is Statistics is a good fit for you

(Oh, right, I double-majored and use SAS quite a bit in analysis at my current job)

[Edited on May 15, 2006 at 6:37 AM. Reason : .]

5/15/2006 6:35:26 AM

I just graduated in Stats. Like Perlith said, you work on collecting data/making experiments and/or analysis. I transferred in three years ago, after talking to Dr. Gumpertz.

Most of the good jobs take a Masters. I've found a small research position with a professor on centennial campus. It's not phenomenal, but I'm pretty happy with the location, experience building, etc. for the time being. There are plenty of jobs out there. Statistics as a field is only a few dozen years old, and the need for them have recently been coming to light. There's quality control, calculating risk, data analysis, market research, etc. Everyone collects data but nobody knows how to interpret it.

5/15/2006 10:44:18 AM