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Applied Statistics and Analytics, M.S.

Minimum Totals for Graduation: 30 - 33 hours

Admission Requirements, Retention & Termination Standards

Admission Requirements:

  1. Applicants must meet all CMU Graduate Studies admission requirements. International students should take note of any special admission considerations required by the Office of Graduate Studies, including TOEFL requirements.
  2. Applicants must have completed a minimum of 12 semester hours of mathematics and/or statistics courses that include the following: MTH 133 (Calculus II) or the equivalent, one course in linear algebra, and one course in statistics or probability. A grade point average of 3.0 in mathematics and statistics course work is required.
  3. Applicants must submit a Statement of Purpose of at least 100 words and not to exceed two pages. The Statement of Purpose should explain their relevant academic and professional experiences, discuss motivation for applying to the program, and describe their goals after completing the program.
  4. Both admission to the program and awards of Graduate Assistantships are competitive. Applicants interested in a Graduate Assistantship position must submit a Graduate Assistantship Application along with General GRE scores and three letters of recommendation directly to the Department of Statistics, Actuarial and Data Sciences. Evaluation for Graduate Assistantships is based on the nature of previous coursework, grades, general GRE scores, and letters of recommendation. The deadline for applying for a Graduate Assistantship is February 15. Application materials received after February 15 are considered on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.

Transfer Credits:

Students may transfer into the degree program up to 15 credits of course work from another similar graduate degree program, provided that the student earned a grade of B or better in the course and the course content is equivalent to the course taught in the degree program and approved by the program advisor. The university policy provided by the Office of Graduate Studies supersedes the program policy, if any conflict occurs.

Program Requirements

Required Prerequisite Course (0-3 hours)

STA 580Applied Statistical Methods I

3(3-0)

Note: Students who have not taken a course similar to STA 580 with comparable contents and textbooks are required to take the prerequisite course.

Required Courses I (15 hours)

STA 575Statistical Programming for Data Management and Analysis

3(3-0)
STA 581Probability and Statistics for Data Science

3(3-0)
STA 591Data Mining Techniques I

3(3-0)
STA 675Advanced Statistical Data Management and Simulation

3(3-0)
STA 691Advanced Data Mining Techniques

3(3-0)

Note: With the approval of the program advisor, students who have taken courses similar to STA 575 and/or STA 591 with comparable contents and textbooks may be allowed to replace the course(s) with elective course(s).

Electives I (9 hours)

Select from the following:

ITC 630Cloud Computing

3(3-0)
ITC 686Big Data Analytics

3(3-0)
STA 678Categorical Data and Survival Analysis

3(3-0)
STA 686Multivariate Analysis

3(3-0)
STA 694Theory and Applications of Bayesian Statistics

3(3-0)

Electives II (3 hours)

Select from the following:

GEO 501Principles of Geographic Information Systems

3(2-2)
ITC 510Software and Data Modeling

3(3-0)
MTH 586Operations Research I

3(3-0)
STA 582Experimental Designs

3(3-0)
STA 583Nonparametric Statistics

3(3-0)
STA 587Statistical Theory and Methods for Quality Improvement

3(3-0)
STA 588Sampling Techniques

3(3-0)
STA 589Time Series Forecasting

3(3-0)
STA 590Applied Statistical Methods II

3(3-0)
STA 592Six Sigma: Foundations and Techniques for Green Belts

3(3-0)
STA 595Introduction to Bayesian Statistics

3(3-0)
STA 682Linear Models

3(3-0)
STA 696Special Topics in Statistics and Analytics

1-6(Spec)
STA 697Independent Study

1-9(Spec)
  • Note 1: Graduate level courses in any discipline different from Statistics with approval of the program advisor may be used as elective courses.
  • Note 2: Students who are exempted from STA 575 and/or STA 591 under Required Courses will take a total of 6 or 9 hours under Electives.
  • Note 3: Students who plan to take ITC 630 or ITC 686 under Electives I must take ITC 510 under Electives II.
 

Practicum Requirement (3 hours)

Select from the following:
STA 695Practicum/Internship

3(Spec)
STA 698Plan B Project

3(Spec)

Total: 30-33 semester hours

Accelerated M.S. in Applied Statistics and Analytics

Advanced undergraduate students majoring in Actuarial Science and Statistics may want to consider the option by which they can obtain a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science or Bachelor of Science in Statistics and their Master of Science in Applied Statistics and Analytics in five years. The accelerated program requirements are stated in the Admission Requirements section below. It allows students to apply 12 credit hours of graduate coursework toward both Bachelor degree and the Master of Science degree.

Admission Requirements, Retention & Termination Standards

To be eligible for the accelerated program, a student must

  • Have completed a minimum of 15 credit hours of mathematics, including Calculus III and Linear Algebra with at least a B in each of the mathematics courses taken.
  • Have completed at least 9 credit hours of statistics including STA 580 (or equivalent) and STA 584 (or equivalent) with at least a B+ in each of the statistics courses taken.
  • Have a grade point average of 3.0 overall, a 3.0 in mathematics and a 3.3 in statistics are required.
  • Have completed at least 93 credit hours of undergraduate coursework, including all competency requirement and all but 9 credit hours of University Program requirements.

Degree Requirements

The Accelerated Master of Science in Applied Statistics and Analytics is a 30 hours program (27 hours of coursework and 3 hours of Practicum/Internship or Plan B project).

  1. STA 581 does not count toward the Accelerated M.S. program in Applied Statistics and Analytics. Students in the accelerated MS program are required to take the sequence of STA 584 and STA 585 in their BS/BA degree. Both courses are counted toward their undergraduate credits and STA 585 is counted toward their graduate credits.
  2. Prior to the fourth year, students will complete the pre-requisite courses STA 580 and STA 584.
  3. Students must complete STA 582, STA 591, STA 675 and either STA 585 or ITC 510 or any 500-level course under Electives, which will be counted toward both the undergraduate and graduate degrees.
  4. Students will complete the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree requirements by the end of the summer term of the fourth year.
  5. Students will complete the coursework and the Practicum/Internship or Plan B Project for the Masters of Science degree requirements by the end of the summer term of their fifth year.

A sample curriculum for a student who has completed 93 credit hours of undergraduate coursework is given below:

Year 4 - Fall (15 hours)

  • Undergraduate courses (9 hours), in addition to STA 591 (3 hours), and one of the following: STA 582 (3 hours) or ITC 510 (3 hours) or any other Elective.

Year 4 - Spring (15 hours)

  • Undergraduate courses (6 hours), in addition to STA 675 (3 hours), STA 585 (3 hours), STA 691 (3 hours) and an elective for graduate requirement (3 hours).

Year 5 - Fall (6 hours)

Year 5 - Spring (6 hours)

Year 5 - Summer (3 hours)

(M.S. degree conferred)

Course Work Map for MS in Applied Statistics and Analytics

Example One: For students who already have STA 580 background.

  • YEAR 1

- Fall (9 hours): STA 575, STA 581, STA 591

- Spring (6 hours): STA 675, STA 691

- Summer (3 hours): Internship or Plan B Paper

  • YEAR 2

- Fall (6 hours): STA 686 and one from (ITC 510, Other electives).

- Spring (6 hours): Choose two from the list of ITC 686, STA 678, STA 694

Example Two: For students who do not have STA 580 background.

  • Prior to YEAR 1: Take online STA 580 in Summer Two.
  • YEAR 1

- Fall (9 hours): STA 575, STA 581, STA 591

- Spring (6 hours): STA 675, STA 691

- Summer (3 hours): Internship or Plan B Paper

  • YEAR 2

- Fall (6 hours): STA 686 and one from (ITC 510, other electives).

- Spring (6 hours): Choose two from the list of ITC 686, STA 678, STA 694

Example Three: For students who do not have STA 580 background.

  • YEAR 1

- Fall (9 hours): STA 575, STA 580, STA 581

- Spring (6 hours): STA 675, STA 678

  • YEAR 2

- Fall (9 hours): STA 591, STA 686 and one from (ITC 510, other electives).

- Spring (6 hours): STA 691, choose one from (ITC 686, STA 694)

- Summer (3 hours): Internship or Plan B Paper