Department of
Food & Resource Economics
213 Townsend Hall
Newark, DE 19716
302/831-2511 Phone
302/831-6243 Fax
Statistics Grad Program Overview and Degree Requirements
Candidates for the M.S. degree in Statistics must complete 33 credit hours of course work in one of the following programs:
Master's with Thesis
In addition to the required courses above, Program I requires six additional credits of course work and six hours of thesis credits. The department maintains a list of approved courses. The completed thesis will be presented at a departmental seminar.
Master's without Thesis
In addition to the required courses above, Program II requires 12 additional credits of course work. The department maintains a list of approved courses.
Master's Internship Program
In addition to the required courses above, Program III requires six additional credits of course work and six hours of internship credit.
The internship program is designed to produce students who can use statistics to solve real problems. In formal course work, the student will develop an understanding of the theoretical foundations of statistics and learn a broad set of statistical methods. As an intern, the student will train in industry or government under the guidance of practicing statisticians, who will often be adjunct faculty, and will work closely with scientists to formulate and solve problems using data analytic and statistical techniques. Both oral and written communication skills are essential and will be developed in seminars, formal course work, and the internship program. Students in the intern program do not write a thesis but a report which summarizes the results of their internship accomplishments.
Program III requires a minimum of 27 credit hours of course work and an internship in industry or government for 6 credit hours. A student who desires admission to Program III would normally apply during his or her first semester. A committee consisting of faculty members from the department and adjunct faculty from the sponsoring industry or government agency would evaluate the student's application and reach a decision early in the spring semester. Internship opportunities are competitive. It is the responsibility of the student to interview for the opportunity. While the Statistics Program actively seeks internship opportunities, we do not guarantee every student who desires an internship opportunity will obtain one. The exact timing, length, and compensation of the internship is negotiated and will vary from company to company. The intern is required to write a project summary report. This report contains a brief description of each job that the student performed while an intern and a detailed description of certain selected problems. The report is to be presented at a departmental seminar.
The student pursuing any of these programs must complete the following core courses:
STAT 601, Probability Theory for Operations Research and Statistics
STAT 602, Mathematical Statistics
STAT 603, Vector Spaces and Optimization
STAT 611 , Regression Analysis
STAT 615 , Design and Analysis of Experiments I
STAT 617, Multivariate Methods
STAT 641, Statistical Laboratory
Three semesters of the one credit-hour course STAT 641 (Statistical Laboratory) are required. A student who has taken any of the 600-level statistics requirements as an undergraduate must substitute other statistics courses subject to his or her advisor's approval.
