The Graduate Program

Founded in 1963, the Department is one of the major statistics departments in the Northeast and has national and international recognition in both teaching and research. Core faculty have research interests spanning virtually all statistical specializations.

Graduate training is a traditional strength of the Department with over 70 Ph.D. and 178 M.S. degrees awarded to date. The graduate program balances theory and applications, including both solid mathematical training and modeling, data analysis, and computation. Elective courses are regularly given in active areas. Recent offerings have included Bayesian data analysis, bioinformatics, categorical data analysis, longitudinal and spatial data modeling, sequential analysis, and survival analysis.

Graduates of the program promptly move into attractive positions in academics, government, and industry, specific areas including biology, medicine, business, economics, engineering, and the social sciences.

Programs of Study

The Department of Statistics offers work leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. Both programs include training in statistical application and in theory, and both give students sufficient flexibility to pursue their special interests and time to take courses in other departments.

The M.S. program in Statistics requires 8-10 courses, depending on the student’s undergraduate record. While completing the M.S. degree within a year is possible, most students take three or four semesters. The core courses include mathematical statistics, linear models, design of experiments, and applied statistics. Students are encouraged to become involved in the statistical consulting work done by members of the department.

M.S. program with Biostatistics concentration requires 10 courses, of which six of the core courses are the same as in our M.S. program in Statistics, four of the other include Introduction to Biostatistics, Clinical Trials, Survival Analysis and one elective course, which should be a biostatistics related course such as bioinformatics, epidemiology or genetics, chosen with the approval of the major advisor.

The doctoral program emphasizes development of the ability to create new results in statistical methods, statistical theory, and probability. The course work typically consists of at least sixteen courses beyond the bachelor’s degree, including mathematical statistics, linear models, statistical inference, applied statistics, real analysis, and probability. After completing the necessary course work and a sequence of examinations, the Ph.D. candidate must write a dissertation providing an original contribution to the field of statistics or probability. The dissertation may be predominantly the development of novel statistical methodology for an area of application.

Financial Aid

Graduate teaching and research assistantship and fellowship-assistantship combinations are available, covering tuition and health benefits and paying a stipend of approximately $17,220 with at least the baccalaureate, for the academic year 2004-2005. Some internships and financial aid are available in the summer. Students with full aid generally take three courses a semester. Those with a fellowship-assistantship may take four courses. Outstanding students may be awarded University predoctoral fellowships. Advanced students are considered for research assistantship.

Cost of Study/Living and Housing Costs

Tuition in 2004-2005 for full-time graduate students is $3,555 per semester for Connecticut residents and $9,239 per semester for nonresidents. Tuition is waived for students with at least a half-time assistantship. All students must pay a general University fee of $441 and a graduate activities fee of $46 per semester. Graduate student housing and board are available on campus. For the 2004-2005 academic year, costs are $2,087 and $1,609 per semester for room and board, respectively. There is private housing in the area, for which a car is generally necessary.

Student Group

There are roughly 54 graduate students in the department, approximately half working for the M.S. degree and half for the Ph.D. degree. The department has been granting about three Ph.D. degrees a year. All graduate students and faculty have office space within the departmental area, creating an open, informal environment. Of the 17 Ph.D. recipients in the last five years , 10 have academic tenure track positions, 1 in the government and 6 are in industry. The M.S. recipients have positions with the government, industry and business, and academic research centers. As predicted by the National Science Foundation, employment opportunities for persons with degrees in statistics continue to be excellent.

The University and the Department

The University of Connecticut, which celebrated its centennial in 1981, is the State of Connecticut's land-grant institution. It has about 25,000 students, including more than 5,000 in graduate study. Its substantial, but not overwhelming, size allows the University to offer a broad curriculum and an excellent program of concerts, plays, and other cultural events.

The Department of Statistics was founded in 1963. Its faculty members conduct an active and prolific research program in which students are involved as soon as possible.

The University of Connecticut's main campus is in northeastern Connecticut, 25 miles from Hartford, in an attractive rural area. It is about 1-1/2 hours by car from Boston and 3 hours from New York City.