Admission to the Doctoral Program

It is necessary to have an undergraduate degree, not necessarily in mathematics or statistics, to begin a program of study toward the Ph.D. degree in statistics. It is expected that some students will be admitted to the program who have either a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in some other field. However, the student should have a mathematical background which, as a minimum, is equivalent to the mathematics courses: 

• MATH 2144: Calculus I
• MATH 2153: Calculus II
• MATH 2163: Calculus III
• MATH 3013: Linear Algebra
• MATH 4013: Engineering Mathematics: Calculus of Several Variables
• MATH 4023: Intro. to Modern Analysis 

Students admitted to the program with deficiencies will be required to remedy such deficiencies.  In addition to the above courses, each student is required to complete COMSC 1113 or to demonstrate competence in a procedure oriented language such as FORTRAN.

Credit Requirements

A total of 90 hours above the B.S. degree is required. At least 12 hours but not more than 30 hours of STAT 6000 are to be included on the plan of study.

Required Courses*

A doctoral candidate must complete the following courses during his/her graduate career.

* Students are encouraged to enroll in STAT 4091 (5910) SAS Programming to gain experience with SAS.

** This course is required of every doctoral student and is to consist of material relating to the student’s research interest. The course will be taught by the dissertation advisor and may be used to prepare the dissertation proposal. The prerequisite is permission of the instructor.

Two three-hour 4000 level or higher graduate courses, excluding those with STAT or MATH prefixes, are required.  Outside courses taken for a Masters degree may count toward this requirement.  The following courses will NOT be allowed to count toward this outside course.

AGEC 5103 Mathematical Economics, BAE 5513 Experimental Engineering Analysis, ECON 4213 Econometric Methods, IEM 5003 Stochastic Processes, IEM 5133 Statistics and Research Methods, PSYC 5303 & 5313 Quantitative Methods in Psychology I & II, REMS 5013 Research Design and Methodology, REMS 5953 Elementary Statistical Methods in Education, REMS 6003 Analyses of Variance, REMS 6013 Multiple Regression Analysis in Behavioral Studies. 

With consent of a student’s graduate committee, a 3000-level course approved for graduate credit may be used for an outside course.

Plan of Study

The plan of study is usually made with the help of the advisory committee prior to the re-enrollment date during the second full semester of enrollment. The Ph.D. Preliminary Examination must be passed before the appointment of an advisory committee.  The selection of courses for an acceptable program is the responsibility of the student and the advisory committee. STAT 3013 Intermediate Statistical Analysis, STAT 4013 Statistical Methods I, STAT 4023 Statistical Methods II, STAT 4203 Mathematical Statistics I, STAT 4213 Mathematical Statistics II, STAT 5013 Statistics for Experimenters I are not allowed on the plan of study.

Ph.D. Preliminary Examination

The examination consists of material from the courses STAT 5123 Probability, STAT 5223 Inference, STAT 5303 Experimental Design, and STAT 5323 Linear Models I.

Doctoral students are required to take the preliminary exam at the first opportunity after the completion of courses STAT 5123 Probability, STAT 5223 Inference, STAT 5303 Experimental Design, and STAT 5323 Linear Models I, or equivalent graduate level courses, as approved by the advisor. Failure to take the exam at the first opportunity will result in a failure of the exam on the first attempt.  The examination may be taken at most twice. Students will be evaluated based on the results of all subjects simultaneously.

Qualifying Examination

This examination is required by the Graduate College and is to be administered by the student’s advisory committee.  It is to consist of a written and oral presentation of the thesis proposal as well as written and oral questions submitted to the candidate by his/her advisory committee.  The student must have passed the preliminary examination and must have secured the permission of his principal advisor.

Graduate College Requirement

Defense

Please see the Guide to Defense Presentations for information on the defense of the project or thesis.

Application Information

Last update: 08/24/2006

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