Universities and Colleges Creating New Undergraduate Statistics (and Related) Programs

By Steve Pierson posted 12-08-2014 15:08

  
This is a very exciting time to be in statistics and biostatistics. The number of undergraduate statistics degrees has nearly doubled in the last four years—making it the fastest growing STEM degree—and Master’s degree are also growing quickly. Further, the number of universities granting undergrad statistics degrees has increased from the 74 in 2003 to more than 110 last year. (See this Amstat News article for more on these developments.) Based on reports we have been hearing about colleges and universities establishing new undergrad statistics programs, this number will continue to grow. To highlight these developments, we assembled the following list of new undergraduate statistics programs. Thanks to the many members who made us aware of these programs. (If you are aware of other new undergrad programs besides those below, please email them to me: pierson@amstat.org.)
[This list has been updated from its original 16 programs.]
  1. Amherst College, new Major in Statistics
  2. Arizona State, new B.S. in Statistics (new as of 2011) 
  3. Emory University, new Major in Quantitative Sciences
  4. Loyola University Maryland,  new Major in Statistics
  5. Gustavus Adolphus College, new Major in Statistics [added to this blog entry 9/27/15]
  6. Miami University, new Co-Major in Analytics  (See August Amstat News Q&A with representatives of this program.)
  7. Northern Kentucky University, Bachelor of Science in Data Science  (See July Amstat News Q&A with representatives of this program.)
  8. Ohio State, new Major in Data Analytics   (See August Amstat News Q&A with representatives of this program.)
  9. Princeton University, new Center for Statistics and Machine Learning (See also this January Amstat News piece, Center for Statistics and Machine Learning Established at Princeton.)
  10. Reed College, new Statistics Concentration in the Math Major [so new there is no URL yet.]
  11. Saint Louis University, new B.S. in Biostatistics
  12. Smith College, new Statistical and Data Sciences program
  13. St. Lawrence University, new Statistics major
  14. SUNY Brockport, new Statistics Track in Math major
  15. University of California, Irvine Bachelor of Science in Data Science  (See July Amstat News Q&A with representatives of this program.)
  16. University of Chicago, new Major in Statistics (and one in Computational Applied Mathematics)
  17. University of Central Missouri, new B.S. in Statistics
  18. University of Denver, new Major an Minor in Business Analytics
  19. University of Michigan, new Major in Data Science    (See August Amstat News Q&A with representatives of this program.)
  20. University of Minnesota, Morris, new Major in Statistics
  21. University of Southern California, new Minor in Statistics
  22. Villanova University, new Minor in Statistics
  23. Virginia Tech University, new B.S. in Computational Modeling and Data Analytics
  24. Wake Forest University, new B.A. and B.S. in Mathematical Statistics
  25. Williams College, new Major in Statistics
  26. Winona State University, new undergraduate Data Science program  (See July Amstat News Q&A with representatives of this program.)
As you can see, some of these programs are in related fields. I’ll be interested to see how their degrees are categorized for the National Center for Education Statistics using their CIP Codes. As I explain in this blog entry, http://community.amstat.org/blogs/steve-pierson/2014/07/28/categorization-of-statistics-degrees, I mainly track these five categories:

26.1102 – Biostatistics;

27.0501 - Statistics, General;

27.0502 - Mathematical Statistics and Probability;

27.0503 - Mathematics and Statistics; and

27.0599 - Statistics, Other

I also note that NCES doesn’t yet have a CIP code for data science or analytics. 

The main criterion for inclusion in this list is programs that don't appear in this list of the 130+ universities who granted a statistics degree (27.05xx) between 2003 and 2013, which is linked from this Amstat News article. The same Amstat News article also has this list of universities granting undergraduate biostatistics degrees: "In biostatistics, only five universities actively grant bachelor’s degrees. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has granted a total of 87 such degrees from 2003–2013 (26 over the last two years); Brigham Young University, 53 (9); University of Scranton, 31 (7); Emmanuel College, 5 (2); Simmons College, 5 (5)."

With the growth in the number of universities offering statistics degrees, ASA's new guidelines for undergraduates programs in statistical science are well timed.

​For previous posts/articles on the growth of statistics degrees, AP Statistics, and postdocs, see the following (noting that #'s 5 & 6 include data on the number of women receiving degrees or the number of females taking AP Statistics):  
  1. Doctorate Degrees in Statistics and Biostatistics and the Universities Granting Them, 2003-2012, ASA Community Blog Entry, February 13, 2014
  2. Largest Master's Programs in Statistics and Biostatistics, ASA Community Blog Entry, February 9, 2014
  3. Largest Doctorate Programs in Statistics and Biostatistics, ASA Community Blog Entry, February 9, 2014
  4. Statistical Science Degree Comparisons (updated through 2012), ASA Community Blog Entry, December 20, 2013. 
  5. AP Statistics Sustains Strong Growth in 2013, ASA Community Blog Entry, October 4, 2013.
  6. Undergrad Statistics Degrees Continue Large Increases in 2012, Amstat News, October, 2013.
  7. Postdoc Numbers Small but on the Rise for Statistics, ASA Community Blog Entry, September 9, 2013
  8. Growing Numbers of Stats Degrees, Amstat News, May, 2013.    
  9. See also this April 2007 Amstat News article, "Statistical Sciences Produces High Percentage of Female New Doctoral Recipients," by Rosanne Desmone: http://www.amstat.org/misc/2007_DesmoneFemalesInStats.pdf
​​See other ASA Science Policy blog entries. For ASA science policy updates, follow @ASA_SciPol on Twitter.
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12-09-2014 11:35

Dear Stas,
I haven't looked specifically at the Professional Science Master's programs but could if there is sufficient ASA member interest. The closest I come is my blog entry on the universities granting Master's degrees: http://community.amstat.org/blogs/steve-pierson/2014/02/09/largest-graduate-programs-in-statistics.
Best,
Steve

12-09-2014 10:51

Steve, do you also track the Professional Science Master's programs? See http://www.sciencemasters.com/PSMProgramLocator/tabid/141/Default.aspx. As they are heavily cross-listed with business schools, their degrees may have weird names like Master of Business and Science, and have a home department in business schools rather than Arts and Sciences or Public Health where you'd find stat or biostat departments. I don't know how big the numbers are coming from these PSM programs though.
With best regards, Stas