<p>I'm considering graduating early from a small liberal arts college, with a major in Statistics. Doing so would enable me to graduate early, and possibly save a lot of money. As a statistics major, I'll have taken the following classes:</p>
<p> Introduction to Statistics
Calculus I/II/III
Probability and Stochastic Processes
Mathematical Statistics
Data Analysis
Multivariate Statistical Analysis
One additional statistics class (not sure which one)</p>
<p>The statistics major at this college is only 39 credits worth, so I'm not sure that the degree is valuable. Are statistics majors employable? I get the feeling that a lot of statistics majors are double majors (math, econ) or else have graduate degrees. If I enter the workforce with just a statistics degree (no majors or minors), what are my employment prospects?</p>
<p>I’m also considering taking an extra year to double major in economics and statistics. Is this a good idea, or do you think the work experience would trump the extra major?</p>
<p>What would be the starting salary for a basic statistics major? (Assume no extra majors, no minor, and one or two solid internships)</p>
<p>If you can analyze data, you can find a job. Having a minor/double-major doesn’t hurt of course (wider array of knowledge/skills), but it’s not necessary. A Master’s degree does help as well, but a Bachelor’s is probably enough in many places.</p>
<p>As for salary, can’t say. It highly depends on where you get your job (and the names for the jobs vary from one place to the next: statistician, analyst, consultant, data scientist, research assistant, scientist…)</p>
<p>Not unemployable, but you are going to be competing against folks who most likely have masters degrees (depending on the jobs you are going after). I would say your upward mobility is probably going to be a bit limited until you’ve learned the skills someone might pick up in a masters program. I would agree it’s about “Can you analyze data. . .”, but depending on the strength of the program you are coming from, it’s likely the problems you were presented there are little more than “pie in the sky” easily managed data sets - which aren’t always mirrored in the real world.</p>
<p>As for what you make, probably 30-45K on average; BLS.gov might be better served to answer that question.</p>
<p>Statisticians are very employable. At least from the military/government side you will be very highly employable. Masters degrees are always better. In the DC region salaries for you will range from 60k and up depending on the contract and company. With a Masters degree you can probably get 90k+.</p>
<p>Why not get an MSTAT if possible? The Econ major is also a related good idea, but I think work experience would triumph. For stats- The SAS certification could be worth looking into. If you need more credits as undergraduate or for bachelors, you could pair the stats with applied math or econ though econ will have business core classes added to curriculum. Biostatistics is a new area that is popular. You can work for companies analyzing data or teach math/stats with bachelors or masters.</p>