Doing a Masters in Statistics or PhD in Quantitative Psychology

Graduate School
1

Hi forum!

I’ve been out of college for a couple years, and wanted to go back for a degree that would help me get a job in Data Science. I’ve been working as a Data Analyst, and the job originally promised a Data Science role (working with Hadoop, Hive, Pig, etc. and performing machine learning) but that has since changed for the worse. I do have a Machine Learning publication I’m getting out of it though, so not completely unrelated to my goals.

I’ve noticed that most Data Scientist positions require a Master’s degree in Statistics as a baseline, but I wasn’t sure if I could get into a high-ranked Statistics program. I was a Cognitive Science (B.S.) and Statistics (B.S.) major, and I had a rather higher GPA (3.98), but I had run out of time to take some of the advanced math classes (Advanced Linear Algebra, Real Analysis, etc.) that a lot of Statistics programs seem to want as pre-requesites.

So my question is two-fold:

  1. Is there a way for me to take some math courses, and demonstrate that I can handle the academic rigor of a top-ranked Statistics Masters program? I guess the best parallel I can think of is a post-bac program, but for math. Do those exist

  2. If I do a Quantitative Psychology Ph.D., how are the prospects for Data Scientists? Most of the positions I’ve seen on LinkedIn seem to go to Physics or Engineering Ph.D.s. On the other hand, my background (in terms of college research and post-college work) seem much more suited to this choice.

I have to take the GRE first anyway, so I know I have some time to think about this, but I’d like to be settled on a gameplan soon. Thanks for any and all help!

2

Pretty tough questions. I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology and have been eyeing data science positions. The impression I’ve gotten about it is that the smart companies consider quant psych to be an asset. For example, Apple and Google specifically list these degrees on their job application. This would make a lot of sense because A) quant psychologists can form reasonable questions about human behavior and B) they do just as much programming as statisticians. You mentioned you don’t see many Quant Psych Ph.Ds getting these positions, but it is worth noting that there are a lot of positions and very few Quant Psych Ph.Ds (Hardly any introduced to the work force each year) so you wouldn’t expect to see it.

One thing you could do that I did was go to some quantitative Ph.D programs online and see what their alumni are up to. Some programs do really well at getting their students in industry, whereas others do not.

A Masters is certainly less time consuming in the long run (big plus), but it will cost you some money because they generally are not funded. Did you ever consider a data science Masters? They are becoming quite popular. I’m not sure exactly how you back to take pre reqs. I wish I could help you there.

3

  1. Yes, you can do that. You don’t have to do a post-bacc program, especially if all you are missing is 2-3 courses. Just find a nearby four-year college/university that offers the classes and take them.

  2. A quant psych PhD will absolutely prepare you for a career as a data scientist, especially if you know ahead of time that’s what you want to do and make sure that you take appropriate coursework and opportunities to prepare you (some computer science classes, mathematical statistics, etc.) Most of the positions you see likely go to physics or engineering PhDs because there are more of them.