<p>I've seen all four of these offered as Masters for Statistics. What's the difference between them?</p>
<p>43 views and no one can provide any insight?</p>
<p>I think it would depend on the institution that offers the degrees.</p>
<p>Most common would seem to be Master of Science in Statistics. I don’t know why a school would offer a M.A. in Statistics, as it is a very math/science heavy degree.</p>
<p>I’ll be honest, I don’t know what “MPS” in Statistics is. I know it’s common to get a MPH in Biostatistics, as in Master of Public Health.</p>
<p>I looked up “MPS” in Statistics, and it seems Cornell offers one (is that where you saw it?). It stands for “Master of Professional Studies”, and through the school’s description appears to be a watered down/1 year version of a Masters of Science in Statistics program.</p>
<p>It appears to be a professional degree, as opposed to an academic/research Masters of Science degree, which is basically the first 2 years of the PhD program.</p>
<p>I thought it was odd too that a lot of schools offer a Master of Arts in stats. From the top of my head I know Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, Penn, and Michigan all offer the M.A. and I’ve seen more. Yes, I did see the MPS at Cornell, and it actually intrigues me quite a bit. </p>
<p>Which would be the better route to go if I want to work in a more business/tech area? I have little desire to do much teaching and research that goes with it, but would like to use stats to do market research or data engineering for companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.</p>
<p>OminousRun, you’ve been such a big help on these forums, you rock</p>
<p>The MPS might be the way for you to go if you’re just looking for an advanced professional degree based in statistics. It looks like it may only take a year if you’re coming from an undergrad program in statistics (or math) where many of the math intensive and theory classes have already been met (full calculus sequence, linear algebra, probability and statistical theory).</p>
<p>If you look at the placement of most of the MPS grads from Cornell, it appears many of them go onto business types jobs (consulting, marketing, retail). It’s probably up your alley.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m noticing a lot of these one year programs (Cornell, Rice, CM, etc) all seem to have people going into the business sector, which is what I’d really like to do.</p>
<p>I know it’s a bit early to think about it (but then again, early is better than later), but do you think as a non-Asian applicant I might have a little more leverage in getting in some of these programs. Out of the 50 or so on Cornell’s MPS students page, only 2 or 3 appear to have non-Asian names.</p>
<p>Also, why do you think a lot of these more prestigious schools offer an M.A. instead an M.S.? Is it perhaps to curb people into taking part in their PhD program?</p>
<p>The MA programs look to have a few less credit hour requirements over the MS programs, from the few that I’ve looked at. Looks like 24 compared to 36 credits. So it appears the MA programs are less rigorous. Maybe the MA programs are 1 year extensions of their Bachelor’s programs? I’m not sure.</p>
<p>It looks like the ranking from easiest to most difficult (time/credit wise) is:</p>
<p>MPS
MA
MS</p>
<p>I also know many MS programs have TA/RA/GA requirements attached to them, where the MA/MPS requirements probably do not. Also, it appears the MPS/MA degrees may be non-thesis options.</p>
<p>I’m not sure where M.Stat falls. What schools offer the M.Stat?</p>
<p>As far as the “non-Asian” thing, I have no idea. I know at my school a large portion of the grad students for Statistics seem to be Asian…mainly from China.</p>
<p>I guess it couldn’t hurt, as long as you can compete with them. Some of the acceptance rates I’ve seen, it appears that domestic students have a higher acceptance rate than foreign students (U of Washington, for example).</p>
<p>I saw M.Stat at Rice University, but it looks to be similar to the Cornell program. </p>
<p>My concern is that having an M.A. would hurt me for the jobs I’d want. I look at the bigger companies and even locals around me, and they all specifically request an M.S… Is it really that much preferred over the M.A.?</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, it seems the MS is preferred over MA. However, that could be because the MS is more common. I doubt a MA from a top tier school would hold you back, if you’re only looking at business applications of your degree. 90% of getting a job is the interview(s) anyway.</p>
<p>It may hurt you slightly if the person doing the hiring knows the specific differences between MA, MPS, MS, etc…but that’s a big “if”. There’s a obvious gap between Bachelors, Masters and PhD. But the small gaps in between the different degrees per category really don’t matter that much, imo. Where you get your degree is probably more important.</p>
<p>Do you think that it’d be beneficial to get a Masters if I might want to get a Ph.D down the line? Or should I apply straight to the Ph.D if I have even a hair of wanting to get one?</p>
<p>If you’re only looking to go into business, the PhD might be a bit of overkill. From what I’ve seen, Masters with 5+ years experience is graded out the same way as PhD with < 2 years experience. So the time commitment is probably a wash. The question is, do you want to gain your experience in the real world or in the academic world?</p>
<p>Look at it this way: Spend 2 years getting a Masters (-$25,000 cost per year x’s 2 = -$50,000) + 3 years working after Masters ($65,000 x’s 3 = $195,000); so after 5 years you are +$145,000</p>
<p>Spend 5 years working on a PhD (tuition waived, lucky to get $20,000 per year stipend) = $100,000 after 5 years…but you have a PhD.</p>
<p>Now, it depends if PhD earns you a lot more then Masters in the particular field you go into. You might be sacrificing a lot for the first 5 years, but it could pay off to get a PhD in the long run. You have to weigh the benefits and negatives for each.</p>