<p>If I'm reading the degree requirements correctly, it doesn't appear that my college expects mechanical engineering majors to take statistics. I know I didn't in high school.</p>
<p>Even so, is this a topic that mechanical engineers should (or need to) know? </p>
<p>Yes, most definitely. It is a very valuable topic and some employers even require that you have taken a class on it for them to employ you.</p>
<p>Thanks. Is it explicitly a part of the ME curriculum at most universities?</p>
<p>A lot of places require it but I don’t know about most. It really SHOULD be required though. It’s very valuable. Make sure it is calculus-based, though, and not just stat 101.</p>
<p>Thanks, as mentioned I didn’t take statistics in high school, and I wasn’t exposed to it (except for a very slight coverage of probabilities in one math class) until this week when we were given a math assessment quiz going into our Physics E&M class. One of the questions involved computing a binomial distribution, which I know I didn’t have before. So I’ll have to figure out some time to work this in.</p>
<p>Just going to chime in and echo the previous posters’ sentiment. Having talked to numerous friends who are ME grads and/or fellow ME grad students, a surprising number mentioned how much emphasis their employers placed on some knowledge of statistics.</p>