I’m a member of the class of 2019 and I’m very interested in pursuing a BS in statistics. Does anybody here have any experience with the major? What sort of work did you find yourself doing during summers or upon graduation? I really love statistics, and I excelled in it in HS including doing some additional research. As statistics seems to be a very wide major as far as what it teaches, does it make sense to augment my schedule with something like economics, political science, or some sort of science class (thinking how being a stat major would look to eventual employers, I’d love to work as an analyst for either a technology, bank, or law firm)? I guess I’m most worried about not getting enough done freshman year and then backloading my schedule through 2nd/3rd/4th year and I just don’t want to be overwhelmed.
So if I really want to do statistics, is that what is worth focusing on while possibly forgoing conflicting classes like econ?
In addition to a stat class, I’m currently planning on taking French (assuming 130 placement) which is a time sink but I have to get the distrib req finished, MTWThF mornings, Math 115 (placed, is it one semester or two?), an English class (probably just an entry level frosh class so I don’t get overwhelmed), and I guess I’m thinking about taking econ which, according to YBB, gives me 14hrs 10 minutes of class a week.
I’m sorry that this isn’t too organized, I guess I just want to see if anyone could
-describe their experience during and after Yale with the statistics major
-advise if it is required to take a more “specific” course to augment something as wide as statistics (like econ if I want to work in a bank, or poli sci/history for law, or a science class of sorts for tech)
-help me decide if 14hrs/week of class is too much for a varsity athlete.
Do you really WANT that English class? You’re about to walk into the 100 foot buffet line. Why are you bee-lining it over to the mashed potatoes and dried up pepperoni pizza? Now is the time to sample and pick and choose and discard. Explore, try new things.
If I may, sometimes among varsity athletes is an attitude of taking the easy classes. Try to fight against this urge. Trawl through the YBB and see what courses really pique your curiosity. If your sport is in the Spring, start your schedule with five classes. If it’s too much, drop. I usually began a semester with one more than I intended to hold – several times starting with six.
I don’t have anything for you about the stats major per se. Get to know your profs/TAs – they’ll give you the real info. You’d be surprised at how FEW students actually engage the instructors in a meaningful way. If you can push through that shyness, your efforts will be rewarded immensely. GL to you and enjoy New Haven.
Ditto one thousand times. DS said that every time he went to some “supporting” function (office hours, FL tutoring, essay critique, etc.), he was shocked at how available the people were. Rather than feeling put out, they appreciated being utilized. As DS observed, even in HS, most teachers taught what they taught because they loved the subject and appreciated a student who had an interest (full disclosure: he attended a private HS so some of the less interested teachers had been weeded out). At Yale, he says that without exception the profs/TAs get energized when you engage them (without an agenda).
Econ classes are a good fit with a stats major. The stats people who do work for law firms are actually employed by consulting firms that are hired by law firms for specific cases.
I just graduated with a BS in Statistics. It’s a very small major–3 people in the Class of 2015, 3 in the Class of 2014, and if I remember correctly, 2 in the Class of 2011. Part of this is because people are drawn off by the Statistics concentration in the Applied Math major–something that you should maybe consider. Of the people who are in the Statistics and Applied Math majors, the vast majority seem to go into finance or software development (the Applied Math major also has a CS concentration). A small number go on to grad school.
I think that you should concentrate on taking classes that interest you. You can go into this thinking that you’re interested in finance, and as a result take econ courses. But it probably makes more sense to look at, say, an econ course and find it very compelling, and based on this experience, figure out that you’re interested in finance. Just don’t put blinders on? The landscape is evolving and there are plenty of cool, exciting opportunities. If you find programming interesting, I would definitely keep an eye on data science.
To avoid backloading your schedule, I would try to get Math 115 and Math 120 out of the way (maybe even Math 222/225 if you can fit it) this year, and also take courses in the actual major. Stat 230 is an excellent freshman class (but I think it’s also just a fun class in general and good at any time), and so is CPSC 112. If you’re comfortable, it’s also good to take Stat 241 and 242 (I think 242 needs to be taken after or concurrently with Math 222/225 though). If you did well in high school stats, your advisor will probably recommend that you skip the intro 100 series.
The Stats department is great. I loved basically all of the professors and TAs, the grad students are awesome. The one thing I would say is that you should try not to get too attached to the major before you’ve done a proof-based course. The major can become pretty theoretical, which is very different from the intro and pre-req courses, and you may not like it as much as you liked AP Stats–although maybe you’ll like it even more. (This is what a junior told me when I was a freshman, and in retrospect, it was really good advice, so I’m passing it on.)
