<p>First off, why are there so many stats courses at Berkeley? Never understood that...</p>
<p>I'm thinking of maybe taking a stats course next semester (phase II'ing it), not sure which one. What are the advantages/disadvantages for both, and which is more challenging? Courserank indicates abomidable grade distributions and reviews for both.</p>
<p>Hm. Well I took Stat 2 last semester with Purves and it was alright. Too hard for an “easy liberal art requirement” but if you’re not math-■■■■■■■■ (like some of the girls in my discussion…oh god -__-) you’ll do just fine.</p>
<p>Honestly, the horrible grade distributions shouldn’t scare you off. They come about due to the fact that this is the only math many “fluff” majors are required to take – so of course, they bomb.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Stat 20 except that I’d imagine it’s harder than 2 (progression?)</p>
<p>There are actually not that many lower-div stat courses anymore.
Stat 2: Introduction to Statistics
Stat 20: Introduction to Statistics and Probability
Stat 21: Introduction to Statistics and Probability for Business Majors.</p>
<p>Hopefully the course titles should give you a good idea what the difference are. In my view, Stat 2 is for those who want to get the requirement over with, Stat 21 is for all Haas-intended students, and Stat 20 is for those who plan to major in Stat but need some overview before taking the upper division classes. There also used to be Stat 25 which is Introduction to Statistics and Probability for Engineers, but that’s been on hiatus for a while.
Ironically even though so many people talk about the lower div stat courses, the stat majors/minors themselves don’t have to take any of those and go straight into 134.</p>
<p>Addendum: Stat 20 is also counted as a lower-division elective for some College of Engineering majors. I suppose that implies Stat 25 is replaced by Stat 20.</p>