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Creating and Sustaining a Dynamic Undergraduate
Statistics Program
Our (My) experience at BYU
Bruce Jay Collings(02 August 2008)
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Outline
• Disclaimer• Brief Department History• Fortuitous Factors• Concerted Efforts by Department• Recruiting students
• What did not work• What works
• Retaining students
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Disclaimer(s)
• BYU may be atypical– Church university– Not quite a major research university– Not quite an undergraduate teaching university
• My view
• Adapt or Ignore anything I say
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Brief Department History
• Created in 1960– No students, 1 faculty member
• 1962: 1st BS degree, 3 faculty + 2 PT• mid 70’s: 20 majors, 12 faculty• mid 80’s: 50 majors, 15 faculty • 1990: ~100 majors, 16 faculty + 3 PT• 2000: ~160 majors, 16 faculty + 4 PT• 2008: ~ 200 majors, 17 faculty + 3 PT (about 20 masters students since early 70’s)
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Fortuitous Factors - BYU
• Collegiality – Early Department Faculty & Philosophy
• BYU enrollment pressures
• Stat faculty member as AAVP for Computing– Excellent department computing– University wide multi-media teaching rooms– Current Department Chair
• Applied Statistics Account
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(Not So) Fortuitous Factors - BYU
• Very Heavy Service load– Nearly 15,000 student credit hrs/yr
• No PhD Program– Harder to get external funding
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Fortuitous Factors – In General
• Service Courses– Business School screening tool– Satisfies University GE requirement– Increasingly required by other majors
• Increased demand for Statisticians
• AP Statistics exam
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Concerted Efforts by Department
• Department Mission Statement
"... to provide (individuals) with the knowledge to perform meaningful work and service through rational evaluation of quantitative information ...“
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Concerted Efforts by Department
• Academic Program– Basic program outline
Core – approx 40 hours 2 or 3 semesters of Calculus Intro stat (4 options) Stat methods, Math Stat, Sampling, Design,
Statistical Computing“Specialty” stat courses (junior/senior level)Minor (or equivalent) in appropriate field
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Concerted Efforts by Department
• Academic Program (cont.)– Five degree programs; two sub-groups
• Terminal degree (less math)– BS Stat: Applied Statistics & Analytics emphasis– BS Stat: Quality Science emphasis
• “Pre-Professional” (more math)– BS Stat: Statistical Science emphasis– BS Stat: Biostatistics emphasis– BS Actuarial Science
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Concerted Efforts by Department
• Flexibility– Four entry classes:
• regular, “baby” theory, Bayesian, quality science
– “Minor” requirement (for degree programs)• allows individually tailored program• Limited cost to department
– Very flexible Stat minor requirement
• Adapt to student needs– Biostat added in 1997, now has 40+ majors– Act Sci added in 1990, grew to 20-25 by 1995– Act Sci degree in 2001, now has 70+ majors
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Concerted Efforts by Department
• Weekly seminar series (w/ refreshments)– Speakers from across campus – Some off campus speakers– Some student only concerns
• resumes writing• Interviewing
– Most statistical research presentations– Draws students from other campus depts
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Concerted Efforts by Department
• Consulting Center– University citizenship– Student experience– Student involvement/employment w/ other depts– Good PR
• Undergraduate mentoring– UG research groups– Even by non-stat professors (CS & Math)– College Spring Research Conference
• Faculty dedicated to teaching (and research)
• Employment – most majors are TAs or RAs
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Concerted Efforts by Department
• Actuarial Science degree– Relatively easy to start (two new courses)
• Basic core (less sampling & design)• Theory of interest & Actuarial mathematics• Six courses from econ, finance, accounting, stat• Optional review class for Course 1
– Recent pass rate Exams P, FM, MLC, MFE ~70%– Adds visibility to Department– Very popular ~40% of undergraduate majors
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Recruiting – What Didn’t Work
• Freshman letter– 1500+ letters to high math scores on
ACT/SAT• High quality incoming freshmen
400+ w/ 33+ ACT (1460+ SAT) and 3.9+ HS GPA
• Science Day• Brought local/regional HS students to campus• Four Sat morning sessions about statistics
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Recruiting Students – What Works
• Word of mouth– Significant fraction of new majors are siblings, relatives or
friends (even children) of current/former majors
• High School outreach– Visits– AP and BAPS seminars– AP Stat exam grading (meet HS teachers)
• Temporary Visiting HS Faculty– Take a couple of classes; teach a class or two– Refer their best students to us
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Recruiting Students
• Introductory Stat & other service courses– Honors/Majors Section (~75 students) is best recruiter
• Evolution of Stat 221 (our Intro Stat course)– Early 80’s: ~200 students/sem + ~100 summer– Early 90’s: ~900 students/sem + ~200 summer– Late 90’s: ~1200 students/sem + ~400 summer– 2003: ~1800 students/sem + ~600 summer– 2008: ~2000 students/sem + ~500 summer
Overheads -> PowerPoint -> Flash lessons– produced (and taught) by best teachers (over several yrs)– incorporates videos, applets, tables, calculators, etc.– Uniformity, simplicity, reduces faculty burden of 4500/yr– ¼ PT faculty to maintain/upgrade
Requires Course Supervisor, several Course Assistants, and TA’s for 90+ labs per semester
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Retaining Students
• Academic programs and marketability• Student involvement
– ASA, SQC, μσρ, Actuarial Club
• Student employment– Semester long TA training course– Majors all TA/RA at least one semester– Graders/TAs for all courses– Invite top non-majors to TA Stat 221 – Most juniors & seniors work 10-15 hours for Dept
• Good recruiting tool• “relatively” high paying
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Retaining Students
• Department Scholarships– Several endowed by faculty and dept– A few endowed by private gift
• Mostly former students and families
– Not lavish, most are half tuition• Majors only “labs”
– Majors only computer lab (18-20 PCs, printer, software, etc)
– Actuarial library/study room (office size)
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Retaining Students
• Physically located together (one floor)– Department office suite– Faculty offices– Graduate student offices– Student computing labs– Class rooms for Majors courses– Department servers– Computing support personnel
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Retaining Students
• Summer Institute of Applied Statistics (SIAS)– Outside speakers– Faculty professional development– Brings non-stat students to department
• Applied Statistics Account– Funds SIAS and other “needs”– Endowed two Professorships, One mentoring
Award• Allows faculty to fund students
– Accumulated from variety of sources• University/College matching fund
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Retaining Students
• Modest sized MS only graduate program– Focus is on undergraduate program– Challenge undergrads with 1st year MS courses