The Statistics PhD Program
February 1, 2005
1. Principles
Year 1. Perform satisfactorily in preliminary
course work. In the summer, students are required to embark on a
short-term research project, internship, graduate student
instructorship, reading course, or on another research activity.
Years 2-3. Continue course work. Find an area
for the oral qualifying exam and a potential thesis advisor. Pass the
oral qualifying exam during the spring semester of Year 2, or in the
fall semester of Year 3. Advance to candidacy.
Year 3. Find a thesis topic and show progress.
Years 4-5. Finish the thesis, and give a lecture based on it in a department seminar.
Advising. The department has a Graduate Committee chaired by the
Head Graduate Advisor. Each student must obtain approval for his course
plan from the Graduate Committee. On arrival, each student will be
assigned a faculty mentor and an advanced graduate student as a second
mentor. Faculty mentors will serve as student advisors and advocates.
2. Course work and evaluation
2.1 Preliminary stage: The first year
During the first year, students are normally expected to take four
semester long graduate level courses. At least three of these should be
from the seven core PhD courses in Probability (205A, 205B, 204),
Theoretical Statistics (210A, 210B), and Applied Statistics (215A,
215B). These requirements can be altered by the Head Graduate Advisor
(in consultation with the faculty mentor) in the following cases:
- For students with strong interests in another discipline, when the faculty mentor recommends delaying one core PhD course to the second year and substituting a relevant graduate course from another department.
- For students needing additional mathematical preparation, they could take Math 105 (and Math H104, if needed) in the first year, and only take two of the core PhD courses during that year, thus delaying one or two core PhD courses to the second year.
- Students arriving with advanced standing, having done successful graduate course work at another institution prior to joining the program.
Instructors of core PhD courses will be asked, in addition to the
course letter grade, to provide a short paragraph on each student's
progress, with a numerical summary between 0 and 100. The summary
will be based in part on a final examination taken either in the
official campus examination period or in class. (This does not exclude
also having a take-home exam). The following list indicates the meaning
of the numerical summaries and relates them to letter grades:95-100:
Excellent performance in PhD program (Letter grade A to A+)
90-95: Good performance in PhD program (Letter grade A)
85-90: Satisfactory performance (Typically, letter grade A- to A)
80-85: Performance marginal, needs improvement (Typically, B+)
< 80: Unsatisfactory performance (Typically, letter grade B and lower).
2.2 Evaluation
At the end of each semester, the Graduate Committee will meet to assess
progress of all students who have not yet passed the preliminary stage.
The progress of more advanced students will be evaluated annually.
Information will be collected from course instructors, thesis advisors,
faculty and graduate student mentors, and instructors who have the
student as a GSI. Before advancing to candidacy, satisfactory progress
will be based on course work.
After one year in the program, the committee will decide: if the
student has passed the preliminary stage of the program, or if the
decision is reserved until the end of the second year. To continue in
the program, students must pass the preliminary stage by the end of
their second year.
Each semester, the Head Graduate Advisor will communicate the Graduate
Committee's assessment of progress to each student, in addition to
advice on course programs.
2.3 Further course work
In their second year, students are required to take three graduate
courses, at least two of them from the department offerings, and in
their third year, they are required to take at least two graduate
courses. Students are required to take for credit a total of 24
semester hours of courses in the department numbered 204-272
inclusive. The Head Graduate Advisor (in consultation with the
Faculty mentor) may consent to substitute courses at a comparable level
in other disciplines for some of these departmental graduate courses.
In addition, the Head Graduate Advisor may waive part of this unit
requirement. From the second year until graduation, each student is
expected to attend at least one departmental seminar per week (i.e.,
missing at most two meetings per semester.) Students are expected to
acquire some experience and proficiency in computing.
3. Further guidance on course work
Such students would normally take 205AB or 204 and one of the core sequences 210AB, 215AB in the first year. Less mathematically prepared students might take Math 105 or Math H104 and 105. During the second year, the remaining core sequence would normally be completed. The curriculum for the first two years would be filled out with further graduate courses in Statistics and with courses from other departments. The precise program of study will be decided in consultation with the Head Graduate Advisor and the Faculty Mentor.
Remark. Students taking Stat 204 in the fall semester, who
wish to continue in Stat 205B in the spring, can do so (after obtaining
the approval of the 205B instructor), by taking an intensive one month
reading course over winter break.
3.2 Designated Emphases
Students in the program of Designated Emphasis in Computational and
Genomic Biology or the Designated Emphasis in Communication,
Computation, and Statistics, should, like other statistics students,
acquire a firm foundation in statistics and probability, with a program
of study similar to those above. These programs have additional
requirements as well. Interested students should consult with the
graduate advisors of these programs.
3.3 Probability
Students intending to specialize in Probability will be required to
take Stat 205AB in the first year, and at least one of Stat 210A and
Stat 215A in the first two years. They are expected to take advanced
probability courses (e.g., Stat 206 and Stat 260) offered during their
second and third years. If they are not sufficiently familiar with
measure theory and functional analysis, then they should take Math
202B, and if needed, Math 202A. Other recommended courses from the
department of Mathematics or EECS include:
- Math 204, 222 (ODE, PDE)
- Math 205 (Complex Analysis)
- Math 258 (Classical harmonic analysis)
- EE 229 (Information Theory and Coding)
- CS 271 (Randomness and computation)
4. The Qualifying Examination and the Thesis
Paperwork. The student must see the Student Affairs Officer at least three weeks prior to the exam to apply for admission to the oral qualifying exam. After passing the exam, the student must apply for advancement to candidacy. See the Student Affairs Officer for details. If the student passes the exam, he or she can then officially advance to candidacy for the Ph.D. If the student fails the exam, the committee may vote to allow a second attempt. Regulations of the Graduate Division permit at most two attempts to pass the oral qualifying exam.
The Doctoral Thesis The Ph.D. degree is granted upon completion
of an original thesis acceptable to a committee of two departmental
faculty and an outside member. The thesis should be presented at an
appropriate seminar in the department prior to filing with the Dean of
the Graduate Division.
The Graduate Division offers various resources, including a workshop,
on how to write a thesis, from beginning to end. Requirements for the
format of the thesis are rather strict. For workshop dates and
guidelines for submitting a dissertation, visit the Graduate Division
website.
The Master's Degree. A student in the PhD program may obtain a Masters degree before completion of the PhD. To obtain an M.A., the student must meet the requirements of the Masters program.
Last revised January, 2005