Department of Statistics Undergraduate Program

Undergraduate Advisors

• Rudy Guerra (rguerra@rice.edu)
• Hadley Wickham (hadley@rice.edu)

Goals

The department's goals are to acquaint students with the role played in the modern world by probabilistic and statistical ideas and methods, to provide instruction in the theory and application of techniques that have been found to be commonly useful, and to train research workers in statistics. The undergraduate statistics program is flexible and may be oriented towards theoretical or applied training or towards joint work in a related department, such as Biology, Economics, Education, Electrical Engineering, Computational and Applied Mathematics, Mathematics, Political Sciences, and Psychology.

Undergraduate Major in Statistics

Students usually take six basic courses:

• Math 101 and 102. Calculus I & II
• Math 211. Differential Equations and Linear Algebra
• CAAM 210 or 211. Computer Programming
• Stat 310. Introduction to Probability and Statistics.
• Stat 405: Statistical Computing and Graphics.
• Stat 410. Introduction to Statistical Computing and Regression

Students also take six elective courses from the Statistics department (or other departments with approval from their advisor) at the 300 level or higher.

Mathematically oriented students should also take Math 212 and 355 (or CAAM 335).

In addition to the departmental requirements for the major, students must also satisfy the distribution requirements and complete no fewer than 60 semester hours outside the departmental requirements for a total program of at least 120 semester hours, as detailed in the Rice University General Announcements.

Full details of the requirements are available in the University catalog (PDF)

Emphasis on Computational Finance

The Department of Statistics, in collaboration with several departments across the university, offers a subspecialty in computational finance. By strategically choosing elective courses statistics majors and other quantitative majors can compliment the primary major with this area of study. More information is available on the Center for Computational Finance (CoFES) website.

Full details of course requirements are available in the University catalog (PDF)

Transfer credit

Transfer credit is available from Stat 280 and Stat 310. Make sure you have the following information:

• A copy of the course syllabus, including topics and textbook. If you can not get a copy of the syllabus, you will need the description from the course catalog, and copies of your homeworks or exams from the course.
• A copy of your transcript showing your grade and the course credit.
• A completed copy of the undergraduate request for transfer credit.

Then email one of the advisors listed at the top of the page, asking to set up a time to meet. To make the process go as smoothly as possible, include all the information you have available electronically. At the meeting we will go over the material and sign your request for transfer credit.

Scholarships and Awards

RUUAIS: Rice University Undergraduate Award in Statistics

Internship opportunities

Summer 2009
Wood MacKenzie http://www.woodmac.com/vacancies  or email Sharron Edwards at sharon.edwardsgrant@woodmac.com 
Role: North America Gas Service Intern
Location: Houston, Texas
Reporting Line: Anthony Damiano, Manager of North America Gas Research