Graduate Studies in Statistics or Actuarial Science at Simon Fraser University
Brief synopsis of the Graduate Program in Statistics
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Bachelor’s degree with major in Mathematics, Statistics, or other areas with a strong quantitative background. Students normally begin with the third semester of the year (September-December), but entry at any other semester is also possible in special circumstances. Applicants whose first language is not English are required to submit TOEFL scores.
GRADUATE PROGRAMS
Simon Fraser University offers both a Masters and Doctoral program in Statistics. Graduate studies in Actuarial Science can be arranged. The Department of Statistics & Actuarial Science consists of about 15 full time faculty members, a full time Statistical Consultant, and about 30 graduate students.
The Masters program is designed to give a broad grounding in several areas of Statistics with a particular emphasis on applications. Students normally complete 30 semester hours of course work including two semesters participating in the Statistical Consulting Service. In addition, a project based on a practical problem involving statistical analysis must be defended. The Department also offers co-operative work experiences for M.Sc. students.
The Doctoral program is designed to allow a student to specialize in a particular area of Statistics. Students normally complete 30 semester hours of course work beyond a Bachelor’s degree (credit may be given for courses taken for the M.Sc). They are also required to pass a Comprehensive Examination and are required to defend a thesis which will embody a significant contribution to statistical knowledge.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
The full-time fee in 2004 is approximately $1418 per semester (for 3 semesters per year). Teaching and Research Assistantships are available to students. Most TA work is performed in our open workshop for undergraduates. There are also a number of competitive scholarships and fellowships available. Generally we accept only students for whom some combination of TA and RA work is available to provide full support.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
The admissions committee meets in February. We therefore request applications before February 1 for admission the following September or January.
COMPUTATIONAL FACILITIES
The Department is part of an extensive network of workstations, including a 168-core compute-cluster. The usual programming languages are supported as well as R, SAS and S-PLUS. Students also have access to the campus-wide distributed computing network of UNIX workstations and Macintosh or IBM-PC platforms. It also supports SPSS, BMDP, and other packages.
GRADUATE COURSES Regularly offered:
Graduate courses are planned on a two year rolling schedule. The actual semester each course is offered in each year may vary.
Stat-801 (Math Stats) is offered every year, usually in the fall or spring semester.
Stat-811 and Stat-812 (Statistical Consulting) are offered twice a year.
Stat-890 (Selected topics) varies from year to year depending upon the research interests of the faculty members. In the past this course has included: Advanced Experimental Design, Advanced Linear Models, Advanced Sampling Theory, Computational Statistics, Statistical Genetics, etc. Course set A commencing
Fall 2005
Fall 2007
Fall 2009 Course set B commencing
Fall 2006
Fall 2008
Fall 2010
STAT-801 Mathematical Statistics
STAT-802 Multivariate Analysis
STAT-804 Time Series Analysis
STAT-870 Applied Probability Models
STAT-890 Selected topics
STAT-811 and STAT-812 Statistical Consulting STAT-801 Mathematical Statistics
STAT-805 Non-parametric statistics and discrete data analysis
STAT-806 Lifetime Data Analysis
STAT-890 Selected topics
STAT-811 and STAT-812 Statistical Consulting
In addition, with approval a student may use up to two STAT 400 level courses towards a graduate degree.
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