STAT-BB Requirements

A Master’s degree is not required for admission to the Ph.D. program. A doctoral student must complete a minimum of 36 hours of formal courses (at least 27 at the 600/700 level) with at least a B average (3.0 on a 4.0 scale); at least 18 of the graduate credits must be taken in Statistics. In addition, the University requires at least 12 hours of STAT 899 or EPIB 899 (Doctoral research) given by any participating faculty member as the major advisor.

Qualifying Exams

Students must pass 2 qualifying exams at the Ph.D. level. Students will also need to take the course sequence aligning with the exams, unless granted an exception.

  • Statistics (based on STAT 700-701)
  • Applied Statistics (based on STAT 740-741)

These examinations will take place twice a year in January and August at the same time as the usual qualifying exams of the STAT program. The problems required for STAT-BB students in these exams will come from and be graded by the relevant faculty members who have taught those courses. A student may take one or more examinations at a time.

Breadth Course Requirements

Students must take the courses listed below.

  • STAT 410 (Introduction to Probability Theory)
  • STAT 650 (Applied Stochastic Processes)
  • STAT 702 (Survival Analysis)
  • STAT 705 (Computational Statistics)
  • STAT 770 (Categorical Data Analysis)
  • STAT 700; STAT 701: These courses are aligned with the Mathematical Statistics Qualifying Exam
  • STAT740; STAT741: These courses are aligned with the Applied Statistics Qualifying Exam

Elective 3-Course Requirement

All STAT BB students must take 3 courses from the list below. 

Biostatistics students must take 2 EPIB courses. Bioinformatics students must take 2 CMSC courses.

  • EPIB 652 (Applied Categorical Analysis)
  • EPIB 653 (Applied Survival Analysis)
  • EPIB 655 (Longitudinal Data Analysis)
  • CSMC 423 (Bioinformatic Algorithms)
  • CMSC 701 (Computational Genomics)
  • CMSC 702 (Computational Systems Biology)

The grade in each of the four courses must be B (3.0) or better, and students must attain a GPA of at least 3.3 for the courses used to satisfy this requirement. Each of the courses used to satisfy this requirement must have serious assessments (graded homework, projects, etc.). There should be an assessment which can only be completed by the student, (for example, in-class exams or oral presentations but not homework).