A Letter from the Chair

Since its founding in 1949, the Department of Statistics at the University of Chicago has been at the forefront of scholarship in the theory and application of statistics and probability. The faculty of the department has long been recognized for its quality and diversity of interests, and graduates of our Ph.D. program are counted among the leaders of the field.

The Department of Statistics offers two tracks of graduate study, one leading to the Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree, the other to the Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The M.Sc. degree is a professional degree -- students who receive this degree are prepared for nonacademic careers in which the use of advanced statistical methods is of central importance, but are also prepared for further graduate study. The Ph.D. program prepares students for independent statistical research in academic, industrial, or public policy settings. Students in both programs are expected to acquire a common core of basic knowledge in statistical theory and applied statistical methodology, but students may tailor their programs to specialized areas of application, including biostatistics, computer vision and image analysis, environmental statistics, statistical genetics, and finance. Students may also specialize in probability theory and stochastic processes.

I hope that, having found your way to our web site, you will take the opportunity to find out more about us. The Admissions Page has links to pages with detailed information about our graduate programs, the admissions process, and student life at the university. The Statistics Department Home Page has links to pages describing our faculty's research interests and their publications, our seminars and colloquia, our course offerings, and our consulting program. If you have specific questions about our graduate programs or our admissions process, please contact our Admissions Committee Chair, Michael Wichura, by email. If you have other questions about our department, please feel free to send me an email.

With regards,

Stephen M. Stigler,
Chairman
July 2005