Overview
The Department of Statistics at Florida State University offers a robust undergraduate program in applied and theoretical statistics with options to major and minor and statistics and to apply for the combined bachelor’s/master’s pathway program. Through a wide-ranging curriculum taught by distinguished faculty, the undergraduate degree in statistics equips students with the methodological and quantitative knowledge necessary to succeed as statisticians across fields and industries.
Why Statistics?
Statistics is the science of extracting information from data. In the presence of uncertainty, statistics enables the quantification and interpretation of variation for the purpose of controlling it. The practice of statistics utilizes data from some population in order to describe it meaningfully, draw conclusions from it, and make informed decisions. The population may be a community, an organization, a production line, a service counter, or a phenomenon such as the weather. Statisticians determine which quantitative model is correct for a given type of problem and they decide what kinds of data should be collected and examined. Applied statistics concerns the application of the general methodology to particular problems. This often calls for use of the techniques of computer-based data analysis.
Statisticians are key contributors to scientific methodologies. They use their quantitative knowledge to design data collection schemes, process the data, analyze the data and interpret the results. Further, statisticians often make critical evaluations on the reliability of data and whether inferences drawn from can be made confidently. They also help to identify misleading abuses of data that may be portraying an inaccurate account of a situation.