Why Choose Statistics at Michigan?

The subject

The demand for statisticians is at an all-time high. Statistics (a.k.a. data science) is the necessary component in all applied sciences, business, medicine, and even many everyday tools and tasks. With the huge amounts of data collected in the world every second, statisticians at all levels are needed to help make sense of this data, quantify the uncertainty, develop new tools and methodologies, and analyze their properties.

The program

The Department of Statistics at Michigan has a long and proud history. UM has long been ranked in the top ten statistics programs in the country, and was #4 in the NRC rankings of 2010. We provide a solid training in fundamentals at both the Master's and PhD levels as well as training in cutting-edge modern methods.
Our Master's students can choose courses from many areas to tailor the program to their intended career and interests and find jobs in a range of industries, including finance, banking, pharmaceuticals, consulting, etc. A few of our Master's graduates also go on to PhD programs, either in statistics or in other fields.
Our PhD students' thesis topics range from probability and statistical theory to computationally intensive methods and machine learning to interdisciplinary applications in life sciences, engineering, and social sciences. All PhD students are exposed to research from the start and most have multiple peer-reviewed publications upon graduation. Many of our PhD graduates become faculty in peer institutions, while others continue on to jobs in research labs, government, and industry.
Many of our students gain valuable consulting experience through the Center for Statistical Consultation and Research, which provides statistical consulting services to other researchers on campus. All PhD students and some Master's students also gain teaching experience working as Graduate Student Instructors.

The faculty

The department has many eminent faculty members working on the frontiers of modern statistical science, with a broad range of research interests from core theory to applications. Many of the faculty have received prestigious honors from national and international statistical organizations and have served on editorial boards of top journals in the field. Most faculty have multiple federally funded research grants and frequently support their senior PhD students as research assistants. Most faculty have interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers in other fields, including life sciences, engineering and computer science, social sciences, business, and medicine, and several hold courtesy appointments in other departments. We also collaborate with statisticians and others with close interests in Biostatistics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mathematics, Complex Systems, Industrial and Operations Engineering, Survey Methodology, the Institute for Social Research, School of Information, and the Ross School of Business.

The students

Our diverse community of graduate students comes from many different countries and many undergraduate majors, including mathematics, computer science, physics, engineering, economics, policy and management, sociology, and political science. Graduate students are an integral part of the energetic intellectual environment in the department. They organize the student seminar series and the Michigan Student Symposium for Interdisciplinary Statistical Sciences as well as various social events.

The university

The University of Michigan is a world-class university, ranked consistently in the top 20 in the world. The majority of programs and departments across the university are in the top 5-10 in their field. Many of our faculty members have interdisciplinary collaborations, and our graduate students have the opportunity to work with leading scientists in a range of fields. Michigan also has an excellent medical school and a large and a highly respected university hospital, providing many additional opportunities for collaborations in the life sciences.

The town

Ann Arbor is a very pleasant place to live. The cultural and recreational opportunities are comparable to those found in much larger cities but without many of the disadvantages of big city life. The climate is milder than in many other areas of the Midwest due to a relatively greater distance from the Great Lakes, and a major international airport (DTW) is only 30 minutes away. Ann Arbor also has many good restaurants, beautiful parks, and excellent public schools. For more information about all that the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor communities have to offer, visit Uniquely Michigan and the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce.