Transcript Creating and Sustaining a Dynamic Undergraduate Statistics Program Our (My) experience at BYU Bruce Jay Collings (02 August 2008)

Creating and Sustaining a
Dynamic Undergraduate
Statistics Program
Our (My) experience at BYU
Bruce Jay Collings
(02 August 2008)
Outline
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Disclaimer
Brief Department History
Fortuitous Factors
Concerted Efforts by Department
Recruiting students
• What did not work
• What works
• Retaining students
Disclaimer(s)
• BYU may be atypical
– Church university
– Not quite a major research university
– Not quite an undergraduate teaching university
• My view
• Adapt or Ignore anything I say
Brief Department History
• Created in 1960
– No students, 1 faculty member
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1962: 1st BS degree, 3 faculty + 2 PT
mid 70’s: 20 majors, 12 faculty
mid 80’s: 50 majors, 15 faculty
1990: ~100 majors, 16 faculty + 3 PT
2000: ~160 majors, 16 faculty + 4 PT
2008: ~ 200 majors, 17 faculty + 3 PT
(about 20 masters students since early 70’s)
Fortuitous Factors - BYU
• Collegiality – Early Department Faculty &
Philosophy
• BYU enrollment pressures
• Stat faculty member as AAVP for Computing
– Excellent department computing
– University wide multi-media teaching rooms
– Current Department Chair
• Applied Statistics Account
(Not So) Fortuitous Factors - BYU
• Very Heavy Service load
– Nearly 15,000 student credit hrs/yr
• No PhD Program
– Harder to get external funding
Fortuitous Factors – In General
• Service Courses
– Business School screening tool
– Satisfies University GE requirement
– Increasingly required by other majors
• Increased demand for Statisticians
• AP Statistics exam
Concerted Efforts by Department
• Department Mission Statement
"... to provide (individuals) with the knowledge to
perform meaningful work and service through
rational evaluation of quantitative information ...“
Concerted Efforts by Department
• Academic Program
– Basic program outline
Core – approx 40 hours
2 or 3 semesters of Calculus
Intro stat (4 options)
Stat methods, Math Stat, Sampling, Design,
Statistical Computing
“Specialty” stat courses (junior/senior level)
Minor (or equivalent) in appropriate field
Concerted Efforts by Department
• Academic Program (cont.)
– Five degree programs; two sub-groups
• Terminal degree (less math)
– BS Stat: Applied Statistics & Analytics emphasis
– BS Stat: Quality Science emphasis
• “Pre-Professional” (more math)
– BS Stat: Statistical Science emphasis
– BS Stat: Biostatistics emphasis
– BS Actuarial Science
Concerted Efforts by Department
• Flexibility
– Four entry classes:
• regular, “baby” theory, Bayesian, quality science
– “Minor” requirement (for degree programs)
• allows individually tailored program
• Limited cost to department
– Very flexible Stat minor requirement
• Adapt to student needs
– Biostat added in 1997, now has 40+ majors
– Act Sci added in 1990, grew to 20-25 by 1995
– Act Sci degree in 2001, now has 70+ majors
Concerted Efforts by Department
• Weekly seminar series (w/ refreshments)
– Speakers from across campus
– Some off campus speakers
– Some student only concerns
• resumes writing
• Interviewing
– Most statistical research presentations
– Draws students from other campus depts
Concerted Efforts by Department
• Consulting Center
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University citizenship
Student experience
Student involvement/employment w/ other depts
Good PR
• Undergraduate mentoring
– UG research groups
– Even by non-stat professors (CS & Math)
– College Spring Research Conference
• Faculty dedicated to teaching (and research)
• Employment – most majors are TAs or RAs
Concerted Efforts by Department
• Actuarial Science degree
– Relatively easy to start (two new courses)
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Basic core (less sampling & design)
Theory of interest & Actuarial mathematics
Six courses from econ, finance, accounting, stat
Optional review class for Course 1
– Recent pass rate Exams P, FM, MLC, MFE ~70%
– Adds visibility to Department
– Very popular ~40% of undergraduate majors
Recruiting – What Didn’t Work
• Freshman letter
– 1500+ letters to high math scores on
ACT/SAT
• High quality incoming freshmen
400+ w/ 33+ ACT (1460+ SAT) and 3.9+ HS GPA
• Science Day
• Brought local/regional HS students to campus
• Four Sat morning sessions about statistics
Recruiting Students – What Works
• Word of mouth
– Significant fraction of new majors are siblings, relatives or
friends (even children) of current/former majors
• High School outreach
– Visits
– AP and BAPS seminars
– AP Stat exam grading (meet HS teachers)
• Temporary Visiting HS Faculty
– Take a couple of classes; teach a class or two
– Refer their best students to us
Recruiting Students
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Introductory Stat & other service courses
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Honors/Majors Section (~75 students) is best recruiter
Evolution of Stat 221 (our Intro Stat course)
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Early 80’s: ~200 students/sem + ~100 summer
Early 90’s: ~900 students/sem + ~200 summer
Late 90’s: ~1200 students/sem + ~400 summer
2003: ~1800 students/sem + ~600 summer
2008: ~2000 students/sem + ~500 summer
Overheads -> PowerPoint -> Flash lessons
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produced (and taught) by best teachers (over several yrs)
incorporates videos, applets, tables, calculators, etc.
Uniformity, simplicity, reduces faculty burden of 4500/yr
¼ PT faculty to maintain/upgrade
Requires Course Supervisor, several Course Assistants, and TA’s for 90+ labs per
semester
Retaining Students
• Academic programs and marketability
• Student involvement
– ASA, SQC, μσρ, Actuarial Club
• Student employment
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Semester long TA training course
Majors all TA/RA at least one semester
Graders/TAs for all courses
Invite top non-majors to TA Stat 221
Most juniors & seniors work 10-15 hours for Dept
• Good recruiting tool
• “relatively” high paying
Retaining Students
• Department Scholarships
– Several endowed by faculty and dept
– A few endowed by private gift
• Mostly former students and families
– Not lavish, most are half tuition
• Majors only “labs”
– Majors only computer lab (18-20 PCs, printer,
software, etc)
– Actuarial library/study room (office size)
Retaining Students
• Physically located together (one floor)
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Department office suite
Faculty offices
Graduate student offices
Student computing labs
Class rooms for Majors courses
Department servers
Computing support personnel
Retaining Students
• Summer Institute of Applied Statistics (SIAS)
– Outside speakers
– Faculty professional development
– Brings non-stat students to department
• Applied Statistics Account
– Funds SIAS and other “needs”
– Endowed two Professorships, One mentoring
Award
• Allows faculty to fund students
– Accumulated from variety of sources
• University/College matching fund
Retaining Students
• Modest sized MS only graduate program
– Focus is on undergraduate program
– Challenge undergrads with 1st year MS courses