Applicable only to students admitted during the 2011-2012 academic year.

Statistics

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Statistics offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Statistics.

Admission

Program Name

Statistics

Address

8125 Math Sciences
Box 951554
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1554 

Phone

(310) 206-3742 

Email

glenda@stat.ucla.edu  

Leading to the degree of

M.S., Ph.D. 

Admission Limited to

Fall 

Deadline to apply

Ph.D.: December 15th
M.S. February 1st 

GRE (General and/or Subject)

GRE: General 

Letters of Recommendation 

3, that emphasize the applicant’s level of preparation for graduate study in Statistics 

Other Requirements

In addition to the University’s minimum requirements and those listed above, all applicants are expected to submit the department’s application found on the departmental website.

A bachelor’s degree in statistics is not required for the M.S. or Ph.D. programs, but applicants should have taken at least 12 quarter courses (or eight semester courses) in substantial upper division quantitative work, including, but not limited to, courses in statistics, mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering.

M.S.: Applicants must have a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.2 in upper division courses.

Ph.D.: For direct admission to the doctoral program, a grade-point average of at least 3.5 must be presented. Applicants who have already obtained a master’s degree must have maintained an average of better than 3.5 in graduate study. 

Master’s Degree

Advising

The vice chair for graduate studies is the chief graduate adviser and heads a committee of faculty advisers who may serve as academic advisers. The research interests of the members of this committee span most of the major areas of statistics. During their first quarter in the program students are required to meet with an academic adviser who assists them in planning a reasonable course of study. In addition, the academic adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s degree progress and approving the study list each quarter. After the student identifies a thesis topic, the chair of the thesis committee becomes the student’s academic adviser.

Continuing students should meet with either the vice chair for graduate studies or their academic adviser at least once each quarter and a record of this interview is placed in the student’s academic file. Each spring a committee consisting of all regular departmental faculty meet to evaluate the progress of all enrolled M.S. degree students. This committee decides if students are making satisfactory progress, and if not offers specific recommendations to correct the situation. For students who have begun thesis work, the determination of satisfactory progress is typically delegated to the academic adviser. Students who are found to be consistently performing unsatisfactorily may be recommended for termination by a vote of this committee.

Areas of Study

The strengths of current and prospective faculty dictate the specific fields of emphasis in the department: applied multivariate analysis; bioinformatics; computational and computer-intensive statistics; computer vision; pattern recognition; machine learning; and social statistics.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Forty-four units of coursework are required for the M.S. degree, of which at least 32 units must be graduate courses, while the remaining 12 units may be approved upper division courses. With consent of either the vice chair for graduate studies or their academic adviser, students may take up to 20 units of the required 44 units in other departments provided that these courses are in professional or scientific fields closely related to research in statistics. All courses must be passed with the grade of B or better and students must maintain an overall grade-point average of 3.0 or better. Students may enroll in Statistics 596 any number of times and may apply up to eight units of 596 courses toward the 44-unit requirement for the M.S.degree, provided a B- or better (not the grade of S) is received in these courses. Students are required to enroll in Statistics 290 each quarter, and are strongly encouraged to take Statistics 200A-200B-200C, 201A-201B-201C, and 202A-202B-202C in their first year..

Students with gaps in their previous training are allowed to take, with the approval of their academic adviser, undergraduate courses offered by the department. However, Statistics 100A-100B-100C, 110A-110B, 120A-120B, and 161 may not be applied toward course requirements for a graduate degree in the department. Students who need a basic refresher course are encouraged to take Statistic 100A-100B (not 110A-110B).

Teaching Experience

Not required. Students who wish to serve as teaching assistants in the department must have taken or be currently enrolled in Statistics 495A-495B-495C.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

This plan is not available to terminal master’s degree students. The comprehensive examination plan is available to doctoral students who obtain the M.S. degree on the way to the Ph.D. degree. Students fulfill the comprehensive examination requirement by passing two of three sections of the written qualifying examination for the Ph.D. degree.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

This plan is for terminal master’s degree students only. Students must find a thesis adviser, who approves the topic and form of the thesis. Students must nominate a thesis committee consisting of the adviser and at least two other faculty members who are eligible to serve on thesis committees, and the committee must be appointed by the Graduate Division. The final thesis must be approved by the thesis committee.

Time-to-Degree

Students are expected to complete the requirements for the M.S. degree within six quarters of full-time study.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The vice chair for graduate studies is the chief graduate adviser and heads a committee of faculty advisers who may serve as academic advisers. The research interests of the members of this committee span most of the major areas of statistics. During their first quarter in the program students are required to meet with an academic adviser who assists them in planning a reasonable course of study. In addition, the academic adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s degree progress and approving the study list each quarter. Students are encouraged to begin thinking about their research interests as early as possible. After the student identifies a dissertation topic, the chair of the dissertation committee becomes the student’s academic adviser.

Continuing students should meet with either the vice chair for graduate studies or their academic adviser at least once each quarter and a record of this interview is placed in the student’s academic file. Each spring a committee consisting of all regular departmental faculty meet to evaluate the progress of all enrolled doctoral students. This committee decides if students are making satisfactory progress, and if not offers specific recommendations to correct the situation. For students who have begin dissertation work, the determination of satisfactory progress is typically delegated to the academic adviser. Students who are found to be consistently performing unsatisfactorily may be recommended for termination by a vote of this committee. Doctoral students normally are considered to be making satisfactory progress if they take the written qualifying examination in the summer following their first year of study and the University Oral Qualifying Examination by the end of their second year.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The strengths of current and prospective faculty dictate the specific fields of emphasis in the department: applied multivariate analysis; bioinformatics; computational and computer-intensive statistics; computer vision; pattern recognition; machine learning; and social statistics.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students are required to pass, with a grade of B- or better, 54 units of approved graduate coursework and to maintain an overall grade-point average of 3.0 or better. At least 40 of these units must be in courses from this department; the remaining units may be from courses in related departments. Students are strongly encouraged to take Statistics 200A-200B-200C, 201A-201B-201C, and 202A-202B-202C. These courses contain core material for the qualifying examination. All doctoral students are required to take Statistics 290, and 296 and/or 596, or 599 during each quarter of enrollment.

Students with gaps in their previous training are allowed to take, with the approval of their academic adviser, undergraduate courses offered by the department. However, Statistics 100A-100B-100C, 110A-110B, 120A-120B, and 161 may not be applied toward course requirements for a graduate degree in the department. Also, for doctoral students Statistics C236 may not be applied toward the course requirements for a graduate degree. Students who need a basic refresher course are encouraged to take Statistics 100A-100B (not 110A-110B).

Teaching Experience

Students are required to complete at least one quarter of service as a teaching assistant for a minimum of 25% time appointment. Students who serve as teaching assistants in the department must have taken or be currently enrolled in Statistics 495A-495B-495C. International students for whom English is a second language must pass either the Test of Spoken English (TSE) or the UCLA Test of Oral Proficiency (TOP) in English before they may serve as teaching assistants.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass University written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations the University oral qualifying examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to University requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

Each year the department offers a written qualifying examination that covers material from the core course sequences for applied probability and theoretical statistics, data analysis, and statistical computing (Statistics 200A-200B-200C, 201A-201B-201C, and 202A-202B-202C). The examination is offered toward the end of Summer Session and consists of three separate sections, each related to a different course sequence. Students must select and pass two of the three sections. The choice of the two sections is made by the student and should be based on the student’s ultimate research goals. After passing the written qualifying examination, students select a doctoral committee that administers the University Oral Qualifying Examination, required for advancement to candidacy. Students are encouraged to begin thinking about their research interests as early as possible and to seek out faculty members who might serve on their doctoral committee. Students making satisfactory progress are expected to take the written qualifying examination in the summer following their first year of study and the University Oral Qualifying Examination by the end of their second year.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Students are expected to advance to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree within seven quarters of full-time work. Completion of all degree requirements (including the dissertation) normally takes 15 quarters.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

A student who does not complete all the requirements for the M.S. degree within seven quarters of full-time study is subject to a recommendation for termination. The graduate vice chair decides in each case whether a recommendation for termination is warranted. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the Graduate Studies Committee, which makes the final departmental decision.

Doctoral

A student who does not advance to doctoral candidacy within seven quarters of full-time study is subject to a recommendation for termination. The graduate vice chair informs a student of such a recommendation and the student is asked to submit a written appeal and to solicit letters of support from members of the faculty. The appeal is considered by the Graduate Studies Committee, which makes the final departmental decision.