Attracting Students to Statistics
Pam Arroway
Assistant Department Head
Co-Director of Graduate Programs
Attracting Students to Statistics
Pam Arroway
Assistant Department Head
Co-Director of Graduate Program
Enthusiastic Recruiter of Students!
Attracting Students to Statistics
Where to find students
 What to say to them
 Big Picture (Statisticians Unite!)

Faculty involvement
Find graduate and undergraduate directors
that are passionate about the position!
 Find other faculty that have good rapport
with students (or connection to the
recruiting activity)
 Reward activities that attract students to the
Department and to the field
 Develop a culture of undergraduate research

Where to find students?
At home!

Start at home
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Pay attention to what the math folks are doing
Schedule a talk with math club (or stat club)
Advertise accessible seminars to undergrads
Look at math/applied math students on Dean’s
List or in honor societies…send personal
invitations
Invest in recruiting away from home…
Where to find students?
Undergrad Math Conferences!
On your own campus!
 SUNMARC
 Francis Marion U
 Citadel
 Illiana, MO State, Shenandoah, Pikes Peak,
James Madison

Where to find students?
Summer programs
AMS list of Summer REUs in math
 NSF has list of REUs
 SUMSRI (Miami of Ohio, stat group)
 EDGE (traveling, math focus)
 RUSIS (Rice University, focus on stat! not
listed on AMS site!!)
 SIBS, BSURE
 Others….WPI, UC Berkeley,

Where to find students?
Statfest!

StatFest is a one-day conference aimed at
encouraging students from under-represented
groups to consider careers and graduate studies in
the statistical sciences. The conference is an
ongoing initiative of the American Statistical
Association, through its Committee on Minorities
in Statistics.

Iowa State this fall.
Where to find students?
Mathfest!

NAM Mathfest
– Similar to Statfest (not a lot of statisticians!)
– November 13 -15, 2009
– University of the District of Columbia, DC

MAA Mathfest—different event, but may
still be fruitful.
What to tell them?

Why would anyone want to be a
statistician?
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ASA Career Center
Amstat articles
News releases/university publications
ASA salary surveys
Your own story/research
What to tell them?

What does grad school entail?
– Your own program, of course
– Similarities/differences among programs
– Don’t forget to mention funding!
What to tell them?

How to apply
– Timeline
– Parts of an application
– Researching programs

How to prepare
– Courses
– Summer programs
Recruiting Philosophy
Advertise for the field as a whole
 Students are more receptive to being
recruited to the field than to a particular
program.
 Nobody wants to recruit a student who
won’t succeed in their own program.
 If a good student ends up in a stat program,
that is success!

Recruiting Philosophy
Recruiting is as much about the faculty you
meet as it is about the students.
 They want to know

– That their student can be successful in your
program and after your program
– That you will take care of their student
– That you are not luring their students away
from math
Bigger Picture
Can’t just cherry-pick students that others
have rounded up.
 Need more summer programs in statistics!

REUs attract students to a field

If a student wants to find an REU in math
– http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.cfm?unitid=5044
– Almost 60 programs are listed here.
– Nine list statistics in the topics
Need similar resource that focuses on
Statistics programs (in progress)
 Need more!! summer programs in statistics

Developing an REU culture

Use existing campus-wide programs
– AGEP
– HHMI
Add REU to your NSF grant
 Make use of campus-wide summer
workshops for REU students

– Professional Development
– Social events
Invest in “supporting” conferences

Statfest
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Travels every year
NC State hosted in 2003
ISU will host 2009
Geographic location is really important!
Invest in “supporting” conferences

MathFest, Infinite Possibilities, SACNAS,
CAARMS
– Programs targeting students from underrepresented groups in math (or science more
generally)
– NC State hosted IPC in 2007
– Make sure Statistics has a presence at these
conferences!
Invest in “supporting” conferences

EDGE
– Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education
– NC State will be hosting in 2010

Pipeline Workshop
– Invited faculty from MSIs
– “Recruited” them to send their students to
statistics
– NC State 2005
NSF GRFs

Historical success rate is about 10%
– Across all fields except CSC and Engr

Number of awards is basically proportional
to number of applicants per field
– Special programs for women in CSC and Engr

Number of awards is going to triple in next
few years!
NSF GRFs

In recent years, math applicants make up
about 3% of applicant pool.
– About 230 applicants
In 2009, about 10% of math applicants
selected Probability and Statistics as
subfield.
 Recall, stat grads are ~30% of math grads

NSF GRFs
Year
Math Apps
Math
Awards
Prob/Stat apps
Prob/Stat
Awards
2006
24
1
2007
28
3
1
2008
232
23
2009*
229
63
24
7
•Awardees go to: UC Berkeley (3), Stanford (3), Duke (2),
Carnegie Mellon, Cambridge, UCLA, U Chicago
•Doesn’t include biostat (can’t separate these well)
•*2009 was first year of increased number of awards
NSF GRFs
Statistics deserves more of these, but we
have to apply!
 Encourage your students to apply

– Fall of 1st year
– Fall of 2nd year

Encourage recruits/applicants to apply
– Fall of senior year
Conclusion
Takes time, resources, enthusiastic faculty
 There is a bigger picture that we as a field
need to work on
 Start with existing resources and work up!
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