How Statistical Educators Can Attract Students

to the Discipline of Statistics

L. Marlin Eby

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Messiah College

Acknowledgments

I greatly appreciate the encouragement to create this list given by Tom Moore, the members of CCCU (Committee on Connecting Colleges and Universities), and the members of SLAW (Statistics in Liberal Arts Workshop). Special thanks go to Tom Moore for his review of a draft of this list and helpful suggestions and his ongoing encouragement and support.

Introduction

• Preparation of this list of suggestions was one of the projects emanating from the ASA strategic initiative, "Strengthening Connections between Liberal Arts Colleges and Graduate Programs in Statistics." This initiative was proposed and directed by Tom Moore from Grinnell College.
• Many suggestions are given. They are organized by targeted audience or setting. Choose those ideas that are feasible for your program. We have tried many, but not all, of these ideas at Messiah. It's important to try lots of things since some will pay dividends and some will not.
• These suggestions are presented from my perspective as a statistician within the mathematical sciences department at a college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences for more than 20 years. Thus, some of these may not be appropriate in a research university.

Overall Considerations

• Our primary goal is to encourage students to study statistics. Our secondary goal is to encourage students to consider a career as a statistician.
• Communicate your personal discovery of statistics as a discipline and your deep level of satisfaction in pursuing it. What attracted you to statistics? What other fields did you consider, and why did you not choose them?
• Unlike many other disciplines, statistics has an unusually high number of worthwhile, challenging, interesting, diverse, and available career opportunities.
• Since students with training in statistics - particularly at the graduate level - are highly employable, we can with integrity enthusiastically encourage them to consider statistics. Our motivation is not academic self-interest, but their professional fulfillment.
• Be patient, persistent, and realistic. Past student enthusiasm is an effective recruiting tool. However, it will take a while to build a critical mass of students who have taken additional statistics courses. Furthermore, these suggestions, if successful, will most likely lead only to modest increases in course enrollments.

Pre-College

• Start early since many students, even those interested in mathematics, are not aware of statistics as a career option. Some know about actuarial science, but that is really only one very specialized possibility within the vast discipline of statistics. Even those, who know something about statistics, tend to think of it as a minor field - something that is covered in a course or two. Besides statistics, there are other disciplines within the mathematical sciences that are generally unknown to students (e.g., operations research, mathematical finance, and mathematical biology).

• Make presentations to high school statistics classes. During those visits, arrange to meet with guidance counselors and/or invite them to your presentation.
• Support your admissions office by meeting with, calling, or writing to prospective students and their parents.
• Have statistics faculty and/or current statistics students make presentations at department preview or open house days.
• Encourage current statistics students to be diplomats or ambassadors for the college (i.e., campus tour guides for prospective students and their parents). If your college uses alumni as ambassadors, encourage alumni who are career statisticians to participate in this program.
• Whenever possible, communicate the statistics message to high school teachers, regardless of discipline. For example, organize a Quantitative Literacy workshop or simply make a presentation at a workshop.
• In general, be an ambassador for statistics wherever you go. Have a quick and informative response to give whenever someone asks about what you do. You never know when you might be talking with a potential student or his/her parents.

First Year Mathematics Students

• If you have the opportunity to meet with students during "Welcome Week" (the week before classes start at the beginning of the academic year), give some preliminary promotional remarks for statistics. Be careful. You don't want to give them the impression that you are trying to railroad or pressure them.
• If your department has a first-year seminar or overview course for mathematics majors, offer to give a presentation on statistics.
• Getting the statistics message to students early may be a way of keeping them in the mathematics major. After taking their Calculus courses, they may think that mathematics is mostly "theory." Statistics should be presented as a useful way of using their quantitative skills.
• Encourage students to take the introductory course early in their program, preferably in the second year, so that they allow themselves the opportunity to take additional statistics courses should they desire to do so.
• Try to identify good students in your department even before they have taken a statistics course. It is important to start the encouragement process as soon as possible.

All Introductory Courses

• When possible, these courses should be taught by statistics faculty. See the MAA's Guidelines for Programs and Departments in Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences www.maa.org/guidelines/guidelines.html. For the ASA's endorsement of these guidelines, see www.amstat.org/education/index.cfm?fuseaction=ASAendorsement.
• Seeing how statistics is used can motivate further study in statistics. Preferably, the faculty teaching these courses have consulting experience. This consulting experience can be gained as a graduate student, faculty member, or full-time consultant or applied statistician prior to an academic career. Practitioners not only bring more relevance to their presentations, but they tend to be more enthusiastic about their discipline.
• If you presently do not have any consulting experience, seek the opportunity to collaborate on research projects with faculty from other departments or look for opportunities outside your institution. Hopefully, your institution recognizes the value of such activity.
• These courses should not be taught by mathematics faculty who feel that they are losers in a course assignment lottery.
• Early in the course, preferably Day 1 or 2, briefly describe several research projects involving statistics from a variety of disciplines, hopefully some of which are those of class members. Being real-life projects, they will usually involve statistical methodology that is much more complex than that presented in an introductory course. However, they are quite beneficial in demonstrating the applicability of statistical techniques as well as the diversity of the applications. For this presentation, you can draw from your own consulting experience and examples found in the literature. The classic, Statistics - A Guide to the Unknown (recently released in its 4^th edition), is an excellent source of examples from a wide variety of fields. In fact, because this book assumes "no special knowledge of statistics, probability, or mathematics," it could be used as a supplemental text or reference for an introductory course. When appropriate, reference these initial examples or other actual examples throughout the course.
• Whenever possible, incorporate your applied experiences into your teaching.
• Emphasize the need for multidiscipline interaction and strong interpersonal and communication skills, which makes statistics much more of a "people" profession than mathematics. It requires successful interaction with others and the opportunity to serve others.
• Because statistics can be used to solve many real-life problems that benefit humanity, present it as the "activist mathematical science."
• Statistics should be presented as a serious discipline by using interesting and significant applications as examples. Avoid stereotypical examples (e.g., sports) that might be "fun" but create the impression that statistics is primarily a hobby discipline. Also avoid stereotypical examples that create the impression of drudgery (e.g., excessive data entry).
• Use technology to reinforce understanding, never as a substitute for it.
• Exposure to appropriate technology advantages the students in their later endeavors. Use "transferrable" technology. For example, use a respected computer analysis system (e.g., MINITAB^®) that they are likely to encounter in later courses and the workplace. Furthermore, they are learning a marketable skill (e.g., see www.minitab.com/resources/onthejob.aspx).
• Incorporate ethical considerations whenever possible. Help them to see that the deliberate misapplication of statistical reasoning is an ethical deficiency in the practitioner, not a weakness of the discipline. Statistical reasoning may also be unintentionally misapplied due to the ignorance of the practitioner. More coursework in statistics will lessen the likelihood of this second type of misapplication.
• Students in introductory courses must reach a certain comfort level with statistical reasoning before they will consider taking additional statistics courses. Remember that statistical reasoning initially appears to be an unnatural process to many individuals, even those with quantitative strength. Help them to see that it really is a quantitative approach to the common thought process of making decisions in the presence of limited information.
• Breadth of exposure to topics is desirable in an introductory course, but it should never be realized at the expense of understanding. Trying to cover too much material will scare off students.
• Some students have had an introduction to statistics in high school either in an AP course or a non-AP course.
• For those with a non-AP background, it is necessary that your introductory courses be sufficiently different from their high school experiences. Otherwise, students will not see the need to study statistics at the college level.
• Those students who have had a substantive high school experience in statistics (e.g., Statistics AP) could be channeled into a second-level course.
• Whet their appetite for learning more statistics by pointing out those concepts in the first course that are expanded or extended in subsequent courses.
• Talk about former students who are using statistics in their careers.

Introductory Course for Nonmajors

• The goal of this course is not to make them statistical practitioners but rather intelligent consumers of statistical information. Knowing that valid research results are very much dependent on careful consideration of the statistical aspects will lead them to seek professional statistical help in most major research projects and, also, to review the research results of others with appropriate caution and skepticism. Taking additional courses in statistics will, at the least, make them more intelligent consumers of statistical information.
• Remind the students that this is only an introductory course in statistics. Although it includes many topics at a depth appropriate for the nonmajor, it will only be an encounter with the tip of the vast discipline of statistics.
• Appeal to their desire to "make a difference" by showing how statistics, with its quantitative emphasis, can be used to solve real-world problems. One of my former students, who is quantitatively strong, entered college with the career goal of "helping people." He initially chose to major in one of the behavioral sciences because he did not see how he could use his quantitative strengths to achieve this goal. While taking the introductory course for nonmajors, he learned otherwise. Today, he is a Ph.D. statistician engaged in cancer research.
• Prior to the start of registration advisement for the next term, promote further coursework in quantitative topics.
• We live in an increasingly quantitative world.
• If you have quantitative strengths, are you in a discipline that will develop those strengths?
• Are you in a discipline with good career prospects?
• Developing more expertise in statistics will make you a more valuable member of a research team in your discipline.
• Individually interact with quantitatively strong students.
• Give them articles about applications of statistics within their disciplines.
• Personally encourage them to develop their quantitative skills by taking additional statistics courses.
• Help them to realize that having quantitative strength makes them special. Relatively few students have these abilities.
• Impart a sense of responsibility to use their special abilities.
• Work with the student's academic and career goals. Perhaps statistics can be a second major, minor, or concentration.
• Send the message that one can never know too much statistics.
• For students planning on graduate study, taking more statistics courses as an undergraduate will better prepare them for their graduate-level research courses.
• For students not planning on graduate study, taking more statistics courses as an undergraduate will better prepare them for quantitative work in their employment after graduation.
• To better relate to the students, meet with faculty in the disciplines represented by these students. Find out the topics that they would like to see covered in an introductory course. (Of course, use your professional judgement about which topics are appropriate for an introductory course.) Find out if they have any research projects that could be used as class examples. Most likely, they can be used as narrative examples rather than data analysis examples.

Introductory Course for Mathematical Sciences Majors

• If possible, require that all mathematics majors take at least one statistics course. This course should contain some application (i.e., use real data) and should not primarily be a probability course.
• By making this course required for all mathematics majors, a mathematics minor may become more appealing to a student in another major who has Calculus AP credit because this statistics course can count in that minor.
• Help them see the big picture about statistics so that they do not form a misleading impression of the entire discipline based on this one course.
• It is easy for students to lose sight of the big picture due to the diversity of topics comprising the first course. This course typically begins with a consideration of descriptive methods followed by probability. Since inference often is presented in the later part of the first course, students may not understand the major role that inference plays in the discipline.
• Because of the diversity of topics and the learning curve for statistical reasoning, the introductory course often appears to them to be more challenging than followup courses. Acknowledge the reality of that impression and encourage them to look beyond the first course to subsequent courses, many of which are mostly inferential.
• Present statistics as a good way to use one's mathematical abilities in solving real-world problems by incorporating applications whenever possible.
• Most mathematics majors want to use what they have learned in their future jobs. What is learned in statistics courses is the most likely to be used.
• Seeing statistics as a viable career choice can motivate non-mathematics education students (i.e., those students who enjoy mathematics but don't want to teach).
• Encourage mathematics education majors to take more statistics courses. This will improve their chances of being chosen to teach the statistics courses in their respective secondary schools.
• Be willing to give up a class period for a presentation by an outside speaker. Possible speakers include the following.
• Graduates from your institution that are now in graduate school in statistics or biostatistics or have already earned a graduate degree - Current students often perceive themselves to be more similar to recent former students from your institution than to faculty members. Thus, they may be more open to their encouragement and suggestions.
• Academic (from research universities) and nonacademic professional statisticians - Draw on your contacts from graduate school, research universities within driving distance, local ASA chapters, and JSM's. Many times, these speakers' employers will cover most, if not all, of their expenses because these trips are regarded as professional outreach or recruitment tools.
• ASA-related speaker bureaus
• www.amstat.org/sections/SPES/IndustrialSpeakers.html
• www.stat.ufl.edu/spaig.html
• Keep the following in mind for these presentations.
• Choose speakers who will describe statistical applications, promote statistics as a career, and/or encourage graduate study in statistics.
• It is imperative that these presentations are geared to students, not to faculty.
• Allow time for followup comments and questions in the next class meeting.
• If appropriate, invite other students and faculty from other departments to these presentations.
• Provide the opportunity for students to interact informally with the speaker over coffee, lunch, or dinner.
• Prior to the start of registration advisement for the next term, promote further coursework in statistics.
• Describe second-level statistics courses that will be offered in the next term.
• Encourage them to take additional statistics courses even if not interested in a statistics minor or concentration since this can only improve job prospects. They cannot take too many statistics courses. That is, no potential employer will criticize them for having taken too many statistics courses. On the other hand, they may be criticized for not having more than one statistics course. With the increased research pressures in the work place, nonstatisticians can be required to perform statistical analyses.
• Discuss career and graduate school opportunities in statistics.
• When discussing graduate school opportunities in statistics, discuss the advantages of a graduate degree (e.g., greater intellectual challenge in their careers and more room for advancement). It is not the case that these advantages are available only to those earning a doctorate. Unlike many other scientific disciplines, a master's degree in statistics is a highly marketable and flexible professional degree. Alleviate the fear of more college debt by telling them about the substantial financial assistance offers that are usually made.
• Print and distribute the ASA promotional booklet, Careers in Statistics. There are two versions of this booklet, long (www.amstat.org/careers/careerkit.pdf) and short (www.amstat.org/careers/brochure.pdf). These booklets are particularly impressive when printed on a color printer.
• Give them the ASA Career Center web site, www.amstat.org/careers/index.cfm?fuseaction=main, and print and distribute its home page.
• Offer to let them borrow your Careers in Statistics issues of Amstat News (every September issue since 2000).
• If your school has relevant internships in statistics, use their availability to lure students into taking more statistics courses so that they can apply for these positions (e.g., Amstat News, September 2000, pp. 24-26). (Relevant internships appropriately use undergraduate skills, do not give the impression that statistics is just drudgery work, involve collaboration, and show the potential to advance with additional course work and degrees.)

After the Introductory Course for Mathematical Sciences Majors

• During the registration advisement period, personally contact students that did well in the first course (say, B- or higher) encouraging them to consider taking additional statistics courses during the next term.
• Solicit the support of your departmental colleagues in advising students by preparing information sheets that show prerequisites, course sequencing, and current offerings in statistics.
• Inform students who did well in the first course about REU opportunities in statistics and biostatistics. See www.lawrence.edu/fast/jordanj/REUs.html for a current listing of REU opportunities.
• Continue to encourage those who enroll in subsequent statistics courses to take even more statistics courses. Since enrollment in these courses will be smaller than in the introductory course, more individual and focused encouragement is feasible and appropriate. It is also likely that the academic strength of the students in these courses will be higher than that in the introductory course. Thus, it is appropriate to increase the level of encouragement for graduate study in statistics.

Outside of the Classroom

• MENTOR - Take the initiative in maintaining contact with students, especially good students, after they have taken a course(s) with you. Talk with and encourage them whenever possible. Do not be afraid to be a "benevolent nag." No strong mathematics major should ever be able to say after graduation, "I never knew that statistics was an option for me or what my educational and career choices could be with statistics."
• Be available to talk with students informally. Being approachable increases the likelihood that your students will seek your advice.
• Attempt to build student self-confidence. Make them believe in themselves. Help them to realize that they have special abilities.
• If appropriate, involve students in your personal research and consulting.
• Arrange for students to visit a statistics graduate program or research center. To ensure that your students are influenced positively, be certain that your hosts are eager for such visits and will do an excellent job of presenting their programs and opportunities.
• Prior to graduation, conduct interviews with students who have taken multiple statistics courses. Find out what attracted them to these courses. Ask for their suggestions as to how to attract more students into statistics.
• Several years after graduation, survey students who have taken multiple statistics courses and are using statistics either in their career or graduate school. Have them assess the strengths and weaknesses of your program and ask them to offer suggestions for improvement.
• If your department has access to display areas in your building, create a display of former students that are using statistics in their current careers or graduate education. Another display could feature current students who have a statistical internship, participated in a statistics REU, or are involved in a significant research project requiring statistics. Refer to these displays in your classes. You could also present these students' stories electronically on your or your department's web site. Some of these students could also make presentations in your classes. It is important to keep the successes of former students continually in front of current students.
• Provide an ASA student membership for the students in your upper-level statistics courses (www.amstat.org/membership/DeptSponsoredStudents.pdf).

Relationship with Departmental Nonstatistician Colleagues

• Support their efforts in achieving or maintaining a strong mathematics major.
• Lobby them to allow upper level statistics courses, as well as suitable lower level courses, to be counted as electives within the mathematics major. Of course, it would be ideal if at least one statistics course would be required of all majors.
• Assure them that a strong statistics program embellishes a mathematics program rather than competes against it. It can draw students into the mathematical sciences because they see a side of it that they have not seen before.
• Because of the substantial amount of mathematical coursework that is required, mathematics faculty share in the credit for the success of statistics graduates.
• Invite them to the presentations by the outside speakers in your introductory course. If they can see the merits of statistics as a worthwhile career option, and also its strong connections with mathematics, they will be more likely to be supportive of your efforts to encourage students to take more statistics courses.
• If your department has a seminar series that features outside speakers, volunteer to coordinate that program thus ensuring a statistics representation. When you host an interdisciplinary speaker with a statistics background, invite students and faculty from the related disciplines. Perhaps faculty in these disciplines can assist you in finding such speakers.

September 19, 2006