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Muhlenberg Adds a Major in Statistics

This dynamic field is growing at a rapid rate, and statisticians are increasingly in demand across a wide variety of industries.

By: Meghan Kita  Wednesday, January 31, 2024 02:45 PM

Associate Professor of Statistics Allison Davidson teaches Data Visualization in Fall 2023. Photo by Kristi Morris, Littlewing Studio

Starting this fall, Muhlenberg students will be able to declare a major in statistics, which was previously offered only as a minor. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that jobs for statisticians will grow 30% over the next decade, a much faster rate than the average rate of growth for all fields.

“The statistics major will not only prepare students with the statistical content knowledge but also the mathematical and computational foundations heavily used in the field,” says Associate Professor of Statistics Allison Davidson. “Through the required coursework, students will apply concepts to real-world problems across multiple disciplines. Through the statistics capstone, students will integrate advanced statistical concepts in a project on a topic of their choosing. The capstone experience is meant to build a bridge from learning statistical methods in the classroom to applying methodologies in practice and learning novel statistical methods.”

“Statistics is an enabling discipline, having the benefit of being applied to a wide variety of different fields. Students that major in statistics have a number of avenues to pursue beyond graduation.”

Establishing this major has been a goal of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science for several years, Davidson says. The hiring of additional faculty and the development of new courses (including Predictive Statistics and Data Visualization) helped make the goal a reality. 

Students who pursue this major will find themselves with a multitude of career possibilities: “Statistics is an enabling discipline, having the benefit of being applied to a wide variety of different fields,” Davidson says. “Students that major in statistics have a number of avenues to pursue beyond graduation. Some may pursue higher education, while others may explore careers as actuaries, data miners, quantitative finance market analysts, sports analysts, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, survey researchers or psychometricians, to name a few.“