Transcript Statistics at Liberal Arts Colleges

Increasing the Pipeline Through
Undergraduate Programs:
Statistics at Liberal Arts Colleges
Katherine Taylor Halvorsen
Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Smith College
Workshop for Chairs of Statistics and Biostatistics Programs
JSM, Denver, CO
August 2, 2008
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Overview
• What’s a liberal arts college?
• Statistics in liberal arts colleges
• Challenges for statistics faculty in liberal
arts colleges
• Characteristics of liberal arts students
• Attracting and keeping liberal arts students
in graduate statistics
• Synergies between liberal arts colleges
and statistics graduate programs
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What’s a Liberal Arts College?
Liberal Arts Colleges:
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Provide general education, not vocational
Instill habits and methods of learning
Emphasize breadth over depth
Attain breadth through
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Distribution requirements
Strong advising
Majors often limited to 10 required courses
May require at least half of total credits taken outside
major
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What’s a Liberal Arts College?
• Typically LACs are small and old
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1200 to 2400 students
150-280 full-time faculty, most with PhDs
Few adjunct faculty
Bowdoin founded 1794, Grinnell 1846, Dickinson
1783, Mount Holyoke 1837, Smith 1872
• Most started as single-sex institutions
– Many became coed in the 1970s
– Smith, Wellesley, and MHC have remained women’s
colleges
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What’s a Liberal Arts College?
• Focus is on undergraduate education
• Classes are typically small (10-45
students)
• Graduate programs, if any, are small
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Statistics in Liberal Arts Colleges*
• Few PhD statisticians among faculty
– 53% of colleges have none
– 40% have one
• Three standard courses offered
– 88% teach Intro (with or without a calc requirement)
– 81% teach Probability-Math Stat sequence (compared to 93% in 1993)
• Software heavily used in stat courses
– 75% of Intro courses use software
– 55% of Probability-Math Stat courses use software
*Survey on Statistics within the Liberal Arts College, Tom Moore and Julie Legler, 2003
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Statistics in Liberal Arts Colleges*
• Student projects incorporated into stats courses
– 68% of Intro courses use projects
– 48% of Probability-Math Stat sequences use projects
• Courses beyond the three standard courses are offered
at 29% of schools surveyed. Courses include:
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Regression
Stat II
Design
Linear Models
Multivariate
Non-parametric
* Survey on Statistics within the Liberal Arts College, Tom Moore and Julie Legler, 2003
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Statistics in Liberal Arts Colleges
(Smith College as a typical case)
• Most introductory statistics courses are taught outside
the Math & Stat Department
• At Smith College these departments teach their own stat
– Math & Stat
– Government
Psychology
Sociology
Economics
Exercise & Sport
• Over half of students who take stat, take it outside Math
& Stat Department
Department
Students per year
Math & Stat
Psychology
Economics
Sociology
Government
Total
130
120
70
35
25
380
(34%)
(32%)
(18%)
(9%)
(7%)
(100%)
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Statistics in Liberal Arts Colleges
• Students who take Intro Stat in Math &
Stat Department come from a variety of
majors
• Pooled data from Basic Stat, Engineering
Stat, and Intro Stat courses at Smith
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Biology, Biochem, Chemistry
Math, Logic, Philosophy, CS
Anthro, Psy, Soc, Econ, Gov
Physics, Geology, Engineering
Other departments
26%
12%
14%
26%
23%
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Statistics at Liberal Arts Colleges
(Smith College as a typical case)
• Statistics concentrators major in mathematics
and take their electives in statistics
• Major requires 10 courses
Calculus I, II, III
Discrete Mathematics
Linear Algebra
Introduction to Probability & Statistics
Regression (or Design)
Probability
Mathematical Statistics
Analysis (or Calculus IV)
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Challenges for statistics faculty in
liberal arts colleges
• Expectations of faculty
– Excellence in teaching
– Teaching 2-2, 2-3, or 3-3 courses per year
– Maintaining an ongoing research program
(including grant writing)
– Advising (premajors and majors)
– Committee service (elective and appointed)
– [Statistical consulting for colleagues, the
college, and external groups]
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Challenges for statistics faculty in
liberal arts colleges
• Working in isolation (somewhat alleviated
by ISOSTAT, JSM, AP Statistics Grading,
ASA new faculty mentoring)
• Typically expected to teach calculus or
other math courses
• Math colleagues have different
expectations and assumptions
• Difficult to hire statisticians
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Liberal Arts Students
• Students are of traditional age
– Most are18-22
– Smith, Wellesley, and MHC have programs for
non-traditional aged women (24 and older)
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Liberal Arts Statistics Students
• Students are talented and motivated
– Broad undergraduate backgrounds
– Good communication skills: oral & written
– Used to working independently
– Used to projects that involve data collection,
analysis, and interpretation
– Strong computer skills in data analysis
– BUT, have fewer math & stat courses than
typical math or stat major at a university
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Liberal Arts Students
• Students are used to:
– A small-school atmosphere
– Excellent teaching
– Opportunities for research with faculty
– Close relationships with some faculty
including dinners at faculty homes
– Inclusive departmental activities: talks, meals,
clubs, contests, conferences, hiring decisions
– Being encouraged in their work and taken
seriously by adults
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Liberal Arts Students
• Student plans for their future
– Many expect to go to graduate programs
eventually
– Usually 1 or 2 go to graduate school directly
from their undergraduate programs
– Approximately 1 student every 2 or 3 years
goes to graduate school in statistics
– Most take a year or two off after college to
work or explore (e.g., Teach for America)
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Attracting and Keeping Liberal Arts
Students in Statistics and
Biostatistics Graduate Programs
• Students come from a background where they were
nurtured as a whole person
• Coming from a small school, the adjustment to a large
university may create significant stress
• They know they are bright and capable
• They are not used to a more competitive environment
• They are not used to struggling with academic work
• They don’t know they are under prepared for graduate work
• They may conclude they are no good and drop out (or
worse)
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Attracting and Keeping Liberal Arts
Students in Statistics and
Biostatistics Graduate Programs
• And there is a two-cultures issue in many
graduate programs
– Many Asian students come to U.S. graduate schools
already holding masters degrees in math or stat from
their own country
– Their undergraduate programs consisted almost
entirely of math and stat courses
– And they speak to each other in their native
languages outside of class
– U.S. students feel overwhelmed and excluded. The
math and stat are above their level and so is the
pace.
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Attracting and Keeping Liberal Arts
Students in Statistics and
Biostatistics Graduate Programs
• For US students the transition from
undergraduate to graduate school is analogous
to the transition from high school to college
• Graduate schools might try some of the
strategies colleges use to help less wellprepared students to succeed
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Attracting and Keeping Liberal Arts
Students in Statistics and
Biostatistics Graduate Programs
• Some possible strategies
– Initiate summer programs students attend in the
summer before their first year in graduate school
– Discuss the issue of prior preparation with entering
students. Tell them what you expect them to know
and tell them how to address their lack of preparation
– Assign trained advisors to the first-year students to
ensure that students get appropriate advice on their
first semester courses
– Ensure student success by enrolling them in courses
they can complete
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Attracting and Keeping Liberal Arts
Students in Statistics and
Biostatistics Graduate Programs
• More suggestions for addressing the
problem
– Group students on prior experience and use
strong advising to guide different groups into
different courses
– Allow students entering with only a bachelors
degree more time (one or two semesters)
before taking the qualifying exams
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Attracting and Keeping Liberal Arts
Students in Statistics and
Biostatistics Graduate Programs
• Additional suggestions
– Welcome students to your program through social
events with the department
– Spend time with students outside of class (office
hours, department events)
– Create a department culture that values students
– Reach out to students who struggle
– Use student evaluations to monitor teaching quality
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Synergies between liberal arts
colleges and statistics graduate
programs
• Liberal Arts Colleges can provide talented,
hard working, enthusiastic students to
graduate programs
• Graduate programs in statistics can
encourage their talented students to
consider careers in liberal arts colleges
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Resources
• Statistics at Liberal Arts Colleges, Thomas L.
Moore and Rosemary A. Roberts, The American
Statistician, May 1989, Vol 43, No. 2, 80-85.
• Survey on Statistics within the Liberal Arts
College, Tom Moore and Julie Legler,
http://www.math.grinnell.edu/~mooret/reports/reports.html
• Report to ASA Board from the Strategic
Initiatives Workshop on "Strengthening
connections between liberal arts colleges and
graduate programs in statistics" Tom Moore
http://www.math.grinnell.edu/~mooret/reports/reports.html
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