Is this summer's STAT 789 a good choice for you?

This summer's version of STAT 789 is aimed primarily at students who have taken STAT 554 from me. I plan to cover some topics that are in Miller's Beyond ANOVA: Basics of Applied Statistics and/or my STAT 554 course notes that I haven't found time to present adequately (or at all in some cases) when I teach STAT 554. Such topics may make up about half of the material covered in the course. The other half of the material will be based on my interest in robust and computational statistics. If you have not taken STAT 554 from me, then I strongly advise that you meet with me to discuss your background before registering for this course.

For GMU graduate students who have taken STAT 554 from me, this course ought to be a nice complement to 554. For those who have just had 554 and maybe 544, the course should challenge you to think about some fairly advanced topics, and some such students will have to "turn it up a notch" if they want to really understand what I lecture about. But the extra effort put into this course should benefit you when you take other 600- and 700-level courses. Students who have completed a larger number of courses for their M.S. degree should also be sufficiently challenged by the material, although you should find that your fuller background is helpful in understanding the material.

Even though some of the topics covered are of somewhat of an advanced nature for those who have just recently gotten started in the M.S. program, I plan to keep both the workload and my expectations reasonably low this summer. I realize that the course meets twice a week, and that many students who work full time are used to taking a course that meets but just once a week. What I will expect is that you attend most of the lectures --- if you think there is a good chance that you will miss more than two lectures (and I strongly recommend that you try hard to attend all of the lectures), then perhaps you should consider not taking the class this summer. Even though the homework load will be lighter than is usual for courses that I teach, you are expected to attend class and learn, and many short quizzes (at least weekly, maybe every class meeting) will be given to assess your understanding. The quizzes will not be real hard, and I will use a grading scheme that disregards at least two of each student's lower scores, but if you don't come to class you may not only miss a quiz, but you may also find yourself not well prepared for a quiz following a class that you miss. (It should be noted, that unlike what is the case for most graduate courses that I teach, this summer I may not distribute a large volume of handouts or copies of lecture notes.)

Some M.S. students may wonder if this course will count towards their degree since they don't see it listed among courses recommended for a specific track. But these students can rest assured that this course can be counted no matter which track (if any --- one doesn't have to select and follow a specific track) they choose to base their coursework on. (Really, the courses recommended for a specific track should be viewed as suggestions, and not requirements. The only required courses for the M.S. in Statistical Science degree are the four core courses. As long as the rest of one's courses are STAT courses numbered 574 and higher, there should be no problem found with your course selection, and of course one can seek permission to count other suitable courses.)