Starting this fall, students will be able to declare a major in statisticsBy Emily Gold Boutilier
[Academics] Thank Nate Silver, at least in part: interest in the use of data is growing.
Silver, the statistician behind the FiveThirtyEight blog (and an Amherst honorary degree holder), “has shown it’s possible to make sense of things that had been thought to be due to chance,” says Professor of Statistics Nicholas Horton. From online dating to health care, everyone wants “to take advantage of the information now available to us.”
Now, Amherst students can major in statistics. Horton has joined the renamed Department of Mathematics and Statistics, which also includes three other stats experts: assistant professors Amy Wagaman and Shu-Min Liao and lecturer Xiaofei Wang.
Math enrollments at Amherst have doubled in recent years. “We’ve been seeing a surge in [interest in] pure mathematics, applied mathematics and statistics,” Horton says. Math was the fifth-most-declared major for the Amherst Class of 2014.
“The number of degree programs in undergraduate statistics are relatively small,” Horton adds, “but they are growing dramatically.”
Interest is also growing at the high school level: In 2013, 169,508 students took the Advanced Placement statistics exam, up from 58,230 in 2003, according to the College Board.
Rob Mattson photo