Introduction to Undergraduate Studies

Uncertainty is inescapable: randomness, measurement error, deception, and incomplete or missing information complicate all our lives. Statistics is the science and art of making predictions and decisions in the face of uncertainty. Statistical issues are central to big questions in public policy, law, medicine, industry, computing, technology, finance, and science. Indeed, the tools of Statistics apply to problems in almost every area of human activity where data are collected.

Statisticians must master diverse skills in computing, mathematics, decision making, forecasting, interpretation of complicated data, and design of meaningful comparisons. Moreover, statisticians must learn to collaborate effectively with people in other fields and, in the process, to understand the substance of these other fields. For all these reasons, Statistics students are highly sought-after in the marketplace.

Recent Statistics majors at Carnegie Mellon have taken jobs at leading companies in many fields, including the National Economic Research Association, Boeing, Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, Rosetta Marketing Group, Nielsen, Proctor & Gamble, Accenture, and Goldman Sachs. Other students have taken research positions at the National Security Agency, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Science and Technology Policy Institute or worked for Teach for America. Many of our students have also gone on to graduate study at some of the top programs in the country including Statistics at Carnegie Mellon, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan, Stanford University, Emory University, Yale University, Columbia University, and Georgia Tech.

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