When Two Majors Are Better Than One

The Department of Statistics at Cal State East Bay offers an undergraduate program leading to a Bachelor of Science degree. Here, we show how it may be to your advantage to pair the B.S. degree in Statistics with a major in another area of study, such as Economics, Biology, Psychology, Political Science, Sociology, Geography, Geology, Mathematics, or Computer Science, to name only a few. To make the explanation easy, we will call your other field of study your “first” major and statistics your “second” major.

Some advantages of such a “double-barreled” program are that it:

• Is doable in about the same time as a single major,
• Helps you understand both subject areas better,
• Has crucial advantages for building a successful career.

Select the highlighted heading introducing each section just below for a more complete discussion further on.

For a complete description of our undergraduate program in Statistics, please refer to the Catalog description of the Statistics B.S. Degree or to our departmental brochure on the program.

But for a quick overview of Statistics as a second major, it is enough to know that the Statistics Major has a rather small unit requirement and that many of those units can be counted toward both your first and second majors.

Outline of Statistics Degree Requirements. The unit requirement within the major is unusually low—only 72-78 units (depending on your background when you enter). In brief, this usually amounts to:

• Five courses in basic math and computer science,
• Eight courses in Statistics and probability,
• Five more courses in Statistics—or in a field where Statistics is widely used.

Double-Duty Courses. The five courses (20 units) from a field of application, mentioned just above, can be taken from your first major, and so they count toward both majors. Furthermore, it is likely that your first major either requires or recommends several Statistics courses that can also be counted toward both majors. Contact the Statistics Department office (510-885-3435) for advice on planning your double major.

Because students arrive at Cal State East Bay with different backgrounds and interests, you will need to consult with advisors in both your first major and Statistics to work out the double major program that is best for you. The tables below show four examples for students under the 2006-2008 Catalog. Consult the Catalog under Computer Science, Economics, Mathematics, Psychology, and Statistics official program requirements and for titles, descriptions, and prerequisites of the courses listed in these tables. Also, check with your first major advisor to ensure that the courses are available in the quarters suggested.

Statistics is a relatively young scientific field. Some say that modern statistics started in the 1920s when ideas from various parts of mathematics came together to provide a basis for understanding randomness, for designing experiments, and for making “optimal” decisions. Even today, Statistics is often viewed as one of the mathematical sciences.

But Statistics has always differed from mathematics because of its very close connection with applications. Especially in recent years, many of the most important advances in Statistics have come directly from trying to solve difficult and sometimes messy problems in the real world.

Here are some examples:

• After the Second World War, Japanese industry was in ruins and Japanese goods had a reputation for having poor quality. The Japanese turned to statistician W. Edwards Deming, who developed new methods of quality management, based in large part on statistical principles. Now quality management is an important branch of Statistics, which is belatedly being widely-used in American industry.

• Ever since Statistics became its own field, the social and biological sciences have relied more and more heavily on statistical methods. Variability among individuals is a way of life for social and biological scientists, and statistics is the tool for drawing conclusions in the face of such apparently random variation. Lately, physical scientists have also discovered more and more situations in which randomness seems to be fundamental.

The trend continues today . New statistical methods are developed each year because of connections with other fields:

• Working with medical researchers, statisticians developed new methods of analyzing “categorical” data to assess the safety of an anesthetic.
• High energy physicists generate massive data sets that can be visualized only using advanced statistical methods of data display, largely developed by statisticians at the Stanford Linear Accelerator.
• Geographers find new insights by displaying and analyzing data “spatially” using GIS.

Advances in computer science have made possible “computer-intensive” methods that could not even have been conceived of 20 years ago. Recent specialized seminars in statistics have been held with the participation of experts in geology, astronomy, genetics, biophysics, criminal justice, human development, software reliability, etc., to seek statistical methods for solving new kinds of problems.

In the Statistics Department, we know from our own experience that it is easier to teach statistical ideas to people who already have some idea why they are useful. The decision to encourage Statistics majors to become familiar with an area of application was not made so that doing double majors would be easy. It was made because it helps us to produce better statisticians.

Some of the statistical methods you will study in basic courses were developed to answer practical problems. One of the most elementary and commonly used statistical procedures was invented by a mathematically-oriented brewmaster (William Gosset, usually known as “Student”, of Guinness Brewery) while trying to improve quality control in the making of ale. Modern experimental design was founded by Sir Ronald A. Fisher, an expert in agricultural genetics. Nurse/Statistician Florence Nightingale used data analysis to demonstrate a need for hospital reform in England.

The job market. Students graduating today enter a competitive job market. As you might expect, the employment opportunities for students with a double major are much greater than for those with only a single major. Employers value both the expertise from the first major and the insights that a knowledge of statistical methods can provide-- one need only look at the job board in the Career Center. A candidate with a knowledge of both areas has an important edge. In the longer run, those who know some Statistics often find themselves in a position to access and to understand data that is crucial to running a business. This can create powerful scenarios for job advancement.