Increasing the Pipeline Through Undergraduate Programs: Statistics at Liberal Arts Colleges

1
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

2
Overview

• Whats 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

3
Whats a Liberal Arts College?

• Liberal Arts Colleges
• Provide general education, not vocational
• Instill habits and methods of learning
• Emphasize breadth over depth
• Attain breadth through
• Distribution requirements
• Strong advising
• Majors often limited to 10 required courses
• May require at least half of total credits taken
  outside major

4
Whats a Liberal Arts College?

• Typically LACs are small and old
• 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 womens
  colleges

5
Whats a Liberal Arts College?

• Focus is on undergraduate education
• Classes are typically small (10-45 students)
• Graduate programs, if any, are small

6
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

7
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
• Regression
• Stat II
• Design
• Linear Models
• Multivariate
• Non-parametric
• Survey on Statistics within the Liberal Arts
  College, Tom Moore and Julie Legler, 2003

8
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 Psychology
  Economics
• Government Sociology
  Exercise Sport
• Over half of students who take stat, take it
  outside Math Stat Department
• Department Students per year
• Math Stat 130 (34)
• Psychology 120 (32)
• Economics 70 (18)
• Sociology 35 (9)
• Government 25 (7)
• Total 380 (100)

9
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
• Biology, Biochem, Chemistry 26
• Math, Logic, Philosophy, CS 12
• Anthro, Psy, Soc, Econ, Gov 14
• Physics, Geology, Engineering 26
• Other departments 23

10
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)

11
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

12
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

13
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)

14
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

15
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

16
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)

17
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 dont know they are under prepared for
  graduate work
• They may conclude they are no good and drop out
  (or worse)

18
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.

19
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 well- prepared students
  to succeed

20
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

21
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

22
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

23
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

24
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/repor
  ts.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/repor
  ts.html