By David Fellingham
When most people hear the word 'statistics,' it creates a physical reaction causing the whole body to shut down. And all the while, more and more students have enrolled and graduated in the Statistics major at BYU. From 40 graduates 20 years ago to 200 last year, the program has seen a 20-fold increase.
According to the BYU course catalog, 'the statistician''s job is to help determine what data are to be collected, how to collect them to avoid biases and distortions, and then how to turn those data into information that other people can understand to help solve problems and reach sound decisions.'
When companies gather data about clients or scientists about a current problem, they have to understand what all the information means. Statisticians help manage and analyze the data.
There are a lot of misconceptions about the statistics major.
'Most students view statistics as a math class,' said Dr. Bruce Collins, who is the undergraduate coordinator for the statistics department.
The truth is that statistics is not another math class, and a person doesn''t have to be a natural genius to be able to do statistics. However, good qualitative reasoning skills are helpful.
There are many jobs that statisticians can get after school, ranging from politics to pet food quality control.
Almost every job field uses statistics. The auto industry uses statistics trying to figure out what customers are buying, and also to assess quality control. Pharmaceuticals do statistical studies every time they want to put a new drug on the market. Marine biologists use it to estimate populations in the ocean. Politicians use it to figure out who is voting for whom so they can better steer their campaigns.
'It''s an interesting field,' said Dr. Bruce Schaalje of the BYU statistics department. 'It is never boring at all.'
The boom of technology has created a need for statisticians. Technology has allowed companies to gather larger and more accurate data, creating the need for someone to make sense of it.
The field of statistics has grown along side the growth of computers. With the power increase in computers, harder and bigger calculations can be done faster.
When Dr. Collins went to school his computer had a 1.4-megahertz chip, over 2000 times slower than the chip used in the everyday computer today. His hard drive was 10 megabytes, which is about half the size of most people''s e-mail accounts, making large calculations near impossible.
Statistics is used daily in almost every aspect of daily business and scientific life. Many businesses are looking for and hiring good statisticians every semester. Dr. Dennis Tolley, of the statistics department, said statistics majors have an edge in a business setting.
'If you can calculate the probability, you win,' Tolley said.