Admission FAQ
Admission Requirements
Before taking STAT-404 and STAT-405, it is important that students review differential and integral calculus, and this is especially true for students who are a little rusty and took these classes some time ago. Students are suggest to obtain Schaum's Calculus Review and work through lines, circles, equations and graphs, limits, continuity, derivatives and rules, implicit differentiation, applications of derivatives, trigonometry, rates, integrals, logs and exponentials, l Hopitals rule, exponential growth/decay, applications of integration, techniques, improper integrals, double integrals, infinite series and sequences.
Familiarity with Word/Excel/PPT or similar would be helpful for students and no software knowledge or experience is required. During their studies, our students become proficient in R and SAS (and occasionally other specialized software such as STATA or Python.
The minimum GPA (either via transcript evaluation or otherwise) required for admission is 3.0. Certain case-by-case exceptions can be made for students with GPAs in the 2.7-3.0 range; these exceptions are sometimes made for individuals with very high GRE/Quantitative scores and/or extensive quantitatively-related work experience. For TOEFL (English proficiency) requirements, see the Admission link. We have no minimum requirements for GRE scores but clearly applicants with GRE/Quantitative percentiles below 50th or 60th percentile may struggle in this (and any) quantitatively-focused MS program.
We permit applicants to take one of the required prerequisites (one basic statistics class and two introductory calculus courses) online via StraighterLine (MAT250 for Calc I, MAT251 for Calc II, and MAT202 for Intro/Stats). In extenuating cases and in which online grades for both courses are at least A minus, two of these courses may fill a required prerequisite.
As many as all three of these prerequisites could be taken via face-to-face instruction (required grades in each course of at least B minus) at any accredited U.S. college or university.
Depending of course on how far below the required cut-offs, this may be possible in certain cases and is done on a case-by-case basis. Such applicants are required to email to the Graduate Program Director with clear and detailed reason(s) for such proposed exceptions.
Students admitted on probation must achieve grades of at least B in their first three 3-credit approved STAT courses. Those failing to achieve this requirement will be dismissed from the program.
Application
Since ours is a quantitative MS program, letters of recommendation should comment on the applicants’ quantitative skills and academic (or work-related) achievements. Such letters can also discuss any quantitatively-focused projects or research activities and any other academic or professional undertakings and/or awards.
July 15th for Fall admission and December 1st for Spring admission. The deadline for consideration for Merit Award funding is February 1st.
We do. Over the past several years, we have averaged about one Fulbright student per year, and the Graduate School has provided tuition waiver and insurance for these students.
Support for Current Students
Yes, many do, and the Graduate Program Director assists students to find internships. That said, in the past, several of our MS students found internships on their own (e.g. via indeed.com or similar).
Yes, we encourage our students to attend professional conferences and workshops! Several students have participated in Loyola's Research Symposium. For conferences and workshops outside of Chicago, students may apply for up to $500 in travel funding from The Graduate School to cover costs associated with presenting at one conference per academic year. Learn more about conference travel funding on the Graduate Research page on The Graduate School's website.
Yes. Both the Graduate School and the Applied Statistics MS program conduct orientations in the week before the start of Fall classes.
Loyola offers graduate housing in Baumhart Hall on the Water Tower Campus. For more information, go the the Graduate Housing page on LUC's Residence Life website. Students may also find off-campus housing. Loyola's Residence Life website has several resources on their Off-Campus Housing page.
Support for Graduates
The MS in Applied Statistics program offers an annual Career Night where graduate students discuss career options and advice with a panel of applied statistics professionals in various fields. View photos from our Career Night or learn more on our Outcomes page.
The MS in Applied Statistics program also hosts DataFest, a data "hackathon" where students connect and compete in teams to gain experience working with datasets provided by companies and organizations such as TicketMaster, Expedia.com, and Indeed.com. To learn more about DataFest, go to Loyola's Datafest page or the American Statistical Association's DataFest website.
Our graduating students and alums can expect a great deal of continuing support (from career advice to letters or recommendation to job prospects) from Loyola’s Applied Statistics faculty.
About Our Program
Predictive Analytics programs typically comprise approximately three statistics, three computer science, and three business (or similar) courses, and so are much lighter on statistics content than our program. We train applied statisticians ready for the work world or further graduate studies. Also, our courses typically don’t go into the mathematical depth/rigor as theoretical programs.
Graduates from our program have a much greater breadth of opportunities (even within the field of Biostatistics) that those graduating from an MPH program.
No, we do not have a PhD program in Applied Statistics. However, once you complete the MS, we can help you with placement into a PhD program at another university.
Research-active Applied Statistics faculty are Banerjee, Kong, Lou, Matthews and O'Brien. You can find out about research interests of faculty by clicking on individual faculty names in our Faculty Directory. To see examples of faculty-student research, visit the Graduate Research page.
View current tuition and fees on the Tuition and Fees page on the Office of the Bursar website.
Funding and Financial Aid
For information on assistantships, go to our Tuition & Aid page.
The deadline to be considered for Merit Award funding is February 1st, and this is a firm deadline. Merit Award Funding is only provided starting in the Fall semesters.
Notification of Merit Awards are sent out via email by the Graduate School typically in May or June.
Merit awardees receiving at least “two-thirds awards” (i.e., at least $12K and 12 credits per academic year) are currently provided free health insurance by the Graduate School.
Once you start your application to our program, email the Graduate Program Director indicating that you wish to be considered for this fellowship.
REM Fellowship opportunities are open to all unfunded (non-Merit Awardee) students; program announcement and application materials are emailed to all graduate students by the Graduate School in November. Funded REM students then conduct their research projects in the Spring semester.
Courses
Your Graduate Program Director (GPD), acting in the capacity of advisor or all MS Applied Statistics students, can help students design programs specific to their individual career goals. Our program starts with classes required of ALL specializations (STAT-403, 404 and 408), and students are encouraged to meet with the GPD during the first semester to discuss career goals, specializations, elective courses, and course sequencing.
See the program's courses, sequencing, and electives on our Curriculum page.
At the current time, all our courses take place in face-to-face format.
Depending upon the specific student’s focus (specialization track), it is possible for these students to take a graduate-level related course in one of these departments. Students work out these details with the Graduate Program Director (GPD) and GPD approval is required in advance. Also, occasionally students do take outside course(s) for general knowledge and not as a part of their MS Applied Statistics studies.
Outcomes and Placement
Recent graduates are now employed at organizations such as AC Nielsen, Allstate, BCBS, Global Economics, Price Waterhouse, and Trustmark. For complete placement information, go to our Job Placement page.
Graduates find good-paying jobs in the fields of actuary and insurance, applied statistics, banking, bioinformatics, biostatistics, data science, predictive analytics, environmental statistics, financial analytics, market research and statistics, medical analytics, quantitative risk analysis, social and policy research, and statistical programming. For complete placement information, go to our Job Placement page.
See our Outcomes page for an extensive list of the types of jobs our graduates get. Starting salaries for MS Applied Statistics graduates is typically in the $60K - $80K range.
Student Life
Many of our students do work while completing our MS program. Students working full time should be mindful that taking one class would translate into a very busy schedule and taking two classes would indeed be very difficult. It is also recommended that full-time students not work more than 10-15 hours per week.
Contact the MS in Applied Statistics program director, Dr. Timothy O'Brien, to get in contact with a graduate student.
The Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC) offers a variety of social events throughout the year! Past events include a Graduate and Professional Student Boat Cruise at Navy Pier, GSAC Pie Social, Fall and Spring Socials at local bars and restaurants, Grad Student Museum Night, and more. For upcoming events and photos from past events, visit Loyola GSAC on Facebook.
International Students
Applicants who completed post-secondary education abroad are required to submit non-U.S. transcripts to Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (ECE) for evaluation and credentials. The evaluation report must show that your non-U.S. education is equivalent to a US bachelor's degree to be considered for admission. You may use one of two services for this:
Educational Perspectives
edperspective.org
Request the "General Report"
Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (ECE)
ece.org
Request the "General Evaluation with Grade Average"
ECE or EP translations are required for all undergraduate and graduate studies/degrees.
Copies and faxes are not accepted as official documents; we must receive the report directly. Applicants currently enrollged in a program should not request the evaluation until the last term of enrollment, or after graduation.
The evaluation is waived for applicants who have completed a master's degree form an accredited U.S. institution.
An official TOEFL or IELTS score report is required for international applicants whose native language is not English. For the TOEFL, a score of at least 79 on the Internet-based or 550 on the written-based test is required. For the IELTS, a minimum score of 6.5 is required. Copies and faxes are not accepted as official documents; we must receive test scores directly from the testing service.
This requirement is waived for applicants who are citizens of the following countries or who are currently completing/have completed a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in the U.S. or at a recognized institution in the following countries at which the language of instruction is English: Australia, Canada (except Quebec), Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, an Anglophone country of Africa (Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria), or an English-speaking country of Caribbean (Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Antigua & Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guyana, Monserrat).
Yes, international students in Loyola’s Applied Statistics MS program are eligible for both CPT and OPT; it should be noted that ours is also a STEM program, and so our graduates are eligible for extended OPT work in the US. Some employers do sponsor our graduates for green cards; this is employer-initiated and works on a case-by-case basis.
Program Structure
The minimum number of semesters required for our program is typically three semesters – although the number of credits taken per semester can be reduced by taking Summer class(es).
Our program can also be completed on a part-time basis, as has been the case for several of our students and graduates. Although some of the classes are taught in the late afternoon and evenings, others are taught during the day, so part-time students - who are working full-time - need to have some flexibility in their work schedules (i.e., making up work time outside of traditional working hours).
Some of our Fall-entrant students do choose to remain in our program for a fourth semester, but International Students in such situations are advised that visa requirements are such that, with the exception of the final semester, these students much take at least 9 credits to maintain their visas; students who meet these criteria must work with the GPD on their schedule.
It is possible to start our program in the Spring semester, and such students work with the Graduate Program Director (GPD) to work out their individual schedules.
For full-time students starting in the Spring, this is typically the course order:
| First Spring Semester | Fall Semester | Second Spring Semester |
|---|---|---|
|
Courses: SAS Programming Applied Regression Categorical Data Analysis (STAT-410) |
Courses: Intro Probability (STAT-404) Experimental Design (STAT-407) 400-level Elective (3 credits) Statistical Consulting (2 credits) |
Courses: Math Statistics (STAT-405) 400-level Elective (3 credits) 400-level Elective (3 credits) |
| 9 Credits | 11 Credits | 9 Credits |
All official transcripts need to be submitted with application materials. Requests for any transfer credit must be emailed directly to the Graduate Program Director, and need to include course grades, institution, detailed course description(s) and course syllabus. Transfer credit may be granted for up to 6 credits of study of MS-level statistics courses provided sufficient course content and course grade of at least a B.
Our program can be completed in three semesters for full-time students. Working professionals can complete their studies on a part-time basis over a longer time period. Students can apply for graduation for December conferral, May conferral, or August conferral. Learn more about applying for graduation and commencement on the Graduation page on The Graduate School website.
