Interested in taking STAT 545 A and/or B, and have questions? Read on!
Thank you for your interest in the course!
When is the course offered?
September - December of each academic year.
Typical format: STAT 545A 1.5 credits in September through mid October, followed by STAT 545B 1.5 credits from mid October through early December.
What happened to STAT 547M?
STAT 547M became STAT 545B in 2020, so that the course codes align. Otherwise, these are the same courses.
What happened to the guidebook?
We used a guidebook in 2019/2020. It’s still available at https://stat545guidebook.netlify.app, but had become deprecated in place of worksheets and some tutorials.
Why are there two courses, instead of a single “STAT 545” course?
For several years, Jenny Bryan taught STAT 545A as a 1.5 credit course. She – and many students – felt there was a lot of great, relevant content that could go into an additional 1.5 credits.
A full semester of data exploration, visualization, and all-around data wrangling was piloted in 2014/2015. It was structured as two half courses primarily so that several year’s worth of STAT 545A alums could register for the second part (then STAT 547M) and get the “missing half” of the course. And now it’s hard to break the cycle.
Am I allowed to register in …?
Q: “I have taken STAT 545A for 1.5 credits in the past. Can I take STAT 545B?”
A: YES. But STAT 545 keeps changing to keep current with the R world. It is your responsibility to level up.
Q: “Can I just take the second half, i.e. STAT 545B?”
A: NO, not unless you have taken STAT 545A previously.
Q: “Can I just take the second half, i.e. STAT 545B? I’ll do a self-study for STAT 545A.”
A: Unfortunately, the answer is still no. As much as we’d want to say yes to you, it just becomes too difficult for us to evaluate your level without having seen deliverables for STAT 545A.
Q: “I am an undergraduate. Can I take this course?”
A: Maybe, if there’s room. Contact the instructor.
Q: “What if I’ve never had a stats class?”
A: There are no official pre-requisites for STAT 545A but most students will have had at least one prior statistics course or comparable experience.
Can I audit?
Do you mean officially auditing, or just sitting in?
Q: “I’m not enrolled – can I sit in during class?”
A: Unfortunately not. The room is usually at capacity, and further, we’ve allocated TA time for the specific number of students attending the class.
Q: “I’d like to officially audit – can I?”
A: Absolutely! Please take a look at what is required of auditors so that you have an understanding of your expectations coming into the course; then, fill out the form (graduate version) and send it to the instructor to get signed.
Q: “The course is full – can I audit instead?”
A: You’ll still have to join the waitlist – auditing still counts as a seat in the class, so auditing is not a way around the course capacity.
In all cases, I encourage you to register! Or if the course is full, join the waitlist. Alternatively, you can engage in your own self-study using our online resources.
The course is full. Is there a chance that the course capacity will increase?
Unfortunately, the course enrollment capacity will not increase. But, I encourage you to join the waitlist.
The course is listed as “restricted”. What should I do?
When all the open seats are taken, the course is listed as “restricted”, as the remaining seats can only be taken by students of specific types. If you are a student of that type, then go ahead and register through SSC! Otherwise, I encourage you to join the waitlist.
Should I register in …?
This course is open to any graduate student at UBC. Students from other departments vastly outnumber those from Statistics. In fact, the most successful students are often grad students from other fields who need to analyze and visualize data for a thesis. They are highly motivated and excel.
However, if you have never programmed or worked at the command line before, prepare for a shock. This will be a powerful, positive experience, but it’s a big adjustment. Come suffer through the worst part of the learning curve in good company!
Do I need a computer?
YES. You absolutely must have access to a computer on which you can install software, download data, etc. In fact, class meetings will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and live coding. Students will get the most out of this if they can bring their own laptop to class every day. If this is not possible, we will try to help you work something out.
Prerequisites
There are no official pre-requisites for STAT 545A, but most students will have had at least one prior statistics course or comparable experience.
STAT 545B requires STAT 545A.
Twitter and Slack
The STAT 545 Twitter account is no longer used for this course. Instead, there is a universal STAT 545 @ UBC Slack channel that is open to the public!