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Thesis

1. Students may elect to write a thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science in Applied Statistics, referred to as:

• Plan I (the thesis option) does not require that the student take the comprehensive exam, but does require an oral exam to defend the thesis.
• Plan II (the non-thesis option) requires the student to pass the comprehensive exams.

2. The primary content of the thesis must be statistics, although the thesis may emphasize the use of statistics to address problems in other disciplines (e.g., biology, marketing, etc.)

3. A maximum of six graduate credits of thesis hours ( STAT 699 or MATH 699) may be used toward graduation requirements. A minimum of three credit hours is required for students choosing Plan I (thesis option).

4. The required courses under Plan I are:

• MATH 6410 and 6420
• STAT 5020, 5060, and 5080
• Six Graduate Credit Hours in a Cognate which consists of courses whose primary content is not statistics.
• Three credits of STAT 6990 or MATH 6990
• Nine graduate credit hours of elective statistics courses - three from the Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research, three from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and three from either department.  At most three of these credits may be thesis credit (MATH 6990 or STAT 6990), if the student has registered for six thesis credits. In any case, three of the non-thesis credits in this group must be at the 600 or above level.

5. Students wishing to write a thesis should first select a topic and a committee chair (advisor).

• The chair of the Student's Thesis Committee (S.T.C.) may be selected from any of the statistics graduate faculty in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics or the Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research.
• The Student's Thesis Committee Chair and the student together will select two additional Student's Thesis Committee members.
• The three-person Student's Thesis Committee must include one graduate faculty member from the Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research and one from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. If the thesis emphasizes applications of statistics to a particular discipline, then the third Student's Thesis Committee member can be from that discipline. Otherwise, the third Student's Thesis Committee member may be any member of the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics or Applied Statistics and Operations Research.

6. Once the student and the Student's Thesis Committee have agreed on a topic, the student should write a short proposal describing the work to be done. The proposal should describe:

• The nature of the problem, current approaches to the problem (including a brief literature survey), and the proposed work to be done by the student, and should not exceed two pages.
• After the proposal is approved by the Student's Thesis Committee, the student must submit the proposal to the Statistics Program Committee's Thesis Subcommittee (S.P.C.T.S.). The S.P.C.T.S. will consist of four faculty (two from the Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research and two from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics) who are members of the Statistics Program Committee (S.P.C.).
• The Statistics Program Committee's Thesis Subcommittee will approve or disapprove the proposal and the composition of the Student's Thesis Committee within three weeks of submission.
• Before disapproving the proposal and/or the Student's Thesis Committee, the Statistics Program Committee's Thesis Subcommittee may ask to meet with the student and the Student's Thesis Committee. Any subsequent substantive changes to the proposal or the thesis committee must be approved by the Statistics Program Committee's Thesis Subcommittee.
• If the Statistics Program Committee's Thesis Subcommittee does not approve the proposal and/or the Student's Thesis Committee, the student will be given an opportunity to rework the proposal and/or constitute a new committee.
• After two failed attempts to get a thesis proposal approved, the student will be changed from plan I (thesis) to plan II (non-thesis).

7. Registration for thesis credits may be under MATH 6990 or STAT 6990 depending on the advisor's academic department. Students may not register for 6990 credit until after the proposal is approved. Please note that the Graduate College requires continuous registration until the student has completed the thesis. Note also that Graduate College regulations make it extremely difficult to switch from Plan II (non-thesis) to Plan I (thesis) after two semesters of work on the Master of Science in Applied Statistics. Similarly switching from Plan I to Plan II after two semesters is equally difficult. In particular, students who have attempted comprehensive exams and failed may not switch to Plan I, and students whose thesis proposals have been approved may not switch to Plan II.

8. Upon completion of the thesis, the student will submit the thesis to the Thesis Committee for final consideration. Within four weeks of the submission, but no sooner than two weeks after submission, the student will submit to a thesis examination by the Thesis Committee. The student will be responsible for explaining work done on the thesis (30 minute presentation), and be prepared to answer questions about that work and any other statistical material which was or should have been considered in writing the thesis. The total time for this defense will not exceed two hours. Criteria for evaluating performance on the defense will include:

a. the quality of the thesis

b. the quality of the student's presentation

c. the quality of the student's response to questions about the thesis and related statistical topics

The committee will either pass the student, fail the student, or ask for rework of small portions of the thesis. If rework is requested, then the Student's Thesis Committee may require re-examination over the rework material, not to exceed 30 minutes, and this re-examination will result in pass or fail. If a failing grade is assigned by the Student's Thesis Committee, the student will be given a second opportunity to complete the thesis and defend it in an oral examination. The second thesis defense will not be given any sooner than three months following the unsuccessful first defense. The second thesis defense will be the last opportunity for the student to complete this graduation requirement.

* Six graduate credits of non-statistics course work.

** Nine graduate credits of statistics courses - three from the Department of Applied Statistics and Operations Research, three from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and three from either department with at least three credits in course work numbered 6000 or above. Students selecting Plan I may include three credits of thesis (6990) as part of this requirement if they register for a total of six thesis credits.

*** Two four-hour written exams (one to cover STAT 5020, 5060, and 5080; and the other to cover MATH 6410-6420), and a one-hour oral exam.

**** A two-hour thesis defense, to cover material from the thesis and other statistics topics related to the thesis. Note: Under either plan the student's graduate program must include a minimum of eighteen credit hours of course work numbered 6000 or above.

9. Students are reminded to refer to the Graduate Catalog to determine the timetable and procedure for filing the completed thesis with the graduate college prior to graduation.

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