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Statistics Honours
The department offers a bachelor of science (BSc) honours program in statistics within the Faculty of Science.
The program maintains a committee of advisors whose office hours are available at the general office and at . Students should seek advice early in their academic careers about program planning from the department's advisors.
間眅埶AV Requirements
Students may be admitted by direct entry on their university application, or by application to the Department of Statistics, after they have been admitted. Students applying for a statistics minor must apply to the department. Visit for admittance and continuation requirements.
Courses for Further Credit
No student may complete, for further credit, any course offered by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science which is a prerequisite for a course the student has already completed with a grade of C- or higher without permission of the department.
Computing Recommendation
Some experience with a high level programming language is recommended by the beginning of the second year.
GPA Required for Continuation
To continue in the program, students must maintain at least a 3.00 grade point average (GPA) in MATH, STAT, MACM and ACMA courses.
Credit for Statistics Courses
Credit for STAT courses depends on the order in which the courses are completed. There are three kinds of courses:
introductory course STAT 100
service courses STAT 101, 201, 203, 301, 302, 305, 403
mainstream courses STAT 270, 285, 300W, 330, 340, 350, 380, 410, 430, 445, 450, 460, 475, 485
Once a service or mainstream course is completed, credit may not be obtained for STAT 100. Once a mainstream course is completed, credit may not be obtained for any service course. An exception is that STAT 302, 305 and 403 may be completed for credit after completing STAT 270.
Program Requirements
Students complete 132 units, as specified below.
Lower Division Requirements
Students complete a total of 24-25 units, including one of
A rigorous introduction to computing science and computer programming, suitable for students who already have some backgrounds in computing science and programming. Intended for students who will major in computing science or a related program. Topics include: fundamental algorithms; elements of empirical and theoretical algorithmics; abstract data types and elementary data structures; basic object-oriented programming and software design; computation and computability; specification and program correctness; and history of computing science. Prerequisite: BC Math 12 (or equivalent, or any of MATH 100, 150, 151, 154, or 157) and CMPT 120. Students with credit for CMPT 126, 128, 135 or CMPT 200 or higher may not take for further credit. Quantitative.
A rigorous introduction to computing science and computer programming, suitable for students who already have substantial programming background. This course provides a condensed version of the two-course sequence of CMPT 120/125, with the primary focus on computing science and object oriented programming. Topics include: fundamental algorithms and problem solving; abstract data types and elementary data structures; basic object-oriented programming and software design; elements of empirical and theoretical algorithmics; computation and computability; specification and program correctness; and history of computing science. Prerequisite: BC Math 12 (or equivalent, or any of MATH 100, 150, 151, 154, or 157). Students with credit for CMPT 120, 125, 128, 130, 135 or higher may not take CMPT 126 for further credit. Quantitative/Breadth-Science.
and one of
Designed for students specializing in mathematics, physics, chemistry, computing science and engineering. Topics as for Math 151 with a more extensive review of functions, their properties and their graphs. Recommended for students with no previous knowledge of Calculus. In addition to regularly scheduled lectures, students enrolled in this course are encouraged to come for assistance to the Calculus Workshop (Burnaby), or Math Open Lab (Surrey). Prerequisite: Pre-Calculus 12 (or equivalent) with a grade of at least B+, or MATH 100 with a grade of at least B-, or achieving a satisfactory grade on the 間眅埶AV Calculus Readiness Test. Students with credit for either MATH 151, 154 or 157 may not take MATH 150 for further credit. Quantitative.
Designed for students specializing in mathematics, physics, chemistry, computing science and engineering. Logarithmic and exponential functions, trigonometric functions, inverse functions. Limits, continuity, and derivatives. Techniques of differentiation, including logarithmic and implicit differentiation. The Mean Value Theorem. Applications of Differentiation including extrema, curve sketching, related rates, Newton's method. Antiderivatives and applications. Conic sections, polar coordinates, parametric curves. Prerequisite: Pre-Calculus 12 (or equivalent) with a grade of at least A, or MATH 100 with a grade of at least B, or achieving a satisfactory grade on the 間眅埶AV Calculus Readiness Test. Students with credit for either MATH 150, 154 or 157 may not take MATH 151 for further credit. Quantitative.
Designed for students specializing in the biological and medical sciences. Topics include: limits, growth rate and the derivative; elementary functions, optimization and approximation methods, and their applications; mathematical models of biological processes. Prerequisite: Pre-Calculus 12 (or equivalent) with a grade of at least B, or MATH 100 with a grade of at least C, or achieving a satisfactory grade on the 間眅埶AV Calculus Readiness Test. Students with credit for either MATH 150, 151 or 157 may not take MATH 154 for further credit. Quantitative.
Designed for students specializing in business or the social sciences. Topics include: limits, growth rate and the derivative; logarithmic exponential and trigonometric functions and their application to business, economics, optimization and approximation methods; functions of several variables. Prerequisite: Pre-Calculus 12 (or equivalent) with a grade of at least B, or MATH 100 with a grade of at least C, or achieving a satisfactory grade on the 間眅埶AV Calculus Readiness Test. Students with credit for either MATH 150, 151 or 154 may not take MATH 157 for further credit. Quantitative.
and one of
Riemann sum, Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, definite, indefinite and improper integrals, approximate integration, integration techniques, applications of integration. First-order separable differential equations. Sequences and series, series tests, power series, convergence and applications of power series. Prerequisite: MATH 150 or 151; or MATH 154 or 157 with a grade of at least B. Students with credit for MATH 155 or 158 may not take this course for further credit. Quantitative.
Designed for students specializing in the biological and medical sciences. Topics include: the integral, partial derivatives, differential equations, linear systems, and their applications; mathematical models of biological processes. Prerequisite: MATH 150, 151 or 154; or MATH 157 with a grade of at least B. Students with credit for MATH 152 or 158 may not take this course for further credit. Quantitative.
Theory of integration and its applications; introduction to multivariable calculus with emphasis on partial derivatives and their applications; introduction to differential equations with emphasis on some special first-order equations and their applications to economics and social sciences; continuous probability models; sequences and series. Prerequisite: MATH 150 or 151 or 154 or 157. Students with credit for MATH 152 or 155 may not take MATH 158 for further credit. Quantitative.
and one of
Linear equations, matrices, determinants. Introduction to vector spaces and linear transformations and bases. Complex numbers. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors; diagonalization. Inner products and orthogonality; least squares problems. An emphasis on applications involving matrix and vector calculations. Prerequisite: MATH 150 or 151; or MACM 101; or MATH 154 or 157, both with a grade of at least B. Students with credit for MATH 240 make not take this course for further credit. Quantitative.
Linear equations, matrices, determinants. Real and abstract vector spaces, subspaces and linear transformations; basis and change of basis. Complex numbers. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors; diagonalization. Inner products and orthogonality; least squares problems. Applications. Subject is presented with an abstract emphais and includes proofs of the basic theorems. Prerequisite: MATH 150 or 151; or MACM 101; or MATH 154 or 157, both with a grade of at least B. Students with credit for MATH 232 cannot take this course for further credit. Quantitative.
and all of
Mathematical induction. Limits of real sequences and real functions. Continuity and its consequences. The mean value theorem. The fundamental theorem of calculus. Series. Prerequisite: MATH 152; or MATH 155 or 158 with a grade of B. Quantitative.
Rectangular, cylindrical and spherical coordinates. Vectors, lines, planes, cylinders, quadric surfaces. Vector functions, curves, motion in space. Differential and integral calculus of several variables. Vector fields, line integrals, fundamental theorem for line integrals, Green's theorem. Prerequisite: MATH 152; or MATH 155 or MATH 158 with a grade of at least B. Recommended: It is recommended that MATH 240 or 232 be taken before or concurrently with MATH 251. Quantitative.
Basic laws of probability, sample distributions. Introduction to statistical inference and applications. Corequisite: MATH 152 or 155 or 158. Students wishing an intuitive appreciation of a broad range of statistical strategies may wish to take STAT 100 first. Quantitative. Prerequisite: COREQ-MATH 152 or 155 or 158. Students wishing an intuitive appreciation of a broad range of statistical strategies may wish to take STAT 100 first. Equivalent Courses: STAT102 STAT103 STAT201 STAT203 STAT301. Quantitative.
This course is a continuation of STAT 270. Review of probability models, procedures for statistical inference from survey results and experimental data. Statistical model building. Elementary design of experiments and regression methods. Introduction to categorical data analysis. Prerequisite: STAT 270. Prerequisite or corequisite MATH 232 or MATH 240. This course may not be taken for credit by students who have credit for STAT 330 prior to Fall 2003. Quantitative.
* recommended
Upper Division Requirements
Students complete a total of 42 units, including all of
Sequences and series of functions, topology of sets in Euclidean space, introduction to metric spaces, functions of several variables. Prerequisite: MATH 242 and 251. Quantitative.
Functions of a complex variable, differentiability, contour integrals, Cauchy's theorem, Taylor and Laurent expansions, method of residues. Prerequisite: MATH 251. Students with credit for MATH 424 may not take this course for further credit. Quantitative.
Review of probability and distributions. Multivariate distributions. Distributions of functions of random variables. Limiting distributions. Inference. Sufficient statistics for the exponential family. Maximum likelihood. Bayes estimation, Fisher information, limited distributions of MLEs. Likelihood ratio tests. Prerequisite: STAT 285 and MATH 251. Quantitative.
Statistical computing in R and SAS. Data management: reading, editing and storing statistical data; querying databases with SQL. Data exploration and representation: summarizing data with tables, graphs and other statistical tools. Data simulation: model-based and empirical. The SAS component of the course will give students a good start for writing the SAS programming certification exams. Prerequisite: STAT 285 or STAT 302 or STAT 305 or equivalent. Quantitative.
Theory and application of linear regression. Normal distribution theory. Hypothesis tests and confidence intervals. Model selection. Model diagnostics. Introduction to weighted least squares and generalized linear models. Prerequisite: STAT 285 and MATH 251. Quantitative.
Review of discrete and continuous probability models and relationships between them. Exploration of conditioning and conditional expectation. Markov chains. Random walks. Continuous time processes. Poisson process. Markov processes. Gaussian processes. Prerequisite: STAT 330. Quantitative.
An introduction to the major sample survey designs and their mathematical justification. Associated statistical analyses. Prerequisite: STAT 350. Quantitative.
An extension of the designs discussed in STAT 350 to include more than one blocking variable, incomplete block designs, fractional factorial designs, and response surface methods. Prerequisite: STAT 350 (or MATH 372). Equivalent Courses: MATH404. Quantitative.
Distribution theory, methods for constructing tests, estimators, and confidence intervals with special attention to likelihood methods. Properties of the procedures including large sample theory. Prerequisite: STAT 330. Quantitative.
The Bayesian approach to statistics is an alternative and increasingly popular way of quantifying uncertainty in the presence of data. This course considers comparative statistical inference, prior distributions, Bayesian computation, and applications. Prerequisite: STAT 330 and 350. Quantitative.
Introduction to standard methodology for analyzing categorical data including chi-squared tests for two- and multi-way contingency tables, logistic regression, and loglinear (Poisson) regression. Prerequisite: STAT 285 or STAT 302 or STAT 305 or equivalent. Students with credit for the former STAT 402 or 602 may not take this course for further credit. Quantitative.
and nine additional units in upper division ACMA, MACM, MATH or STAT courses (excluding STAT 301, 302, 305, 403). Consult an advisor before selecting these courses. The following are recommended.
A presentation of the problems commonly arising in numerical analysis and scientific computing and the basic methods for their solutions. Prerequisite: MATH 152 or 155 or 158, and MATH 232 or 240, and computing experience. Quantitative.
Guided experiences in written and oral communication of statistical ideas and results with both scientific and lay audiences. Prerequisite: 間眅埶AV to the major or honors programs in statistics or actuarial science at 間眅埶AV. Corequisite: STAT 350. Students with credit for STAT 300 may not take this course for further credit. Writing.
Introduction to principal components, cluster analysis, and other commonly used multivariate techniques. Prerequisite: STAT 285 or STAT 302 or STAT 305 or equivalent. Quantitative.
Introduction to linear time series analysis including moving average, autoregressive and ARIMA models, estimation, data analysis, forecasting errors and confidence intervals, conditional and unconditional models, and seasonal models. Prerequisite: STAT 285 or STAT 302 or STAT 305 or equivalent. This course may not be taken for further credit by students who have credit for ECON 484. Quantitative.
Topics in areas of probability and statistics not covered in the regular undergraduate curriculum of the department. Prerequisite: Dependent on the topic covered.
Independent reading or research on consultation with the supervising instructor. Prerequisite: Written permission of the department undergraduate studies committee.
Minor Program Requirement
Students complete a minor in a discipline other than statistics. The certificate in actuarial mathematics may fulfil this requirement.
Faculty of Science Major Requirements
In addition to the above requirements, students must also satisfy Faculty of Science major program requirements to complete a total of 120 units including
- additional upper division units to total a minimum of 44 upper division units (excluding EDUC 401 to 406)
- students who were enrolled at 間眅埶AV between fall 1991 and summer 2006 are required to complete a minimum of 12 units in subjects outside the Faculty of Science (excluding EDUC 401 to 406) including six units minimum to be completed in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Writing, Quantitative, and Breadth Requirements
Students admitted to 間眅埶AV beginning in the fall 2006 term must meet writing, quantitative and breadth requirements as part of any degree program they may undertake. See for university-wide information.
WQB Graduation Requirements
A grade of C- or better is required to earn W, Q or B credit
Requirement |
Units |
Notes | |
W - Writing |
6 |
Must include at least one upper division course, taken at 間眅埶AV within the student’s major subject | |
Q - Quantitative |
6 |
Q courses may be lower or upper division | |
B - Breadth |
18 |
Designated Breadth | Must be outside the student’s major subject, and may be lower or upper division 6 units Social Sciences: B-Soc 6 units Humanities: B-Hum 6 units Sciences: B-Sci |
6 |
Additional Breadth | 6 units outside the student’s major subject (may or may not be B-designated courses, and will likely help fulfil individual degree program requirements) |
Residency Requirements and Transfer Credit
The University’s residency requirement stipulates that, in most cases, total transfer and course challenge credit may not exceed 60 units, and may not include more than 15 as upper division work.
Elective Courses
In addition to the courses listed above, students should consult an academic advisor to plan the remaining required elective courses.
For calendar technical problems or errors, contact calendar-sfu@sfu.ca | Calendar Changes and Corrections