Overview The Department of Statistics offers the Master of Arts (MA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. Master of Arts (MA) The Statistics MA program prepares students for careers that require statistical skills. It focuses on tackling statistical challenges encountered by industry rather than preparing for a PhD. The program is for full-time students and is designed to be completed in two semesters (fall and spring). There is no way to transfer into the PhD program from the MA program. Students must apply to the PhD program. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) The Statistics PhD program is rigorous, yet welcoming to students with interdisciplinary interests and different levels of preparation. The standard PhD program in statistics provides a broad background in probability theory and applied and theoretical statistics. There are three designated emphasis (DE) tracks available to students in the PhD program who wish to pursue interdisciplinary work formally: Computational and Data Science and Engineering, Computational and Genomic Biology and Computational Precision Health.