The program requires 30 total units (excluding Math 594, Masters Thesis Course) with 6 required courses. As students may take PM 511A in group (C) below, this leaves at least 5 required courses inside the Mathematics Department. Students must take an additional 12 units of “advisor approved courses”. Although there is no restriction as to how many courses students can take outside of the department, everything outside the list of the 6 required courses will be on a per course approval basis. For a list of previously approved courses, see the Electives section. See the USC Catalogue for course descriptions. All courses taken for the Masters must be taken for a letter grade, per USC’s policy.
Also according to USC’s policy as stated in the course catalog, at least two thirds of units applied toward the degree must be at the 500 level or higher. Hence, at least 20 of the 30 units must be at the 500 level or higher, and no more than 10 units at the 400 level (and nothing lower).
Students must either pass written examinations (“screening exams”) covering the material from MATH 505A, or they may opt for writing a master’s thesis (with registration in MATH 594A and MATH 594B). The screening exams are normally given twice a year, during the week before the semester starts. Students must pass MATH 505A or MATH 507A, and MATH 541AB with a grade of B or higher. If a student receives a grade of B- or lower in any of these courses, the requirement can be waived upon passing the screening exam for the course at the master’s level or higher. Information on the screening exams, including copies of past exams, can be found here.
At most 4 units of credit can be credited from courses taken at other universities. In order to receive such credit, once at USC, the student should first verify that the credits were transferred into USC by requesting a Graduate Transfer Credit Report from the Registrar Office, and then have the units approved specifically for the statistics masters program by contacting the program directors.
Students concurrently pursing a PhD in Pure or Applied Math should note that courses within the Mathematics Department can be used for both requirements of the statistics masters as well as the overall PhD unit count.
Course Requirements
Thirty units of course work are required, including:
MATH 541A+B Introduction to Mathematical Statistics (3+3 units)
MATH 550 Seminar in Statistical Consulting (3 units)
and one course from each of options A, B, C:
(A)
MATH 505A Applied Probability (3 units) [or 505B]
MATH 507A Theory of Probability (3 units) [or 507B]
(B)
MATH 542 Analysis of Variance and Design (3 units)
MATH 545 Introduction to Time Series (3 units)
(C)
MATH 501 Numerical Analysis and Computation (3 units)
MATH 502A Numerical Analysis (3 units)
PM 511A Data Analysis (4 units)
Plus at least 12 units of advisor approved courses.