Our doctoral program in Statistics and Applied Probability prepares graduate students to expand the boundaries of statistical theory and practice for use in real-world problem solving. Graduates are trained for a career in academics or industry where they are working in and contributing to the forefront of new methods and technology. This program provides rigorous mathematical training in statistics and probability that can be used to develop real-world methodologies applicable to a wide range of interdisciplinary fields including finance, environmental science, computer science, and biomedical science. Recent dissertations have been written in the areas of smoothing splines, spatial statistics, micro-array analysis, functional data models, empirical processes, mathematical and statistical finance, Bayesian inference, and bootstrap estimation methods.

Our doctoral program in Statistics and Applied Probability is open to those who hold a bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Mathematics, or other fields with strong quantitative requirements. Students must have a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0; one year of statistical theory that includes hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, best statistics and most powerful tests, regression and ANOVA concepts; and one course in linear algebra that includes vector spaces, bases in vector spaces, eigenvalues, and eigenvectors.

For further admissions requirements and procedures, please visit our admissions page.

The normative time to advancement to candidacy is 3 years. The normative time for completion of the PhD program is 5 years. Students are expected to have their core courses completed and written qualifying exams passed within the first 2 years.

In addition to department requirements, every UC Santa Barbara graduate student is required to follow University policy with regards to degree requirements and registration expectations. You can read over these requirements on the Graduate Division website: here.

Every full-time student at UC Santa Barbara is required to take 8 units of coursework per quarter. Financial support is contingent on normal progress towards the degree objective.

The following would be a typical program for a well-prepared student seeking a Ph.D. objective with no optional degree emphasis.