Statistics Requirement

[CharKel27]

Hey all,

 

While I took a stats course during my undegrad career, USC requires you to take a statistics course within 3 years of matriculation...and I'm an old bag at 28, thus I need to retake stats.  I'd rather not do it through USC considering it'll be expensive, but I also have a very intense summer job that will not leave me much free time at all.  Any recommendations for online courses / intensive courses / courses that won't burn a hole in my wallet?

THANKS!

[ZacharyObama]

Most of the university ran courses I've seen are all like $700-800. Here's UCLA for example: https://www.uclaextension.edu/Pages/Course.aspx?reg=Z1942

 

Your cheapest bet is the local community college.

[Howie]

Many CCs have online courses. I'm taking my stats class online at Foothill College in the Bay Area and I live in LA.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Howie

[flyingjellyfish]

I second ZacharyObama... Are there any summer courses at your local community college? I got micro and macro econ out of the way while working full time and pulling an intense volunteer gig. They were just 3 hours each once a week for a semester, though during the summer might be accelerated. I spent under $100 a class and the workload was cake.

Best of luck!

[dyavrom]

USC gave a info sheet at the open house discussing this.  They said its not meant to promote one program or the other, just that these were popular with incoming students.  I just uploaded the link here for you to check out.

 

http://i.imgur.com/lj9ddyP.jpg?1

 

unfortunately I cannot help futher as although I was in the same position as you, i declined USC.

best of luck

[CharKel27]

Thanks for the help!

[ZacharyObama]

Hey so I was pretty much told to fulfill my USC Stats Requirement if possible with a non-intro stats course - so I registered for an online summer course through California State University - Dominguez Hills PUB 305 - Applied Statistics in Public Administration. The pre-req is of course an intro-stats course but for "Open University" it doesn't matter. Sadly, this is going to be slightly more expensive than an into-stats course through UCLA Extension. My bank account

[Howie]

Strange. As you know, I'm also attending USC but I am taking a $200 class at a CC.

[ZacharyObama]

I'd want to be like well oh this isn't fair and other people met it with just an intro stats class and scheduling wise it probably works out better.

[Azrou]

They might base that off your GRE Q score.  Either way I highly doubt they will stop you from enrolling if you just take an intro course, they probably just think you could use a little more prep for whatever reason.

[ZacharyObama]

I really doubt that. It's a pre-req everyone has to meet. Thank you very much

[Azrou]

I really doubt that. It's a pre-req everyone has to meet. Thank you very much

I'm basing that off the sheet which USC hands out that someone posted up there, which says that lower-level and community college courses are fine.  If someone from the admissions office said you should take a certain course, they probably had a reason.

[ZacharyObama]

You're presuming it's the admissions office I'm talking about, it's the program administrator, whom I highly doubt had any ulterior motive other than trying to push me to find the best appropriate course possible and that point it's matter of diplomacy it terms of being like well other people met it with a lesser course. An informal sheet handed out at an open house session and what the program administrator tells you are two very different things. I would not ignore what they tell me, take a cheaper, lesser applicable stats course, and then whine about it and hope they take pity. That would be unprofessional and an unnecessary risk of my hard earned dollars. Would that not be the case at Georgetown? 

[Azrou]

They would not hand out something at an open house for admitted students (it doesn't get more official than that), which outlines what courses are acceptable, if they were in fact not acceptable.  You said that you want to take the intro course to save money and because other people are doing it, so do it.  You acknowledged that the program administrator recommended that you take a certain course, which is exactly my point - she thinks you could use the prep.  I'm not sure what the ulterior motive would be.

[ZacharyObama]

"she thinks you could use the prep."

 

Whatever you would like what to think man - but you're not making much sense if you think a program administrator (the person who approves your course as meeting the requirement) dealing with about 100 different students at this point has some sort of file from which they're making such a determination. Moreover, I told you quite clearly why I would not "so do it" just because other people are doing it and why I would respect such a request. What has started as one student in a program sharing information with another in the same program is now turning into your sideshow.

 

Furthermore, you're making an assumption that the admissions office and the academic program office are on the same page and that what the admissions office says in that regard is what actually matters. In short, your comments are presumptuous a just a little bit insulting given their repeated statements that it must be something with my GRE score or that I "could use the prep." You don't have something better to do at GPPI?

Edited May 2, 2013 by ZacharyObama

[Azrou]

If you think i am trying to insult you or put you down, that was never my intent, although maybe you should take a look at your own insecurities and not be so easily offended.  Seems like you have an axe to grind for whatever reason.  You made a post - I gave my perspective - if that isn't acceptable to you, then maybe you should avoid visiting a public forum.

 

Admissions and academics do not operate in a vacuum.  You're basically saying that the admissions office arbitrarily sets their own standards without regard to what the academic side of the program actually wants.  A graduate school like Price doesn't operate like that - the academic side makes determinations like prereqs.  What doesn't make much sense is that you think Price would distribute something that the program administrator disagreed with at an event that she herself was almost certainly attending.

[dyavrom]

whoaa weird argument here.   if you want to do intro, thats fine.  if you don't, then good for you.  just take a stats course and be done with it.

[ZacharyObama]

If you think i am trying to insult you or put you down, that was never my intent, although maybe you should take a look at your own insecurities and not be so easily offended.  Seems like you have an axe to grind for whatever reason.  You made a post - I gave my perspective - if that isn't acceptable to you, then maybe you should avoid visiting a public forum.

 

Admissions and academics do not operate in a vacuum.  You're basically saying that the admissions office arbitrarily sets their own standards without regard to what the academic side of the program actually wants.  A graduate school like Price doesn't operate like that - the academic side makes determinations like prereqs.  What doesn't make much sense is that you think Price would distribute something that the program administrator disagreed with at an event that she herself was almost certainly attending.

 

Okay. You didn't just give a perspective, you made several unfounded assertions about a topic that doesn't matter to you, made presumptuous judgments about me, and then followed a denial that you had been insulting with insults just goes to show that I'm on solid ground here in expressing my displeasure at your impetuous rudeness.

 

All I'm saying is that when a program administrator requests that one tries to find a social science stats course to meet a general requirement that is more "applicable" their words, not mine, that it has nothing to do with GRE scores or needing the "prep." FYI - my GRE scores were fine and I took a lot of social science - but I've been out more than 3 years so it doesn't count for meeting the requirement.

 

I'm also saying that what the admissions office might be saying on a mind you very informal looking info session sheet doesn't have the weight of what a program administrator might say and I'm not about to act like a whiny child to a program administrator. I'll express my displeasure at having to trim my budget on here and move on. That's the nature of bureaucracy - considering you're in a public policy program you should have some appreciation for how bureaucracy might actually work in a less than ideal fashion.