PhD Applied Statistics vs PhD Statistics

[Stats2015]

I was wondering if anyone knew if a PhD in Applied Statistics or Computational Statistics might limit opportunities in the future at all?

I assume it wouldn't for industry but I am curious about academia. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[StatsG0d]

Maybe for a university that is focused more on teaching they won't care as much but I feel for a research university they will care quite a bit.

[Stats2015]

Do you feel that for a research university it will depend more on your applied research area then?

[StatsG0d]

Take what I say with a grain of salt. I feel that for a research university they would be looking more for people who can advance methodologies rather than applied statisticians. But I still feel this is more of a general thing and is by no means a requirement. Steven Levitt (an econometrician at Chicago) can barely take a derivative, but he's one of the most famous applied econometricians out there, with thousands of citations on some of his papers. So I guess what I'm getting at is if you're really good, then yeah, there's a much better shot at being an applied statistician in academia. I still feel like this isn't the norm though.

Edited January 30, 2015 by footballman2399

[ar_rf]

Take what I say with a grain of salt. I feel that for a research university they would be looking more for people who can advance methodologies rather than applied statisticians. But I still feel this is more of a general thing and is by no means a requirement. Steven Levitt (an econometrician at Chicago) can barely take a derivative, but he's one of the most famous applied econometricians out there, with thousands of citations on some of his papers. So I guess what I'm getting at is if you're really good, then yeah, there's a much better shot at being an applied statistician in academia. I still feel like this isn't the norm though.

 

Econ research is different from stat research though. They do much more applied work, and in particular much more "purely" applied work with no (statistical) theory involved. I think that's rare in an academic stat department.

[StatsG0d]

Econ research is different from stat research though. They do much more applied work, and in particular much more "purely" applied work with no (statistical) theory involved. I think that's rare in an academic stat department.

 

Exactly. That's what I was kind of trying to get it, but you said it more clearly. If you look at current professors' interests they always list their theoretical work first, and then say something like "My applied interest is in X...". I have heard that a lot of applied statisticians can get academic positions in marketing departments at business schools though, and some universities (Temple, for instance) house their statistics department within their business schools.

 

So I guess if you want to be a Professor of Statistics, do theoretical research.

[Stats2015]

I can see what you are saying and thinking back to the professors that I've seen, their research did seem to be more theoretical. A lot of departments also seemed to focus on progressing statistical methodology as opposed to applications. I did find a few that seemed to value applied research as well, but they were hard to come by.

I like applied research but I don't want that to limit my chances of working in academia either. I just wasn't sure how much a title would restrict opportunities if statistics programs wouldn't consider hiring someone with a PhD in Applied Statistics or a PhD in Computational Statistics.

[ar_rf]

I can see what you are saying and thinking back to the professors that I've seen, their research did seem to be more theoretical. A lot of departments also seemed to focus on progressing statistical methodology as opposed to applications. I did find a few that seemed to value applied research as well, but they were hard to come by.

I like applied research but I don't want that to limit my chances of working in academia either. I just wasn't sure how much a title would restrict opportunities if statistics programs wouldn't consider hiring someone with a PhD in Applied Statistics or a PhD in Computational Statistics.

 

The thing is that if you aren't progressing statistical methodology in some way, then you usually won't be publishing in statistics journals, which pretty much disqualifies you from working in a statistics department. That applied of work gets published all the time, but it's usually in biology or psychology or economics journals. Of course, it's also a matter of definitions, it's possible that an Applied Statistics PhD is just on the applied side of statistics, but still very much in the field. I'm guessing that these things don't really have strict definitions.

 

That being said, I don't think the title of your PhD will have any influence on your hiring prospects. Pretty much the only thing that matters at that point are the papers that you've published. If you can publish in top stat journals then you'll get hired. I think what's more important is looking closely at the program/department and the work that they are doing to make sure that they can give you the training and advising necessary to get those publications.

[Stats2015]

Makes sense. I'm just trying to check these sort of things over while examining offers.