Learning Stats at UofT #3: Some Controversies

This is the third post of the series Learning Stats at UofT. In case you did not read my last post, here is the introudction.

The fundamental statistics courses at UofT are normally unchanged, at least from my experience in the past three years. Still, I think it is worth devoting some blogs to this topic. Before starting the introduction to courses, I would like to spend some time on the programs offered by DoSS.

I am a student in Applied Statistics Specialist, or Method and Application, at UofT. Though there were some changes in the requirements, the main focus of the two programs is the same. In particular, you will go through some fundamentals in R and (Frequentist) statistics in your first two years, and take upper year courses in some advanced topics. Compared to the Theory one, you do not need to take so many courses in theory, but you need to choose a focus depending on your interest. The focus seemed less important, but I gave a lot of thoughts about it in my past years. So I would like to share some of them with you. Note that all of these can be found on the official website of Arts & Science, and I hope this paragraph serves well as an introduction.

Data Science Program

The first controversy is about the data science program. It is controversial because of its high enrollment requirements and different views towards data science. The enrollment requirements are the highest among all stats programs offered at UofT. Moreover, it requires you to learn both knowledge in computer science and knowledge in statistics, but it doesn’t require you to learn a lot of theories about statistics. Rather, it asks more for probability theories and the application of statistics. On the other hand, it involves a lot of things about data structure, but less computer science knowledge. Therefore some people think that this course it’s kind of awkward between pure CS program and stats program. There is another view. Many also think so it’s better for the workplace because this program offer an internship opportunity.

The Changes in Course Content

Statistics departments at U of T went through many changes. In particular, many courses changed their instructors every year. Furthermore, the course content evolved with the changing focus in nowadays workplace. The pro was that you could always learn the most up-to-date knowledge in statistics and instructors also had more flexibility in designing a course. Note that the scope of a course remained the same throughout the time, but the way to convey knowledge might change. For students, however, it was hard to prepare for the upcoming courses. Sometimes the course organization would have many small issues when the new content was added.