An Introductory Guide to Statistics at Harvard for the Class of ‘25

By: Andrew Sun and Nishant Mishra

You beat the odds and got into Harvard! While you mull over your options for the next four years, we’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about statistics at Harvard and how to get started in this incredibly exciting field. We think that our first-class statistics department and amazing statistics community are some of the best reasons to choose Harvard, so read on to learn more!

So… What is Statistics Anyway?

Hint: It’s not AP Statistics! Well, not entirely. If you’re like most high school students, you probably haven’t had a lot of exposure to statistics beyond some summary statistics and p-values. But statistics is a lot more than that! (Don’t worry, we didn’t know much about statistics coming into Harvard either.) If we look to Google…

“the practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities, especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample.”

But that sounds scary! A simpler, more elegant way to characterize statistics that you might hear at Harvard is that you get to play in everybody else’s backyard. Statistics enables you to derive insights and learn from data in just about any field, including medicine, AI, finance, politics, and sports. With big data and information on the rise, statistics as a field has been thrust in the spotlight. By studying and using statistics, you will engage with an analytically rigorous, intellectually stimulating field and make an impact at the same time.

What’s the Statistics Community Like at Harvard?

We are rapidly growing. Below is a graph of the number of undergraduates who have pursued a statistics degree program or pathway at Harvard over the years…

Enrollment Options

In addition to a growing, bustling community, statistics at Harvard is flexible! Below are the four different tracks offered by Harvard’s statistics concentration:

• General Statistics 🔢
• Data Science 📈
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BCB) 🧬
• Quantitative Finance 🐍

Beyond the standalone concentration, there are two other ways to integrate statistics into your degree — joint concentrations (Stat + CS, Stat + Math, Stat + Life Sciences, Stat + Government, and even Stat + Folklore & Mythology!) and secondaries, which is Harvard jargon for double majors and minors. As of April 2021, there are more concentrators in statistics than in physics, chemistry, history, or English!

What Courses Should I Take If I Am Interested in Statistics?

Introductory Statistics

Stat 110 (Introduction to Probability) and Stat 111 (Introduction to Statistical Inference) are together the year-long theoretical introduction to statistics and are required courses for both the statistics concentration and secondary. You should be very comfortable with single-variable calculus (the material from Math 1a and Math 1b; the equivalent of AP Calculus BC) before you take these courses.

Stat 110 is offered in the fall and Stat 111 is offered in the spring, and they are the foundation for most more advanced statistics courses. These courses are very different from AP Statistics, and you should take them even if you have taken AP Statistics. On the other hand, you do not need to have taken AP Statistics to take 110 and 111.

But 110 and 111 are not the only way to get started in statistics! There are also a few more applied introductory statistics courses, most notably Stat 100 (Introduction to Statistics and Data Science), Stat 102 (Introduction to Statistics for the Life Sciences), and Stat 104 (Introduction to Quantitative Methods for Economics). Stat 100 and Stat 102 are offered in the spring, and Stat 104 is offered in both the fall and spring. They might be good choices for students who are more interested in practical data analysis skills than theory, as well as students who want to pursue statistics in depth but want more time to gain the mathematical background needed to take Stat 110 and Stat 111.

Adjacent Fields

Math is the foundation for statistics! Single-variable calculus (Math 1a and Math 1b) is necessary for most of statistics, and it is highly recommended to take these courses early if you have not had equivalent courses in high school. Multivariable calculus and linear algebra (Math 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, or 55) are also essential in statistics and are required courses for the concentration. Real analysis (Math 25, 55, or 112) is recommended if you are interested in probability beyond Stat 110.

The modern practice of statistics involves programming and has many intersections with computer science, particularly through data science and machine learning. It is highly recommended for students interested in statistics to gain basic programming skills through a course like CS50. CS109a and CS109b (also listed as Stat 121a and Stat 121b) are together the year-long introduction to data science. CS181 (Machine Learning) counts for both the statistics concentration and secondary. Another computer science course popular with statistics students is CS124 (Data Structures and Algorithms).

Beyond 110 and 111

With 110 and 111 under your belt, many exciting options open up! As just a small sample, you can take Stat 115 (Introduction to Computational Biology and Bioinformatics), Stat 123 (Quantitative Finance), Stat 139 (Linear Models), Stat 171 (Introduction to Stochastic Processes), and Stat 185 (Introduction to Unsupervised Learning). You can also do research for credit (Stat 91r), write a senior thesis (Stat 99r), take graduate courses (Stat 2XX), and even earn a concurrent master’s degree!

MIT Courses

Students can also cross-register to take MIT courses! This may be the right option for some people, though it should be said that Harvard’s statistics offerings are excellent, and MIT offers fewer statistics courses than Harvard.

Are There Any Harvard Stat Groups I Can Join?

You bet! This blog post, in fact, was brought to you by the Group for Undergraduates for Statistics at Harvard (GUSH).

Our mission is to…

1. Foster a supportive and open community for statistics concentrators and enthusiasts at Harvard
2. Cultivate passion and excitement for statistics
3. Provide educational opportunities and resources for members

We host many statistics-related events and programs throughout the year! Here are some examples…

Summer Sibs — For pre-frosh (Little Sibs), this is a great opportunity to connect with an upperclassman in statistics (Big Sib) who can talk to you about their experiences at Harvard, give course/internship/career advice, and share fun stories from campus. We plan to run this program again in summer 2021, so keep a lookout for this!

Intro to R Workshop — In January 2021, we invited Matt DiSorbo, a recent Harvard statistics graduate and former statistics teaching fellow, to lead a workshop introducing students to R, a programming language for statistical computing. He covered fundamental and widely-applied skills such as using the R console, script editor, writing functions, looping, simulations, and plotting.

Women in Stats Panel — In March 2021, GUSH hosted prominent women in statistical fields including biostatistics, sports analytics, social sciences, and biometrics to share and take questions about their own experiences in statistics!

Other events and programs we have had include game nights and socials, graduate-undergraduate and upperclassman-underclassman mentorships, and panels on alumni careers and choosing statistics courses.

GUSH is fantastic and you should join us, but we have competition! Feel free to check out some of these other statistics-related groups on campus…