Application deadline
Credits and costs
Lead the Decision-Making Process with Applied Statistics
Because your organization depends on your ability to research, analyze, and interpret data to help reduce risk and achieve success, you need to make decisions that stand up to scrutiny from your supervisor, clients, and customers. Graduate study in applied statistics can help you hone your data-analytic skills so that you can be confident that your projects are backed by proven methodology, a solid plan, and strong data-driven assessments.
To help you meet your career goals, Penn State World Campus has partnered with Penn State's Eberly College of Science to offer an online Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics.
Why Applied Statistics Online at Penn State?
As a student in Penn State’s online Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics program, you can increase your understanding of statistical analysis while you train on industry-standard software packages such as Minitab, R, Python, and SAS. This certificate program can give you a solid background in the fundamentals of statistics that extends beyond a software program's capabilities or features. You can gain a skill set that is useful in fields such as business, education, health, science, government, and technology. You can also acquire skills to apply immediately in your workplace, helping to make you a more valuable problem-solver for your organization.
The program blends practical and theoretical data analysis and can give you the tools and knowledge you need to handle and analyze data for your organization. The online curriculum is based on the resident program and taught by many of the same faculty. The requirements for both the online and resident applied statistics programs are identical.
Choose the Online Graduate Program in Applied Statistics That Is Right for You
Penn State offers an online master’s degree program and an online Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics.
Master of Applied Statistics
This master’s degree program is designed to help you develop your data-analytic skills and explores the core areas of applied statistics (DOE, ANOVA, Analysis of Discrete Data, MANOVA, and many more) — without delving too deeply into the foundations of mathematical statistics.
Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics
Regardless of your professional background, this certificate program can help you improve your data-analytic skills.
Who Should Apply?
This graduate certificate program is a good choice for you if you want to enrich your data-analysis and analytical abilities and gain a greater knowledge of statistics.
Courses
Penn State's 12-credit online Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics consists of required and elective courses that can deepen your knowledge of statistical analysis and provide you with:
- training on SAS and Minitab software packages
- a blend of practical and theoretical data-analysis skills
- sophisticated tools and knowledge to handle and analyze data
The graduate certificate allows you to simultaneously gain graduate credit and a highly valued skill set. The applied statistics program is designed as a "stand-alone" certificate or can serve as a "step-up" program into a master's degree — including the Master of Applied Statistics degree.
Most courses within the applied statistics program are also available as individual courses for those looking to fulfill continuing professional development requirements. Read the instructions for how to register for Penn State World Campus courses to learn how you can enroll in any of the upcoming classes on an individual basis.
To earn the Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics, you will take 6 credits of required courses and choose 6 credits of electives based on your professional goals. At least 6 of the 12 credits must come from courses at the 500 level or above. Please note only 3 credits of statistical programming will count towards your certificate. A minimum 3.0 GPA is required to obtain the certificate.
Required Courses (6 credits)
Elective Courses (select 6 credits)
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Course Availability
If you're ready to see when your courses will be offered, visit our public LionPATH course search (opens in new window) to start planning ahead.
Costs and Financial Aid
Graduate Tuition
Graduate tuition is calculated based on the number of credits for which you register. Tuition is due shortly after each semester begins and rates are assessed every semester of enrollment.
| How many credits do you plan to take per semester? | Cost |
|---|---|
| 11 or fewer | $1,007 per credit |
| 12 or more | $12,082 per semester |
Financial Aid and Military Benefits
Some students may qualify for financial aid. Take the time to research financial aid, scholarships, and payment options as you prepare to apply. Military service members, veterans, and their spouses or dependents should explore these potential military education benefits and financial aid opportunities, as well.
Paying for Your Certificate
Students pursuing a certificate are considered "nondegree," a status that is not eligible for federal student aid, including the Federal Direct Stafford Loan program. A private alternative loan may be an option to consider.
Additionally, Penn State offers many ways to pay for your education, including an installment plan and third-party payments. Penn State World Campus also offers an Employer Reimbursement and Tuition Deferment Plan. Learn more about the options for paying for your education.
Students pursuing a degree and meeting all other eligibility requirements may qualify for financial aid.
How to Apply
Deadlines and Important Dates
Your degree application, including receipt of all transcripts, should be received by the following deadlines to be considered complete.
Admissions Help
Our admission counselors are available to discuss with you your educational goals, financial aid options, and application deadlines.
Admission Requirements
For admission to the Graduate School, an applicant must hold either (1) a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or (2) a tertiary (postsecondary) degree that is deemed comparable to a four-year bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution. This degree must be from an officially recognized degree-granting institution in the country in which it operates.
Qualified applicants will have successfully completed one undergraduate level course in statistics and have knowledge of matrix and linear algebra.
What You Need
Applications are submitted electronically and include a nonrefundable application fee. You will need to upload the following items as part of your application:
Official transcripts from each institution attended, regardless of the number of credits or semesters completed. Transcripts not in English must be accompanied by a certified translation. Penn State alumni do not need to request transcripts for credits earned at Penn State, but must list Penn State as part of your academic history. If you are admitted, you will be asked to send an additional official transcript. You will receive instructions at that time.
GPA and Test Scores — A minimum 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale, in the final two years of undergraduate studies or in your most recent graduate degree, is strongly preferred. Professional experience will be taken into consideration for admission, and exceptions to the GPA requirement may be made for students with special backgrounds, abilities, and interests. If you seek an exception to the GPA requirement, please indicate the reasons for your request on your application.
GRE/GMAT test scores are not required.
English Proficiency — The language of instruction at Penn State is English. With some exceptions, international applicants must take and submit scores for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Minimum test scores and exceptions are found in the English Proficiency section on the Graduate School's "Requirements for Graduate Admission" page. Visit the TOEFL website for testing information. Penn State's institutional code is 2660.
Start Your Application
You can begin your online application at any time. Your progress within the online application system will be saved as you go, allowing you to return at any point as you gather additional information and required materials.
Begin the graduate school application
- Choose Enrollment Type: "Certificate Admission"
- Choose "WORLD CAMPUS" as the campus
- Choose "Applied Statistics" as the certificate
Checking Your Status
You can check the status of your application by using the same login information established for the online application form.
Technical Requirements
Review the technical requirements for this program.
For courses where submitted work or examples involve Minitab or SAS software, students are strongly recommended to have access to a computer running a Windows operating system (as opposed to Mac OS).
Get the resources you need to make informed decisions about your education. Request information on this program and other programs of interest by completing this form.
Start or Advance Your Career
Start or Advance Your Career
You can use the knowledge gained from this program and the support of Penn State career resources to pursue careers in a variety of fields, depending on your goals.
A Head Start toward a Master’s Degree
A Head Start toward a Master’s Degree
Not only can this program help create opportunities in your career, it can also give you a solid head start toward a full master’s degree.
Contact Us
To learn more about the Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics, offered in partnership with the Penn State Eberly College of Science, please visit the departmental website or contact:
Prabhani Kuruppumullage Don, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Professor
Assistant Director of Online Programs
Department of Statistics, Penn State University
316A Thomas Building
University Park, PA 16802
Phone: 814-865-1348
Email: [email protected]
World Campus Admissions Counselors
Phone: 814-863-5386
Email: [email protected]
Faculty
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Indrani Basak
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, University of Pittsburgh
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DegreeM.S., Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta
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DegreeM.A., Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh
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DegreeB.S., Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta
Dr. Indrani Basak teaches undergraduate and graduate statistics classes. Her research interests include robust statistical methods, censoring methods, analytic hierarchy process, and multivariate analysis.
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Priyangi Bulathsinhala
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, Southern Methodist University
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DegreeM.S., Statistics, University of Texas at El Paso
Dr. Priyangi Bulathsinhala is an assistant teaching professor in the statistics department. She teaches both online and resident classes. She joined the Penn State statistics department in August 2016. Her research interests include applications in spatial statistics.
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Mosuk Chow
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, Cornell University
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DegreeM.S., Statistics, Cornell University
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DegreeB.S., Mathematics, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr. Mosuk Chow is the MAS program director, and her areas of research interest include biostatistics, statistical decision theory, Bayesian inference, and sampling methods. An important question in statistical decision theory is to characterize the set of all optimal procedures. An admissible procedure is optimal in the weak sense that it cannot be outperformed by another procedure completely in all circumstances. It is thus desirable to find necessary conditions for admissible procedures. Her work in decision theory involves finding such necessary conditions, investigating the admissibility properties of various estimators for problems arising from biology, genetics, and fishery.
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David Hunter
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, University of Michigan
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DegreeA.B., Mathematics, Princeton University
Dr. David Hunter is a professor in the Department of Statistics, where he also serves as co-director of online programs. He was a high school mathematics teacher prior to earning his doctorate in statistics and joining the Penn State faculty in 1999. At Penn State, he has taught statistics at all levels from introductory to graduate levels, and as department head from 2012 to 2018, he oversaw Penn State's rise to national prominence as a center for expertise in statistics education. His research interests include statistical computing, models for social networks, and statistical clustering.
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Prabhani Kuruppumullage Don
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, Penn State
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DegreeM.S., Statistics, Penn State
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DegreeB.Sc., Statistics (First Class Honors), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Dr. Prabhani Kuruppumullage Don is an assistant research professor in the Department of Statistics. As the assistant director of online programs, she also oversees all operations of the online programs for the department. Prior to joining the department in 2018, she served as an assistant professor of statistics at the University of Rhode Island and completed her post-doctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research interests include statistical computing, statistical genetics, and latent class models.
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Eugene J. Lengerich
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DegreeV.M.D., Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
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DegreeM.S., Agricultural Economics and Operations Research, Penn State
Dr. Eugene Lengerich is a professor of public health sciences and faculty director of the public health preparedness option. He teaches courses on epidemiology, community preparedness and resilience, and the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. He also mentors students in independent research. He has led health assessments for medical and public health students in domestic and international settings. Prior to joining Penn State, he conducted outbreak investigations as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and preventive medicine resident at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Following his experience at the federal level, he led health investigations for the state of North Carolina. His research interests are in outbreak detection and investigation, community and public preparedness, and preparedness education.
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Bruce Lord
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DegreePh.D., Forest Resources, Penn State
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DegreeM.S., Forest Resources and Operations Research, Penn State
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DegreeB.S., Forest Science, Penn State
Dr. Bruce Lord has more than 30 years of experience as a resource economist specializing in the impacts of natural resources upon rural economies. He has made extensive use of survey research to study the economic impacts of the wood products industry and natural resource–based travel and tourism. His research interests include survey design and analysis, natural resource measurements, and economic forecasting.
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Eric Nord
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DegreePh.D., Ecology, Penn State
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DegreeM.S., Ecology, Penn State
Dr. Eric Nord is a plant physiological ecologist and quantitative ecologist with an interest in agricultural ecosystems.
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Iain Pardoe
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, University of Minnesota
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DegreeM.Sc., Statistics, University of Minnesota
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DegreeBSc., Economics and Statistics, University of Birmingham, UK
Dr. Iain Pardoe teaches and writes online university statistics and math courses from Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. He teaches at Thompson Rivers University and Statistics.com, as well as at Penn State. His main teaching interest is applied statistics, particularly regression, and he is the author of Applied Regression Modeling (second edition, Wiley, 2012). Dr. Pardoe has broad experience in regression modeling and graphics, Bayesian analysis, and statistical computing. He has also been involved with statistical consulting projects in criminal justice, manufacturing demand, scheduling, and eco-labeling marketing.
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Megan Romer
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, Penn State
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DegreeM.S., Statistics, Penn State
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DegreeB.S., Mathematics and Applied Mathematical Economics, SUNY Oswego
Dr. Megan Romer has been teaching online since 2009 when she earned her doctorate from Penn State's Department of Statistics. She enjoys discussing statistical concepts and problems with students. Before returning to school to finish her doctorate, Dr. Romer worked in clinical trials as a senior research support associate. Her primary area of research is in incomplete data.
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Scott Roths
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, Penn State
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DegreeB.S., Mathematics, Kansas State
Dr. Scott Roths' primary interest is in teaching statistics, including probability and multivariate methods. He teaches both online and at the University Park campus.
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Eduardo Santiago
DegreePh.D., Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Penn StateDr. Eduardo Santiago's research interest is in design of experiments (DOE), specifically the algorithmic creation of optimal designs. He has more than 10 years of industry experience working as a consultant in automotive, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, medical device, insurance, logistics, and chemical industries. Dr. Santiago has written several papers in different areas, including DOE and statistical process control. He has designed and co-developed a control chart available in Minitab to monitor adverse events, such as nosocomial infections and urinary tract infections.
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Aleksandra Slavković
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DegreePh.D., M.S., Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University
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DegreeMaster of Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University
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DegreeB.A., Psychology, Duquesne University
Dr. Aleksandra Slavković is co-chair of the Applied Statistics program, and her past and current research interests include usability evaluation methods, human performance in virtual environments, statistical data mining, application of statistics to social sciences, algebraic statistics, and statistical approaches to confidentiality and data disclosure. Her dissertation work focuses on statistical methodologies for disclosure limitation and data confidentiality, and presents new theoretical links between disclosure limitation, statistical theory, and computational algebraic geometry.
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Andrew Wiesner
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DegreePh.D., Psychology in Education, University of Pittsburgh
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DegreeM.A., Applied Statistics, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Andrew Wiesner's primary research interests are in sports and educational statistics. He serves on the executive committee for the Penn State Center for the Study of Sports in Society and is a board member for the Penn State All-Sports Museum. Dr. Wiesner has also presented several faculty workshops on interpreting item statistics to improve exams and the fundamentals of test item–writing.
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Manel Wijesinha
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DegreePh.D., Statistics, University of Florida
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DegreeM.S., Statistics, University of Florida
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DegreeB.S., Mathematics, University of Sri Lanka, Colombo
Dr. Manel Wijesinha focuses her research primarily on optimal designs in multi-response regression models. She has expanded her research areas to include dose response experiments and microarray data analysis. In these areas of biostatistics, she finds many opportunities to apply her optimal design expertise.
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