Department of Undergraduate Statistics
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University
Congratulations on deciding to become a Statistics Major at NC State. We look forward to seeing you at New Student Orientation in July and when school starts in August.
New Statistics majors have been chosen to participate in the Self-Registration Program, which allows you to use the internet to register for your classes before you come to New Student Orientation. You should get, by U.S. mail, your Unity ID, password and PIN so that you can register. Those are three of the four things you need to register.
The fourth thing you need is some guidance in finding the courses
you need. One source of help is the information below in the section
titled Building a Schedule. You probably
want to bookmark this page so you can get back to it. The other
sources of help are the academic advisors and staff in the Statistics
Department. The academic advisors, Dr. Woodard, Dr. Thompson, and
Dr. Reiland, are usually available for personal consultations. You
can either call us, or e-mail us when you need some help. Ms. Karla
Nevils is the administrative contact for the undergraduate program
and can also provide answers to a lot of questions. Our contact
information is:
| Name | Email Address | Telephone |
| Dr. Roger Woodard | woodard@stat.ncsu.edu | (919)-515-1938 |
| Dr. Jeff Thompson | thompson@stat.ncsu.edu | (919)-515-2570 |
| Dr. Tom Reiland | reiland@ncsu.edu | (919)-515-1939 |
| Ms. Karla Nevils | nevils@stat.ncsu.edu | (919) 515-1951 |
Most students build a semester schedule with 14 to 18 credit hours of courses. To graduate in four years, you will need to average about 15 hours per semester. More about that later.
Here is an example of a good schedule for a first semester freshman. Notice that each item on the list is a clickable link that will answer questions about that category.
| Course | Credit Hours |
| Statistics (ST 101 H) |
3
|
| Mathematics |
4
|
| English (ENG 101) (perhaps) |
4
|
| Orientation (PMS 100) |
1
|
| Science, Humanties, Social Science, or other courses |
3 to 8
|
With ST 101 H , Math, PMS 100, and possibly ENG 101, you should have between 8 and 12 hours. You will need one to two more courses to complete your schedule. There are a couple of ways to find courses. One is to look at your Degree Requirements, another is to fill admissions deficiencies in Foreign Languages, and a third is to explore possibilities for a second major or a minor.
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How many semester hours should you take?
Taking the right number of semester hours is important for your success. At first when you look at your schedule, you will say “What am I going to do with the rest of my time?” That is because High School and College are very different. In College, we expect that you will spend 2 to 3 hours working on a course outside of class for every hour in class. That means if you take 15 semester hours of course work, you will be spending 45 to 60 hours during your week on school work. Some of you may be more efficient in your studying and might be able to take a little bit more. Some will find 15 hours more than you can handle. In your first semester, try about 15 hours and in later semesters we can add more or take less depending on your experiences. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
First on the agenda is to sign up for your Statistics course, ST101H. This course is restricted to Statistics majors, Environmental Science - Statistics (EST) majors, and others by invitation. All incoming freshmen in Statistics and EST should take ST101H, even if you have taken statistics in high school.
If you took AP Statistics in high school and got a 3 or better on the AP exam, you are eligible for credit for ST301 upon successful completion of ST302. What this means is that when you take ST302 and get a C- or better, you will get credit for ST301. No credit for ST301 will appear on your NCSU degree audit until you successfully complete ST302.
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The most common first mathematics course is MA141 – Calculus I. Finding the right math course is very important to your success in college. You can find out about placement in math on the page http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/uga/placemen.htm#Advanced.
You may not have your scores yet from the SAT II or your math AB or BC tests. If not, go ahead and register for the course that corresponds with the test grade you think you made. When the scores are in, you can change to the correct course.
Got a question? Give us a call at 515-1938 or 515-1951.
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The freshman English requirement at NC State is one four hour course, ENG 101. About half of the new freshmen will take ENG101 in the fall, the other half in the spring. When you first open up your schedule, you may have an ENG101 course preregistered for you. If you have it, don’t drop it unless you call Dr. Woodard first. It is hard to get and most of you need it. If you have advanced credit for English, please check the page http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/fwp/Placement.htm.
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PMS 100 is the orientation to college course for Physical
and Mathematical Science students. The Engineering equivalent, E 115, is an option, but
PMS 100 is preferred since you will be working with other statistics,
mathematics, and science students.
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A BS degree requires 15 hours of Natural Sciences, 12 of which must be courses that have a lab associated with them, either included in the course or as a companion course. You can select from a wide variety of courses in the biological sciences, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and the marine, earth, and atmospheric sciences. Note that BIO181 (and its lab, BIO181L), ZO 160, and CH101 are prerequisite to many other courses, so would be good courses to take in your freshman year if you think you might eventually be interested in applying statistics to problems in biological, environmental, or medical sciences or engineering or genetics.
The list of available options is given in the degree requirements website. When you use the degree requirements web page, you can click the group number or course name and get more information – the description of a course, a list of courses that fulfill a requirement, or a list of sublists of courses to fill the requirement.
Be careful when picking courses from these lists! Be sure to look at the catalog description to make sure that you meet the prerequisites for the course. If there is a course you really want to take and you haven’t met the prerequisites, perhaps you should take one of the prerequisite courses. Note that BIO 125 no longer exists, even though it is listed as a prerequisite for many courses. You can use BIO 181, BIO 183, or ZO 160 as the prerequisite in place of BIO 125 in most instances.
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A BS degree requires 21 hours of Humanities and Social Sciences. The precise distribution of these hours is given in the degree requirements . You can choose from among the arts, music, history, the social sciences (psychology, economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, or cultural geography), you name it!
As mentioned above, be sure to look at the catalog description to make sure that you meet the prerequisites for the course. If there is a course you really want to take and you haven’t met the prerequisites, you probably need to take one of the prerequisite courses first.
One course in the Social Sciences section that might be important is Economics 201. This course is a prerequisite for many economics and business courses, and might be important to consider.
There are a group of sections for some of these courses that have a “Q” after the course number. These are special sections. They are restricted so that only freshmen can take them (this is your chance). The class size is small, usually restricted to 20 students. The Q sections are taught in an “inquiry” mode – that means that the instructor lectures less and spends more time directing class discussion. If you see one you might like – go for it. Most students like the Q sections. A complete listing of Q sections is available at http://www.ncsu.edu/firstyearinquiry/
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Foreign Language: Most of you have met the NC State requirement for foreign language proficiency in High School. The requirement is two years of a foreign language with a B or better average or three years with a C or better average in High School. If you have not met that, you will need to complete through the second semester (usually FL_ 102 where _=S for Spanish, _=F for French, etc.) at State. If you want to continue your foreign language, wait until orientation to sign up. You can take a test to see what course you place into.
Physical Education: Trying to add a Phys Ed course is a good thing. The graduation requirement is for two courses (one at the 1xx level). They are not easy to get, but if you want to start – great.
Things you might want as a double major: There are so many, you would get tired reading and I would get tired writing about them. Call Dr. Woodard (515-1938) or Dr. Thompson (513-2570). We will be happy to discuss options with you.
Honors and Scholars Courses: If you have been invited to join the Honors or Scholars Program, or both, I strongly urge to do this! If you were not invited to join one of these, both of them accept applications from students. I urge you to consider doing this also. For more information, please visit their websites and contact them about the programs. Honors Program Scholars Program
Each of these programs requires some seminars and classes. If you are already accepted for the Scholars Program, you should add the Scholars Forum, HSS 110, to your schedule. If you are already accepted for the Honors Program you should include HON 202 (Inquiry, Discovery, and Literature) to your schedule. This course satisfies the general education requirement for literature. If you will be living in the Honors Village, I encourage to also sign up for one of the HON 101 sections. These are 1-credit courses on fun topics that introduce you to the culinary scene, religious communities, or the visual arts in the Research Triangle area.
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Credit for AP, IB, and Community College Courses
If you have taken the AP exam or an IB course you may receive NCSU credit for these courses. You need to be absolutely sure your scores were sent to the Admissions Office at NCSU. Many times students take AP or IP courses in their sophomore and junior years and do not request this. You must request this for each year. Only official scores from ETS are accepted. Click here for information about NCSU credit for AP and IB courses.
Register for your classes based on what credits you know or expect to get as a result of these courses.
If you have taken courses through a community college or a four year school for college credit, you must request that a transcript be sent to the Admissions Office at NCSU. Do this immediately if you have not already done so.