Statistics Program

The Five College Statistics Program was created in 2011 to enable statistics faculty members at the five campuses to coordinate and integrate resources to better serve our statistics and data science students.

“The best thing about being a statistician is that you get to play in everyone's backyard.”
- John Tukey, Statistician

"Data is the sword of the 21st century, those who wield it well, the Samurai."
- Jonathan Rosenberg (former Google Inc. Senior Vice President)

The time to become statistically literate is now. The Five College Statistics Program was created in 2011 to enable statistics faculty members at the five campuses to coordinate and integrate resources to better serve our statistics and data science students.

Whether you want to take an introductory statistics or data science class or pursue elective course offerings, the Five Colleges has courses and programs of study just waiting for you.  Statistics and data science are present through multiple programs in the Valley:

  • Undergraduate majors/minors at Amherst, Mt Holyoke, Smith, and UMass Mathematics and Statistics
  • Graduate programs in Statistics and Biostatistics at UMass
  • A data analytics and society nexus at Mt Holyoke

All campuses have a rotation of statistics electives that may be of interest to students.

On this page, you can find resources, including links to statistics courses at each school, statistics faculty on each campus, news and events, announcements and more.

The Five College Statistics Program is committed to fostering closer ties between the faculty members teaching statistics and facilitating additional curricular cooperation to continue the strong statistical presence in the Valley. The Five College Statisticians meet on a regular basis to coordinate activities and curricular offerings.

On This Page

    Faculty

    News

    Nicholas J. Horton, the Beitzel Professor in Technology and Society (Statistics and Data Science) at Amherst College, has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Mosteller Statistician of the Year award by the Boston Chapter of the American Statistical Association. The award honors individuals from academia, industry, and government who have made exceptional contributions to the field of statistics and who have shown outstanding service to the statistical community, including the Boston Chapter.

    Winners of the Five College Statistics award for 2023 are: 

    • Amherst: Elizabeth Williamson and Alex Brandfonbrener
    • Hampshire: Sabina Iftikhar
    • Mt Holyoke: Emily Rosaci
    • Smith: Clara Li  and Aushanae Haller
    • UMass/Biostatistics: Benjamin Goldberg
    • UMass/Statistics: Adira Cohen

    Congratulations to all of these students for their excellent work!

    Professor Brittney Bailey (Amherst College) was named the recipient of the 2023 Mu Sigma Rho Early Career Undergraduate Impact Award for her dedicated and innovative approaches to support and empower students through her teaching, her leadership of StatFest and The STEM Incubator, and her efforts on behalf of the profession. More information about the award can be found at: https://www.stat.purdue.edu/msr/

     

    Professor Nick Horton, Beitzel Professor of Technology and Society (Statistics and Data Science), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College, has been elected as vice president of the American Statistical Association (ASA). Professor Horton's term begins in January 2021; he will serve with ASA president-elect Dionne Price, who will become the first African-American president of the ASA.

    Professor Miles Ott, Assistant Professor of Statistical and Data Sciences is the 2021 LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year. This award is given an educator for significant impact on STEM students "through teaching, advocacy, and role modeling."

    Congratulations to Professor Ott on this honor!

    The Five Colleges had a strong showing in the Fall 2020 Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition, with winners in the Electronic Undergraduate Statistics Research Conference (eUSR), the Undergraduate Statistics Class Project (USCLAP), and the Undergraduate Statistics Research Project (USRESP).

    Congratulations to our Fall 2020 competition winners:

    Nicholas Reich, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, recently delivered a series of keynote talks on the topic of COVID-19 forecasting. 

    Thank you, Professor Reich, for your continuing contributions to the field of Biostatistics!

    Events

    Recurring Events

    Courses

    Note that if you don't see classes from all campuses currently listed, they will appear as the campuses release their course schedules for the semester. The five campuses release their schedules on different dates. Visit this page for specific dates.

    Fall 2025 Statistics Courses

    Subject Course # Sect # Course Title Instructor(s) Institution Meeting Times
    NS 0104 1 Introduction to Data Science Kenneth Mulder Hampshire College 01:00PM-02:20PM TU;01:00PM-02:20PM TH;01:00PM-02:20PM F
    NS 0230 1 Confronting Question With Data Kenneth Mulder Hampshire College 09:00AM-10:20AM TU;09:00AM-10:20AM TH
    SDS 100 01 Lab: Computing w/Data William Hopper Smith College TU 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM
    SDS 100 02 Lab: Computing w/Data William Hopper Smith College TU 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
    SDS 100 03 Lab: Computing w/Data William Hopper Smith College TU 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
    SDS 109 01 Communicating With Data Ab Mosca Smith College TU TH 1:20 PM - 2:35 PM
    SDS 192 01 Intro to Data Sciences Smith College M W F 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
    SDS 192 02 Intro to Data Sciences Smith College M W F 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
    SDS 192 03 Intro to Data Sciences Lindsay Poirier Smith College W F 1:20 PM - 2:35 PM; M 1:40 PM - 2:55 PM
    SDS 210 01 Intro to Statistics William Hopper Smith College M W F 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
    SDS 210 02 Intro to Statistics William Hopper Smith College M W F 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
    SDS 210 03 Intro to Statistics Kementari Whitcher Smith College M W F 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
    SDS 210 04 Intro to Statistics Katherine H. Clemans Smith College M W F 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
    SDS 239 01 Colq:Data Science, Movies Nikko Stevens Smith College TU TH 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
    SDS 239 F01 Colq:Data Science, Movies Nikko Stevens Smith College W 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
    SDS 270 01 Programming Data Science: R Smith College TU TH 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM
    SDS 271 01 Program/Data Science: Python Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann Smith College M W 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
    SDS 290 01 Research Design & Analysis Kementari Whitcher Smith College W 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM; M 3:05 PM - 4:20 PM
    SDS 291 01 Multiple Regression Ben Baumer Smith College M 1:40 PM - 2:55 PM; W 1:20 PM - 2:35 PM
    SDS 291 02 Multiple Regression Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann Smith College TU TH 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
    SDS 293 01 Modeling for Machine Learning Albert Y. Kim Smith College TU TH 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
    SDS 355 01 Sem: Sports Analytics Ben Baumer Smith College M W 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
    SDS 390be 01 T-Biostatistics&Epidemiology Kaitlyn Cook Smith College TU TH 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
    SDS 410 01 Capstone in SDS Nikko Stevens Smith College TU TH 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM
    PUBHLTH 223 01 Intro/Biostats for PUBHLTH Sofija Zagarins UMass Amherst M W F 10:10AM 11:00AM
    PUBHLTH 460 01 TellingStories/DataStatModelVi Nicholas Reich UMass Amherst TU TH 10:00AM 11:15AM
    PUBHLTH 494CI 01 Public Health Sciences Capston David Chin UMass Amherst TU TH 11:30AM 12:45PM
    PUBHLTH 494CI 02 Public Health Sciences Capston Ann-Marie Sylvia UMass Amherst TU TH 2:30PM 3:45PM
    PUBHLTH 494CI 03 Public Health Sciences Capston KRYSTAL KITTLE UMass Amherst M W 2:30PM 3:45PM
    PUBHLTH 494CI 04 Public Health Sciences Capston Alexander Knee UMass Amherst TU TH 1:00PM 2:15PM
    STATISTC 310 01 Fundamental Concepts/Stats Qian Zhao UMass Amherst M W F 9:05AM 9:55AM
    STATISTC 310 02 Fundamental Concepts/Stats UMass Amherst M W F 12:20PM 1:10PM
    STATISTC 315 01 Statistics I Theodore Westling UMass Amherst M W 2:30PM 3:45PM
    STATISTC 315 02 Statistics I Luc Rey-Bellet UMass Amherst M W F 12:20PM 1:10PM
    STATISTC 315 03 Statistics I UMass Amherst M W F 10:10AM 11:00AM
    STATISTC 315 04 Statistics I Luc Rey-Bellet UMass Amherst M W F 1:25PM 2:15PM
    STATISTC 315 05 Statistics I Jialin Li UMass Amherst TU TH 8:30AM 9:45AM
    STATISTC 315 06 Statistics I UMass Amherst M W F 8:00AM 8:50AM
    STATISTC 516 01 Statistics II Haben Michael UMass Amherst TU TH 10:00AM 11:15AM
    STATISTC 525 01 Regression&Analysis/Variance UMass Amherst TU TH 10:00AM 11:15AM
    STATISTC 525 02 Regression&Analysis/Variance Haben Michael UMass Amherst TU TH 2:30PM 3:45PM
    STATISTC 535 01 Statistical Computing Haben Michael UMass Amherst TU TH 1:00PM 2:15PM
    STATISTC 535 02 Statistical Computing Shai Gorsky UMass Amherst W 6:00PM 8:30PM
    STATISTC 598C 01 StatisticalConsultingPracticum Daeyoung Kim,Krista Gile UMass Amherst TU 10:00AM 11:15AM
    STATISTC 607 01 Math Statistics I Daeyoung Kim UMass Amherst TU TH 8:30AM 9:45AM
    STATISTC 607 02 Math Statistics I Hyunsun Lee UMass Amherst M 6:00PM 8:30PM
    Course Lists From Previous Semesters
    Statistics Regularly Offered Course List

    Resources

    The Lorna M. Peterson Award supports scholarly and creative work by undergraduate students taking part in Five College programs. The prize is awarded annually based on nominations from Five College programs.

    Campus Curricula

    Amherst College (Major)
    Hampshire College (Academic Philosophy)
    Mount Holyoke College (Major and Minor)
    Smith College (Major and Minor)
    UMass Amherst (Undergraduate Program)

    Other Resources

    American Statistical Association (ASA)
    This Is Statistics
    UMass Amherst Statistics
    UMass Amherst Department of Biostatistics
    DSC-WAV (Wrangle-Analyze-Visualize) Project
    CAUSEweb
    Five College Statistics on Twitter

    Contact Us

    Five College Statistics Program Representatives:

    Amy Wagaman, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College (Chair)

    Jeffrey Barton, Professor of Mathematics, Hampshire College (Secretary/Treasurer)

    Laurie Tupper, Associate Professor of Statistics, Mount Holyoke College

    Randi Garcia, Assistant Professor of Psychology and of Statistical & Data Sciences, Smith College 

    Carlos Soto, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, UMass
     

    Five College Staff Liaison:
     

    Ray Rennard, Director of Academic Programs