Co-op and Employment
Co-operative Education
An optional year-round Co-operative Education Program is available for undergraduate students in Statistics. The Program is intended to help prepare interested and qualified students for careers in Statistics (and related areas) with 16 months of work placement supervised by practising professionals. Faculty advisers also visit students at their place of work and provide advice on technical reports required of all students in the Program.
To be eligible, students must be admitted to the second year of the Statistics B.Sc. program and should apply through the Science Co-op Office during the second term of their second year. Selection of students is based on academic performance and general suitability to the work environment as determined by a resume and an interview. The total enrolment will be subject to the availability of appropriate work placements and faculty advisers. There is NOT a citizenship status requirement.
For further information or to apply to the Statistics undergraduate cooperative program, please contact the Science Coop office, part of the UBC Co-operative Education Program.
Employment Information
Statisticians have strong quantitative skills that are valued in a number of areas. Someone with a BSc in Statistics can work in an actuarial firm or accounting firm or in a working group composed of MSc and PhD statisticians and researchers in a non-statistical area. Many of these working groups are in health related units, since medical research is such an important and heavily funded area in North America.
To see what Statistics Department faculty members do for their research, see the individual faculty pages. To see what recent MSc's and PhD's do, see our alumni page.
About Co-op Students
The Department has an undergraduate Co-operative Education program and also an MSc level Co-operative Education option. The undergraduate Co-op program includes 8 terms of course work and 2 terms of work experience. The student receives salary during the work terms. Further information is available on the Co-op page.
About Undergraduate Research Assistants
Every summer several undergraduate Statistics majors work on individual research projects with faculty members. These projects are not routine nor are they text-book based. Typically, they involve an application in a non-statistical area, and the student must learn some new data analysis techiniques and become proficient in programming and report writing. This one-on-one work is a valuable learning experience.
If you are interested in obtaining funding for a research experience while an undergraduate, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) subsidizes eligible professors to hire students on their research projects. Current details are now available, and an application form can be found here. The deadline is typically in mid-March.
About Graduate Research Assistants
During the academic year, about 40% of our graduate students receive some partial or full financial support as a Graduate Research Assistant. In the summer months, virtually all students are supported in the role. The assistantships are available through the Statistical Consulting and Research Laboratory, the Biostatistics Research Group, and from research grants and contracts held by individual faculty members. Often this work will evolve into a thesis or project, leading to publication. The work is definitely not routine. It is challenging, involving the development of quite a few skills. Through the RA-ship, students learn to work independently. Thus, RA-ships are an integral part of the graduate program learning experience.
