ADVISING AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Please read the information and FAQs below before asking for assistance. Your question may well be answered here. If your question remains unanswered, please contact the Student Services Coordinator. Registration assistance is handled centrally via email, so please do not contact course instructors or come to the Main Office for registration assistance, as you will be directed back to this webpage.
Please ensure that you register in courses and labs as soon as your registration window opens. Our courses fill up fast, and we will not register you in a course that is full because you missed your registration window.
Registration priority is given to students registered in Statistics majors (including combined majors) during the first month of registration, or up until August 1st, whichever comes first. After that, any seat that are not filled will be opened to students from other programs. This includes waitlists.
DSCI 100: Please note we have a new waitlist for the Python section DSCI 100 100, the waitlist is DSCI 100 WL4. We encourage any students wishing to take that section and cant get in right now to register in that waitlist. It takes time to move students from the waitlist into the course as it has to be done manually so please do not contact the office if you see seats available in the course if it is blocked. It will be unblocked once all priority students have been registered first.
PREREQUISITES:
Our firm policy is that students must have the required prerequisites to enroll in Statistics courses. Prerequisites for each course are as stated in the UBC Calendar. Many of our courses have a hard prerequisite check, which means that students who are lacking the exact prerequisite will be barred from registering in the course.
If you believe you should be eligible to register because, for example, you have legitimate transfer credits to meet the prerequisites, please email the Student Services Coordinator. You will need to submit transcripts and course outlines/syllabus in order to demonstrate how you meet the prerequisites for the course. This should be done at least one month ahead of your registration time to allow time for assessment.
For courses where a hard prerequisite check does not exist, please note that students are still expected to meet the prerequisites for the course. If you do not have permission to take a course for which you are lacking the official prerequisite, you may be removed from the course.
Credit excluded courses: Students should keep in mind that a credit excluded course cannot be used in place of a prerequisite. Please plan your courses carefully with a view to courses you may want to take in the future. Credit excluded courses have some overlap in content, but are not direct equivalents, and thus cannot be substituted as a prerequisite.
REPEATING A COURSE:
It is a Faculty of Science regulation that students may NOT repeat a course for a higher standing. Students are only able to repeat a course if they received a failing grade. Only your Faculty Advising office has the authority to register you in a course that you previously failed.
WAITLISTS:
This information needs to be updated with the implementation of Workday Student
If there is a waitlist for a full course that you want and have the prerequisites for, you should register on the waitlist immediately.
Please note the following regarding waitlists:
- If all non-restricted seats are full, and you do not meet the restrictions for the available seats, please register yourself on the waitlist.
- Waitlists work on a priority basis for students who register before August 1st. As seats become available, students are moved manually into the course in the following order:
- Students in a Statistics specialization (including majors and combined majors, and all other variations), and students in certain other specializations for whom the course is required, and who register on the waitlist during BEFORE AUGUST 1ST*
- Students in a Statistics specialization who wish to take the course to fulfill STAT elective requirements, and who register on the waitlist during BEFORE AUGUST 1ST*
- Students registered in a minor in Statistics
- Everyone else in order of registration on the waitlist (including graduate students from other departments, non-Stat majors, visiting students, exchange and Go Global students, and Stat majors after the first month of registration)
- In some cases, higher priority may be accorded to students in a certain year or specialization. Within a category, students are moved in order of the date they joined the waitlist. *Students should register on the waitlist as soon as possible. If you do not register on the waitlist during the first month after registration opens, you will not be given priority, in order to be fair to other students who are on the waitlist.
- If you are a student who is in 4th year, and need a course to graduate in May, you may be considered for forced registration or priority in the waitlist. To be eligible for priority registration, you must register on the waitlist and notify the Student Services Coordinator of your situation BEFORE AUGUST 1ST. Please note that only students who are within 30 credits (in September) or 15 credits (in January) of graduation will be considered for forced registration, and only when the course is required, and not an elective. We will verify this information, and notify you if you qualify. If you are able to take another course to fulfill your requirements, you will be asked to register in that course if it is not full. Please note that you will not receive this priority if you have failed to be promoted to 4th year.
- We will be moving students from the waitlist into the course in batches, and this may not occur every day. Thus, a course may seem to have seats available for several days before we will fill the seats from the waitlist. Please be patient, and do not contact the Department about this issue.
- Waitlists are managed according to the priorities described above. Please do not contact the instructor or office staff to ask about your waitlist position, or to request the ability to jump the queue (except as per item 3).
- Students who are unable to register in the waitlist for reasons such as prerequisite issues should contact the Student Services Coordinator as soon as possible to be placed on the list. Please see our information on prerequisites for more information.
- Most courses with a waitlist will use these policies up to the add/drop deadline. After the add/drop deadline, no further students will be admitted to our courses, and the waitlist will be purged close to the end of office hours.
- If we attempt to move you from the waitlist into the course, and you have meanwhile registered yourself in something that conflicts, we will contact you via email about the conflict. You will be given 24 hours to clear the conflict, after which time we will move on to the next student. We will only attempt to contact you once, so it is up to you to monitor your email, and clear any conflicts in a timely manner.
REGISTRATION FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Registration
Prerequisites for our courses are firm, and we generally do not allow students to register in a course if they do not have the prerequisite. Historically, students who do not have prerequisites have done poorly in our courses. Students should plan ahead and make sure they take the proper prerequisites for any courses they will want to take.
Yes, as long as you have fulfilled the prerequisite background. If you took the prerequisites at another university, you will likely need assistance with registration. Please contact gradinfo@stat.ubc.ca, and provide a course outline or link to demonstrate how you have fulfilled the prerequisites.
Yes you can, provided you have the relevant background. You’ll need to contact the course instructor and get permission to register. Be prepared to explain to them why you think you have the background to succeed in the course. Then you’ll need to fill out an Enrolment Form and have it signed by all necessary parties before submitting it to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
You should be diligent and keep trying to register in a lab that fits your schedule as spaces open up. The department will ensure that there are enough lab seats available for the number of students registered in the course. However, we cannot guarantee that seats will fit your preferred time or registration schedule, and we cannot overload labs due to space restrictions. You may need to change your registration in other courses to get access to a lag/tutorial where there are available seats.
You must go to the lab in which you are registered. Marks are assigned in accordance with registration, and you will not receive grades for your labs if you do not attend the section in which you are registered.
Stat 241 has been cross-listed with Stat 251. In 2018 we eliminated Stat 241, and all students can now register in Stat 251.
Waitlist
We don’t have waitlists for all of our courses. Some courses are offered in the summer, and students who are unable to register in the winter can take the course at that time. Some of our larger courses, such as Stat 200 and Stat 251, experience a great deal of movement in registration, and most students can get a seat if they are vigilant in terms of monitoring enrollment. If there is no waitlist for a full course, you’ll need to watch for a space to open up, and register yourself at that time.
Once a waitlist is created, the main section is blocked and nobody can register in it. We move students from the waitlist into the course in batches, so it may be several days before we are able to full available seats from the waitlist. Please be patient and to not contact staff or instructors about this issue.
All waitlists are managed according to the priorities listed above. Please do not contact instructors, advisors, or office staff to ask about your position on the waitlist, or to request special consideration. The exception is those students mentioned in item 3 above.
Each course is different, and your chances of getting in are difficult to predict. Generally, a small number of seats in almost every course become free for various reasons, but please keep in mind our prioritization, as listed above.
Unfortunately, this is not always possible. Additional seats require additional TAs, bigger rooms, and more labs. Additional sections require additional instructors and TAs, additional rooms, and more labs. Though we do our best, it may not be possible to meet the demand for additional seats or sections.
You can only register on the waitlist and hope for the best. We accommodate as many students as possible in our courses, and will move students off the waitlist as space become available. You might want to consider making an appointment with your departmental advisor to discuss course planning for future terms, in case you cannot get into the course you want in the current term. We strongly urge all students to plan their courses well in advance, taking into account prerequisites and recognizing that many of our courses are only offered once per year. Make sure you register as soon as your registration date and time permits.
First of all, please consult the UBC Calendar, and make sure that the course IS truly required. If the course is an elective, and there are other courses that you could take, please check and see if any of those courses have room in them. If there is another course you can take, and there is room in that course, you will need to register in it, even if it is not your preference. We cannot force add students to a full course if there is another available option. If, however, the course is a *required* course, and there are no other options available, please register on the waitlist immediately, and contact gradinfo@stat.ubc.ca as soon as you have registered on the waitlist. Please note that we will verify your request, and will only register you in the course if there are no other options available to you. We will not force register students on the basis of preference.
Due to seat restrictions in lecture halls, we are not able to allow students to audit a course that is full or has a waitlist. We offer priority to students who need to take a course for credit.
We offer priority to students as discussed above. However, in fairness to students who registered in a timely manner, this priority is only extended students who register on waitlists during the first month of registration. We cannot extend priority to students who forget to register, change their minds, fail to plan ahead, or have dropped the course for whatever reason and now want to pick it up again.
Be sure to register for courses as soon as your registration time becomes available. Students register by year, in descending order of GPA: 4th year, then 1st year, then 3rd year, and finally 2nd year. Your best chance of avoiding a waitlist is to improve your GPA. When your GPA goes up, you register earlier.
Major in Statistics
If you are applying at the end of Year 1 and hope to be a Statistics major with Year-2 standing, please follow the procedure on UBC Science's Second Year Application page.
Note: You should list Statistics among your top 3 choices. If you ask for Statistics as a top choice and didn't get this choice, please go to the next item.
If you are in year 2, follow the recommended courses listed in the academic calendar for the Statistics specialization that you are interested in: for example, Major in Statistics, Combined Major CPSC/Statistics, Combined Major Statistics/Economics.
Take Math 200 (multivariable calculus), Math 221 (linear or matrix algebra) and Math/Stat 302 (introductory probability) as soon as possible. Then read the next item.
We assume that you are in year 2 or later. After you have completed
After you have completed DSCI 100 (Introduction to Data Science), STAT 200 (Introductory Statistics), MATH 200 (Multivariable Calculus), MATH 221 (Linear Algebra), and MATH/STAT 302 (Introductory Probability) [or their equivalents] with decent grades, you can apply via the online form.
Please read the instructions carefully before submitting your application. Applications will be considered in January and in May each year by the reviewing of overall profiles and grades in relevant Computer Science, Mathematics, and Statistics courses.
The application deadlines are mid-January and mid-May. Entry to the Statistics major is competitive. For any further inquiries such as Major in Mathematical Sciences, please contact an advisor at late major entrants at stat dot ubc dot ca.
Arts students completing a double major in statistics must meet the upper-level requirement for the major comprising the prescribed 42 credits. See http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=12,215,410,437 . for the required courses. Students enrolled on a combined major with Economics and Statistics cannot take a double major in statistics.
Arts students wishing to complete a double major in statistics cannot self-declare as statistics majors and must apply directly to the Statistics Department (see the FAQ item on applying to transfer to or add Statistics as a major, as the explanations here are also valid for Statistics as a second major).
The thematic concentration requirement can be waived in cases where the students Arts major is in a field where statistics is applied (such as economics and psychology).
If you have continued to take Stat/Math courses at the 300 level and above, and your grades have improved, then you can apply again here.
Please see the Department of Economics page for more information. The deadline to apply is around May 5th.
You would have to apply to the CPSC Department, using this form. The form opens in April, and is closed for parts of the year.
If you're in Year 3, your deadline to apply is in early October. If you're in Year 2, your deadline to apply is in early March. For instructions, qualifications, and possible schedules for co-op terms, see Science Co-op's page for prospective students in Statistics.
Rules for progression are specified for each specialization and general BSc promotion rules are at
https://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=12,215,410,1467
In particular, the named courses for the statistics major are CPSC210 or MATH210 (4), MATH200 (3), MATH220 (3), MATH221(3), STAT200(3), STAT201 (3) and MATH/STAT302(3) and the 3/5 is calculated on the credit value which is 13.2 credits, rounded up to 14 credits. A student needs at least 60% in 14 credits from these courses (at the first attempt, and including STAT 200) to have met the progression rule.
STAT 305 and STAT 306 (or ECON 326 for the BA Combined Major in Econ/Stat) must be completed for promotion to Year 4. Please also see the Faculty of Science's general requirements for promotion.
Take them as soon as possible but not necessarily by the end of Year 2 if there are registration issues.
Credit for CPSC 110 and one of CPSC 210 or MATH 210 is required for promotion to Year 4.
The requirement for a minor in statistics is 18 upper-level STAT credits, which may include MATH 302 and ELEC 321.
If you started in the Stat major program in the 2020-2021 academic year or earlier, you can choose to satisfy the academic calendar requirements for either the 2020-2021 academic calendar or the 2021-2022 academic calendar.Anyone admitted to STAT major in May 2021 or later is required to take DSCI 100, STAT 201 and Stat 301.
Minor in Statistics
Minor in Data Science
Statistics Course Offerings
STAT 200, STAT 251, and STAT 302 are offered in Terms 1 and 2 and the summer term. STAT 203 (for non-science students) is offered in Term 1 only.
Careers in Statistics
Study habits
Please see the next few items for quotes from various sources.
Confucius saying: I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand. That is, there is a big difference between memorization and understanding. To achieve understanding, you have to DO enough textbook examples/exercises and homework problems to grasp the steps of logical reasoning.
Advice from AmStat News, in an interview with Greg Campbell, biostatistician in the US Federal Government.
Most biostatistical jobs require at least a Master's degree on statistics or biostatistics, so one is well-advised to take lots of courses. I personally adhere to the philosophy that good applied statisticians need a solid mathematical underpinning. This will enable one to be undaunted in picking up a journal article with formulas in it or to innovate if the problem does not quite fit the textbook example. So, my other advice is to take a variety of coursework in order to expand your toolbox. And, of course, education need not end at the university; it can be a lifelong passion.
(a) Pre-reading: I try to go through the pre-readings for the next class a day in advance. I don’t necessarily aim to understand everything, but rather get familiar with the material. I find the lectures to be much easier to follow this way.
(b) Formulas: I always derive the formulas and equations introduced in the class at least once, in a way that I am most comfortable with, which might take a different form than the ones introduced in class. This for the most part saves me from memorizing them and ensures understanding of the material.
(c) Note taking in class: I don’t think it’s enough to just listen in a lecture, no matter how focused I am. A lot of the times, it is not the things on the slides, but rather the professor’s explanations to what’s on the slides that help me understand the material. I write these things down in class, as quite often, these things are not documented in any of the materials provided for the class.
(d) Review notes: before each midterm and final exam, I always read the slides and textbook, and make a set of review notes. This includes key concepts, important derivations, and simple examples. I find myself understanding the material much better after writing the important things down neatly. I put more emphasis on things that I am confused about and refer to this set of notes through my exam prep period.
(e) Questions: while I make my review notes, I write down any questions that I come up with beside the corresponding section of the notes. After the notes are completed, I come back to these questions and see if I can answer them having gone through all of the materials covered.
(f) Exam and homework problems: I always keep all of my returned midterms and homework sets. I think it’s important to look back at the problems I have done after a while. For the questions I got wrong, I analyze what caused the mistakes and make sure I understand the concept so that I can avoid making the same mistakes again. For the questions I got right, they can serve as a good refresher to the concepts that might not have been touched on for a while.
(g) Material from prerequisite courses. With regard to material from previous courses, I don't really take any time before the start of a course to review the prerequisite material, but do actively refer to notes/textbooks on those topics throughout the term, especially in the beginning, to help with the current course. Based on my experience there are usually only a few things from a previous course that are heavily used, and by going back to the notes on those topics in the beginning of the term, I usually find it to be quite manageable. Sometimes the same concepts are taught in a different perspective, and I think it's important to build that connection between the different interpretations.
Courses from elsewhere
Credit transfers are handled by enrolment services advisors. Any student wishing to transfer credits for UBC STAT or DSCI credits should forward their enrolment services advisor the official course syllabus for the course taken elsewhere. This will then be forwarded to the Transfer Credit team via transfer.credits@ubc.ca. Existing transfer agreements can be found at www.bctransferguide.ca
Likely Stat 200, assuming a statistical software was used and some topics/vocabulary included: histogram, boxplot, mean, standard deviation, median, scatterplot, correlation, confidence interval, hypothesis testing, P-value, regression.
Likely Stat 203, assuming some topics/vocabulary included: histogram, boxplot, mean, standard deviation, median, scatterplot, correlation, confidence interval, hypothesis testing, P-value, regression.
Likely Stat/Math 302, assuming some topics/vocabulary included: discrete and continuous probability distributions, conditional probability, binomial coefficient, hypergeometric distribution, negative binomial distribution, gamma function, gamma distribution; expected value, variance and covariance of linear combinations of random variables; probability calculations via double integrals. Also a course objective is that you can solve probability problems such as the probability of different patterns in 5-card poker.
Likely STAT 251 (also the previous equivalent STAT 241): this course cover less topics of statistical methods compared with STAT 200 and less on probability theory compared with STAT 302. Some topics/vocabulary in this course are: discrete and continuous probability distributions, conditional probability, expectation, sampling distributions, estimation and testing.
We assume multivariable calculus was a prerequisite. Courses in China typically have between 48 and 54 contact hours in a term, so your course covers more than STAT 302, and includes part of STAT 305 at UBC-V. You can ask for transfer credit for STAT/MATH 302.
In China, the second course in theoretical statistics typically contains the material in STAT 305 at UBC-V. However the practice of applied statistics and the use of statistical software may have been omitted; in this case, consider taking STAT 200 at UBC-V, but ask for STAT 305 credit.
We are hoping that instructions for appeal will be provided at https://students.ubc.ca/enrolment/registration/transfer-credits/post-secondary-transfer-credit. Please check this item later for an update.