As an international direct student at USC, you’ll receive:

• Exclusive and rigorous academic coursework
• Priority access to in-demand courses that fit your interests
• Guidance from academic advisors and mentors
• Career development and networking opportunities
• Intensive classes with domestic students

Statistics is the science of data. Statisticians provide and interpret the data that is crucial in the decision-making process for government officials, business professionals and industry leaders worldwide. 

Students pursuing the statistics major take challenging courses with nationally recognized faculty and pursue the internship and research opportunities that keep statisticians in high demand. As a statistics major, you will develop the ability to perform fundamental statistical analyses, prepare informative graphics for public presentation and use statistical programming languages with applications across a variety of fields.

There are three options under the bachelor's degree with a major in statistics program. You can pursue the general major, the major with emphasis in actuarial mathematics and statistics or the intensive major. The major with emphasis in actuarial mathematics and statistics is designed for students planning a career as an actuary, while the intensive major is designed for students planning on graduate study in statistics.

The department's 15 faculty members are well-known for teaching and research excellence. As a statistics major, you can also benefit from the USC Center of Reliability and Quality Sciences, where faculty and students conduct research projects on and off campus. You can also seek out internship opportunities to gain hands-on experience in the field.

Concentrating your studies in a statistics major allows you to gain skills of interest to employers and industries. Graduates with a major in statistics are attractive to employers due to their abilities in the following areas:

• Data analysis and use of statistical tools
• Interpretation of research to communicate findings to broad audiences
• Designing research
• Creative problem definition
• Collaboration skills in the design and presentation of research
• Critical thinking in current social problems
• Communicate effectively
• Provide different explanations for social problems

These skills, and many others acquired in the pursuit of a degree in statistics, are highly transferable to jobs such as:

• Statistician
• Actuary
• Data scientist
• Data analyst
• Database apecialist
• Certified SAS programmer
• Secondary educator
• Financial analyst
• Mathematician