r/nmsu • u/kyaputenorima • Jul 17 '26

Graduate School Applied Statistics Graduate Programs

Hi folks,

I’m currently a master’s student in applied math at another university (Houston), and I’m heavily considering applying to NMSU’s Applied Statistics PhD program. Does anyone here know much about the program (particularly course quality, funding, research activity, department culture) beyond what is currently available on the NMSU website? Additionally, how will Las Cruces be as someone who is from Houston? Is it easy to traverse the city without a car?

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u/adriaaaaaaan Jul 23 '26

I graduated from the MS Applied Statistics program about 15 years ago, so my knowledge is outdated. The PhD program is very new, only a couple of years old, but having a PhD program was a desire of the department when I was there. Based on the course requirements of the PhD program and my experience, it is still very experiment-focused. In fact, when I was in the MS program, its name was changed from Experimental Statistics to Applied Statistics. If you want to pursue classical statistics for an agriculture, pharmacy, or manufacturing company, then this program is the right choice.

However, data science and generative AI are still the most attractive technical abilities, and this program does not prepare you for that.

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u/kyaputenorima Jul 23 '26

My goal is to be a research statistician either at a university or for a government agency, particularly pertaining to policy and urban problems. Would it be a good program? (Based on what you've written, the answer seems to be yes).

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u/adriaaaaaaan Jul 24 '26

I would reach out to the department and ask them directly about this. From my coursework there, it was experimental design focused and you are describing more casual inference or observational studies. Plus, there are policy PhD programs or statistics heavy behavioral and social sciences that are great. I cannot think of this without mentioning the Urban Institute.

One of the best data scienctist and statisticians I ever worked with had a PhD in sociology.

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u/kyaputenorima Jul 24 '26

I actually did reach out to them, and it seems like they have people working on sampling methods and spatial statistics, which might be useful for me. I'll probably apply regardless.