Get Involved
UConn statistics students can prepare for life after graduation by getting involved in research, internships, and other experiences outside of classes. Through these opportunities, you’ll learn more about your interests, expose yourself to new ideas, gain professional skills, and build a network that will support you beyond UConn.
Internships
An internship is supervised field work relevant to some area of probability, statistics, or data science. Internships typically take place outside the Department of Statistics. Internships allow students to explore careers of interest while also gaining hands-on experience and transferable skills.
Undergraduate students may complete an internship and earn credits toward their major by enrolling in STAT 4190. Field Study Internship. Your internship may be with another academic department, a regional business, a government agency, or a non-profit organization.
To find a suitable internship, you may seek help from the Department, the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills or the American Statistical Association.
STAT 4190 Requirements
STAT 4190. Field Study Internship can be completed during the fall, spring, or summer semester, upon availability; students often complete their internship during the summer before their senior year, provided they have completed the necessary prerequisites.
To be eligible to receive internship credit in statistics via STAT 4190, you need to have satisfied all of the prerequisites:
- Completion of first-year and sophomore general requirements for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS).
- Completion with a grade of “C” or better of STAT 3025Q or STAT 3375Q, and STAT 3115Q or STAT 3215Q or STAT 3515Q.
Submitting a Proposal
After you meet the prerequisites, you must send the undergraduate program director more information about the internship in the form of a proposal, and also a letter from your internship supervisor.
For the proposal, please coordinate with your internship supervisor and send the undergraduate program director a write-up that includes
- the name of the company and where the internship is located,
- the start and end dates of the internship, number of hours per week, and whether it is paid or unpaid,
- the name and contact information of your supervisor, and
- the nature of the projects clearly stating the statistical content.
Your internship supervisor must also send a letter to the undergraduate program director. It should confirm the details of your proposal and that they will send the undergraduate program director an email at the end of your internship evaluating your performance. If approved, the undergraduate program director will send you a permission number for up to three credits of STAT 4190, with the number of credits dependent on the level of statistical/data science content and the number of internship hours to be completed during the semester.
Your regular tuition will cover the cost of internship credits during the academic year. If you complete an internship during the summer, you’ll be charged summer tuition based on the number of credits that you’ll earn.
Completing Your Internship
Upon completion of the internship, you must submit a detailed report to the undergraduate program director, who will also seek performance feedback from your external supervisor. Based on these evaluations, you'll be assigned a final grade of S (satisfactory) or U (unsatisfactory) by the faculty coordinator.
Also note, STAT 4190 can count toward your statistics, mathematics-statistics, or statistical data science major credits, but it is S/U, so your GPA will not be affected. Note that statistical data science majors must be approved for three credits of STAT 4190 in order to count as Advanced Statistics domain course.
Current Opportunities
Sports Statistics Experiential Learning Program
The Sports Statistics Experiential Learning Program provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with sports analytics through UConn athletic teams, including baseball, football, men’s basketball, and men’s ice hockey. The program is open to students majoring in actuarial science, mathematics-statistics, statistics, (pre-)applied data analysis, and (pre-)statistical data science.
The D. E. Shaw Group Fellowship Program
The D. E. Shaw Group Fellowship Program provides undergraduate students with immersive summer experience in global investment and technology development. The participant will participate in interactive case studies, seminars led by industry experts, and sessions with members of our team and receive Receive a stipend, accommodations, and travel to-and-from our office. Applications close on November 8, 2024 (for January
programs), and January 3, 2025 (for March programs). To learn more and apply, visit fellowships.deshaw.com.
Programs Eligibility
The D. E. Shaw Group Fellowship Program contains four kinds of programs for the students. They are:
- Discovery Program: For undergraduate students in their second year who self-identify as women.
- Latitude Program: For undergraduate students in their second year who self-identify as Native American or Alaska Native, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
- Momentum Program: For undergraduate students in their second year who self-identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
- Nexus Program: For all undergraduate students in their second year.
Program Dates
The applications close on November 8, 2024 (for January programs), and January 3, 2025 (for March programs).
The participation dates of different program are:
- Discovery Program:January 6–8, 2025
- Latitude Program:January 8–10, 2025
- Momentum Program:March 17–19, 2025
- Nexus Program:March 19–21, 2025
Internship roles
The internships offer collaborattion on challenging, thought-provoking, real-world projects to help prepare you for a range of future paths and an in-depth look at our industry and develop valuable research, analytical, and communication skills. They also offer competitive pay (as well as housing, technology, and travel benefits). Internship roles are available in:
- Business Operations.
- Discretionary Investing.
- Systematic Investing.
- Systems.
Events
Travelers case competition (October 14th – November 4th, 2024)
Fall is in the air! Leaves are falling, the nights are getting cold, and the annual Travelers Modeling Competition is right around the corner!
This year’s competition will again be hosted via a fully virtual environment, utilizing Kaggle in Class and Zoom. We invite students with solid statistical knowledge and modeling skills from statistics, math, data science and other related areas to participate. Participating in our modeling competition will bring students hands-on modeling experience and give them exposure to a real-world case.
The competition begins on Monday October 14th, and concludes on Monday, November 4th (Please submit your registration through this form form link).
The top teams from each campus will be given the opportunity to present their work (via Zoom) to Travelers employees. Then, the winning team from each school will be invited to a final presentation round and virtual job shadow day.
CSAS 2025 Data Challenge (December 1st, 2024)
We are pleased to announce the 2025 Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium (CSAS) Data Challenge. Participants will focus on using new data on bat speed and swing length to analyze some aspects of the pitcher/batter interaction in Major League Baseball. Finalists will be invited to present at the 2025 CSAS on April 11-12, 2025. Winning teams will have the opportunity to showcase their team’s work to data scientists in the baseball industry.
The challenge is open to students only. Please register for the data challenge by December 1, 2024, so that we can get a headcount for planning purposes. The submission deadline is January 15, 2025, and finalists will be notified by February 15, 2025. More details can be found here: https://statds.org/events/csas2025/challenge.html . Professors and students are encouraged to use the data challenge as a course project in statistics or data science in Fall 2024.
The 6th CSAS (formerly UCSAS) will be held on April 11-12, 2025, at Yale University. Please contact Brian Macdonald (brian.macdonald@yale.edu) if you are interested in joining the poster judging team or sponsoring the event. Registration for the conference will be available at a later date.
Internship and Co-op Search: Career Readiness Workshop (Oct. 14, 3:35 pm @ AUST 247)
Monday, Oct. 14, 3:35 pm @ AUST 247
Career readiness workshop by Kaitlyn Andersen of UConn Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills
Becoming Career Ready in Data Science with a Panel of Alumni: Panel for Data Science (Monday, Oct. 28, 1:25 pm @ AUST 445)
Monday, Oct. 28, 1:25 pm @ AUST 445
Virtual panel: Data science careers and skills, with UConn data science alumni panelists, facilitated by Kaitlyn Andersen of UConn Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills
Research
Undergraduate students can participate in supervised research in probability or statistics under the guidance of a statistics faculty mentor by enrolling in STAT 4389. Undergraduate Research. You may take this course either semester for three credits and may repeat it for additional credit. Hours are determined by arrangement with a faculty mentor.
This course is only open with consent of a faculty member who is willing to mentor you, based on exceptional academic performance in all core and some upper-level elective statistics courses. Discuss your interest with your faculty advisor, who may seek input from statistics department faculty members to help you find a research mentor.
Undergraduate students interested in pursuing their own independent research and/or writing a peer reviewed article based on outstanding research can also apply for support from the Office of Undergraduate Research. Statistics students can also participate in a number of summer research programs affiliated with the Math Alliance.
More Resources
Student and Professional Organizations
By getting involved in student and professional organizations, you can explore topics you're passionate about, expand your social circle, and build professional skills that employers value. Between UConn and the wider academic community, there are hundreds of organizations and learning communities open to statistics majors. Examples include:
- UConn Data Science Club: UConn Data Science Club focuses on educating and preparing students to be involved in the field of data science. It holds weekly workshops and hands-on sessions, along with the annual UConn Sports Analytics Symposium.
- American Statistical Association: The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest community of statisticians. It is the second-oldest professional association in the country, and its efforts include meetings, publications, membership services, education, accreditation, and advocacy
- New England Statistical Society: The New England Statistical Society (NESS) is a non-profit organization that promotes the growth and expansion of statistical science in the New England area and beyond. Its activities include publishing statistical journals, organizing scientific meetings, and offering educational programs.
Visit the UConntact website to search student groups by category.
Study Abroad
Studying abroad can expose you to different cultures and perspectives and provide you with unparalleled opportunities to grow as a student.
UConn statistics majors can study in many exciting places around the world. Through careful planning, you can take part in this transformative experience while earning credits toward your degree.
Students who are interested in studying abroad should first contact the office of Experiential Global Learning to determine what programs they are most interested in and when they’d like to go abroad, before meeting with the statistics staff advisor to discuss how this may fit into their major plan of study. It is recommended that interested students begin this process as early as possible.
For more information, check out our recorded info session on how to study aboard for math and stat majors.