Requirements and Curriculum

View the Graduate Student Handbook for complete information.

All courses are 3 credit hours unless otherwise indicated. 

• STA 502 Introduction to Statistical Inference *
  
• STA 509 Statistical Genetics
• STA 511 Advanced Statistical Computing
  
• STA 525 Statistics for Bioinformatics
  
• STA 545 Data Mining I
  
• STA 546 Data Mining II
  
• STA 782 Departmental Seminar (0 credits) held weekly

Students are required to take the following Public Health course:

CHB 550 Public Health and Population Well-Being

*For those students interested in the PhD program, STA 521 is the preferred course.

You must complete a minimum of 12 credit hours of electives coursework. Below are elective options offered by the Department of Biostatistics. All courses are 3 credit hours unless otherwise noted.

• STA 503 Introduction to Applied Statistics I
  
• STA 504 Introduction to Applied Statistics II
  
• STA 515 Distribution-Free Inference
• STA 517 Categorical Data Analysis
• STA 521 Introduction to Theoretical Statistics I
  
• STA 522 Introduction to Theoretical Statistics II
  
• STA 526 Design and Analysis of Clinical Experiments
• STA 531 Theory and Methods of Sample Surveys
• STA 536 Experimental Design and Analysis
• STA 537 Sequential Analysis
• STA 551 Stochastic Processes
• STA 561 Longitudinal Data Analysis
  
• STA 567 Bayesian Statistics
• STA 571 Special Topics in Statistics
• STA 575 Survival Analysis
• STA 581 Multivariate Data Analysis
• STA 609 Advanced Statistical Genetics
• BCH/BIO 519 Introduction to Bioinformatics
• CSE 503 Computer Science for Non-Majors I
• CSE 536 Computational Biology
• CSE 601 Data Mining and Bioinformatics
  
• CSE 562 Database Systems
• CSE 636 Data Integration
  
• EEH 604 Fundamentals of Genetic Epidemiology

Throughout your program, you will rely on your supervisory committee for guidance and assistance. This committee, which must be appointed before your third semester of study, will:

• Advise you
• Check on qualifications and progress
• Evaluate your written report and oral presentation satisfying the practical training requirement (see below)
• Conduct the final oral exam (in a public forum)

When all core courses  have been successfully completed, the student selects a committee which consists of a major professor who is a member or associate member of the UB Graduate Faculty whose primary geographic appointment is in the Department of Biostatistics at UB or Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and two additional committee members who are also members or associate members of the UB Graduate Faculty. At least one of all committee members should have primary appointments from Department of Biostatistics at UB. The committee needs to be approved by Director of Graduate Studies.

Students will register for STA 601 Project Guidance (1 - 6 credits) with their major professor.

An essential component of our program is the practical training experience which helps you apply your skills learned in the classroom to real data. This requirement—which must be for at least one semester in length—can be satisfied by working with a faculty member in a consulting or collaborative research setting or by participating in an internship that has been approved by your advisor and supervisory committee.

To complete this requirement, you will present and defend a detailed written report of your data analysis project to your supervisory committee for evaluation at a final oral exam in a public forum.