Those are excellent questions Thomas. Many programs expect students to learn
statistical computing "by accident". Statistical computing is too important for
applied statistics to let that happen.
S-Plus is an excellent statistical computing
tool. You can look at a syllabus for a statistical computing and graphics course
I teach at the University of Virginia by looking at
http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat/teaching/statcomp/index.html
There's other information there too. I highly recomment the book Modern
Applied Statistics with S-Plus by Venables & Ripley (Springer-Verlag,
3rd edition, 1999).
S-Plus is a powerful object-oriented language based on the S language (created
at the same place that created the C language - ATT Bell Labs - C is for
"computer" S for "statistics"). It is not extremely easy to learn but is easier
than C.
Different universities tend to use different statistical languages/packages, so you
may want to find out what is taught at each place.
Frank E Harrell Jr
Professor of Biostatistics and Statistics
Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Department of Health Evaluation Sciences
University of Virginia School of Medicine
http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hello, my name is Thomas and I will be attending graduate school in the
> fall '00 for a masters program in applied statistics. Some of the schools
> to which I have applied have a course in statistical computing, which
> requires knowledge of a high-level programming knowledge. Other schools do
> not have such a course, and presumably, expect you to learn this on your
> own. My question is, how important is the topic of statistical computing to
> an applied setting? As an undergraduate, I used minitab in stats courses,
> and it has been a while since I have used a high-level programming
> language. Is there any language in particular that is good for applied
> statistics? Perhaps Fortran or C++. At this point, my background is weak
> and I do not know if applied statisticians use statistical packages,
> programming, or some combination of the two. Any information would be
> greatly appreciated.
>
> Sincerely,
> Thomas, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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--
Frank E Harrell Jr
Professor of Biostatistics and Statistics
Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Department of Health Evaluation Sciences
University of Virginia School of Medicine
http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat
===========================================================================
This list is open to everyone. Occasionally, people lacking respect
for other members of the list send messages that are inappropriate
or unrelated to the list's discussion topics. Please just delete the
offensive email.
For information concerning the list, please see the following web page:
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
===========================================================================
