The Master of Arts in Data Analysis and Applied Statistics is offered by Virginia Tech’s Department of Statistics. The degree is also sponsored by other programs and departments including the Education Research and Evaluation Program (EDRE), the Departments of Psychology, Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Geography, Economics, Human Development, Sociology, Psychology, Biological Sciences, and the Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology program.

The curriculum provides a broad variety of applied statistical tools to students, without the emphasis on statistical theory steeped in mathematics. The M.A. DAAS degree is structured so that certain courses that emphasize the fundamentals of statistics, are required. Electives in specialized topics in statistics are then chosen by the student. Thus, the degree offers sufficient depth in the fundamentals of contemporary applied statistical methods and gives students an understanding of how these methods are applied in different fields.

The program requires 33 credit hours of coursework (21 hours from the core and 12 hours of electives). The core requirements will be based on courses from four topic areas: Data Analysis, Design of Experiments or Study Design, Regression Analysis, and Statistical Theory, and also a professional development course in consulting.