The student may emphasize either theoretical or applied material. Special emphasis is placed on the concerns that an applied statistician must address in dealing with practical problems.

Statistics is the driver of data-enabled science for collecting, summarizing, modelling, and interpreting the data.

Probability theory is used to analyze various aspects of statistical models guided by practical aspects of computation and scientific interpretability. In the last few decades, tremendous strides have been made in the physical, biological, and social sciences as well as in engineering and business by the use of statistical and probabilistic methods and models to describe and aid in the explanation of basic phenomena.

A strong interest has developed in the intensive study of statistical theory and methods aside from its uses, in the same way that physical sciences have developed aside from engineering.