Recognize Outstanding Statistics Students by Nominating for Mu Sigma Rho
Ananda Jayawardhana, Kansas-Western Missouri Chapter
Consider nominating your outstanding statistics students for membership in Mu Sigma Rho, The Statistics Honorary Society. Both graduate and undergraduate students are eligible. To become a member, students must be nominated by a chapter and satisfy several academic requirements. Chapters are associated with an academic institution or the ASA. Details regarding forming a chapter and nominating students can be found at the Mu Sigma Rho website.
In 2013, there were 399 students who received a Mu Sigma Rho honorary pin and certificate recognizing their accomplishments.
KWMCH and Mu Sigma Rho
Within the area the Kansas-Western Missouri Chapter (KWMCH) serves, there are several universities with small statistics concentrations in mathematics departments. The statistics department at Kansas State University and the biostatistics department at the University of Kansas Medical Center are the two dedicated statistics programs in the area. In 2011, representatives from these universities created a committee to start a Mu Sigma Rho affiliate chapter. This was done through the KWMCH, so a petition was not required.
Each committee member is a faculty member from these two universities and all hold a PhD in statistics. One member volunteered to be the chair or the representative to the national organization.
We modeled our Mu Sigma Rho chapter after the Boston Chapter’s. Respective committee members from these institutions are charged with soliciting applications, checking academic requirements, making recommendations to the committee, collecting the initiation fee, and communicating with the chair of the committee and national secretary. We reach out to the universities by February 1 and expect all nominations by March 1. A local committee member reviews the applications and lets the chair know by March 10. The committee then electronically approves all the applications compiled by the chair by March 20 and invites the students to join Mu Sigma Rho by April 1.
The induction ceremony is held during the spring meeting of KWMCH, which is usually in late April. During 2012 and 2013, 57 students were inducted into Mu Sigma Rho by KWMCH and given certificates, Mu Sigma Rho pins, and one year of ASA membership.
Currently, six universities participate in our affiliate chapter. In 2013, none of the participating universities had more than five eligible student applicants. A Mu Sigma Rho chapter through an ASA chapter provides the opportunity for students from isolated and small statistics programs to become members of the national organization.
For more information, visit the Boston Chapter website or the KWMCH page on the ASA Community website.
Mu Sigma Rho is outstanding. Statistics and analytics and decision sciences are the future
How come not more than 5 applications from the affiliate universities?
Mu Sigma Rho is an important recognition for statistics and analytics students
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