Statistics is the science and, arguably, also the art of learning from data. As a discipline it is concerned with the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, as well as the effective communication and presentation of results relying on data. Statistics lies at the heart of the type of quantitative reasoning necessary for making important advances in the sciences, such as medicine and genetics, and for making important decisions in business and public policy.
From medical studies to research experiments, from satellites continuously orbiting the globe to ubiquitous social network sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, from polling organizations to United Nations observers, data are being collected everywhere and all the time. Knowledge in statistics provides you with the necessary tools and conceptual foundations in quantitative reasoning to extract information intelligently from this sea of data.