My path through statistics was anything but linear. I had been dreading taking this class, not because I didn't think I would find it interesting or want to learn about it, but because I had little confidence in my ability to succeed. Being able to work with statistical methods is such a key aspect of research; I think I was anxious that if I didn't do well in these courses, it would mean that I wasn't cut out to be a researcher. Sitting down for the first midterm of the quarter, I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest; ice water seemed to be rushing through my veins, and my hands were shaking enough to leave my numbers looking wobbly on the page. But I survived. And then I survived the one after, and then the one after that, and before I knew it, statistics had become one of my favorite subjects. I have to give our professor Dr. Little about 90% of the credit for how this happened. Without her patience and willingness to answer hours of questions (literally hours) and without an amazing team of teaching assistants and undergraduate peer facilitators whose office hours I showed up to on almost a daily basis, I don't think I would have gained the understanding of these concepts that has left me satisfied with my knowledge and curious to know more. Doing research in clinical psychology has been my end goal since I turned thirteen, and taking statistics is the first time my certainty has ever wavered regarding this path. While my brief change of heart to study quantitative psychology didn't last long, I know that I will be looking for PhD programs with a strong team of quantitative psychologists as members of the faculty and will be registering for a quantitative methods minor the moment I am accepted to the school where I end up.
Below you can take a look at a couple of the assignments I have worked on for these classes: