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Statistics Institute

The West Chester Statistics Institute (WCSI) is an in-house, non-profit organization that provides hands-on, collaborative educational opportunities for current graduate students through statistical support, analysis, and education on specific projects for WCU and regional businesses, industries, and academic institutions.

Let's start a project

What projects will WCSI work on?

The WCSI group has 5 Ph.D. statisticians with diverse backgrounds, including biostatistics, educational research, epidemiology, financial statistics, and psychometrics allowing us to collaborate on a wide variety of projects.  Most staff and students are well versed in SAS, and we have staff trained in SPSS, R, and a variety of other specialized software. 

We can provide a wide variety of services including (but not restricted to):

  • Data management and cleaning
  • Statistical Programming (primarily SAS programming)
  • Study Design
  • Instrument Development
  • Data Analysis Using the Most Recent Statistical Methodologies
  • Development of Journal Articles
  • Statistical Support for Grants
  • Tutoring and Educational Services 

How do I start a project with WCSI? 

  • After your initial contact with WCSI to describe your study and your statistical support needs, we’ll set up a meeting with you (prospective client) and a team of researchers, including one or more faculty members and one or more students.  The team will be selected based on their expertise as related to your study.   
  • At the meeting, there will be an in-depth discussion of the goals of the study, and the services requested.
  • If the Institute’s directors deem the project to be appropriate with the Institute’s expertise and mission, you will receive a contract including an estimate of time and costs, and any additional stipulations (such as authorship). 
  • If you agree to the terms of the contract, work will begin on the project immediately, and a second meeting will be set up at the end of the project to discuss the results. 

What are typical project costs?

WCSI is a non-profit organization with our rates determined solely by our actual labor, overhead, and support costs. Our actual charges vary from time to time because of our changing costs. 

Most projects will be billed based on an hourly rate, estimated by the number of student and faculty hours necessary to complete your project.  Longer-term projects can be billed at a fixed cost, based on estimates of hours and other overhead costs.