The Department of Statistics operates a free consulting service for members of the campus community. Advanced graduate students, under faculty supervision, consult by appointment in the fall and spring semesters. We do not run the consulting service during the summer.

Campus researchers — faculty, visiting scholars, staff, and students — are welcome to use our service for advice at any stage of their research and data analysis, but it is best to come early so that the consultants can be helpful at the design stage. Some problems may be outside our scope; if so, we will do our best to point you in the right direction. 

Schedule a Consultation

We encourage you to reach out to us early in your research, ideally, before you have collected data and started to analyze them:

To consult the statistician after an experiment is finished is often merely to ask [them] to conduct a post mortem examination. [They] can perhaps say what the experiment died of.  --Sir R.A. Fisher

PLEASE NOTE: Consulting services are only available during the Fall and Spring semesters.  There is no consulting during summer sessions or during winter break and the email account is not monitored during these periods.

Please email consulting@stat.berkeley.edu to inquire about our services and/or schedule an appointment. In the body of your message, please provide:

• a one-paragraph description of your problem and the context in which it arises
• links to one or more relevant publications to help the consultants get up to speed on your application
• your title and affiliation

Consulting appointments last approximately an hour. The first appointment is usually spent learning about the problem, and then a followup session is usually scheduled to discuss specific advice. Please be aware that the consultant does not actually do the analysis, but offers advice about the analysis.

No new appointments will be scheduled after the last day of classes of the semester. We may schedule followup appointments the "reading week" period with returning clients, as needed. After that point, no appointments will be available until the service resumes in the following semester.

Questions regarding coursework or homework are handled by the Tutoring service, not the consulting service.

Questions regarding the Statistics Department's academic programs or courses are handled by our Student Services Advisors.

Due to COVID, we will offer consulting services in person and remotely.