Applied Statistics

We can be contacted in any of the following ways: WCSI Phone: 610-430-4185

The WCSI group has 5 Ph.D. statisticians with diverse backgrounds, including biostatistics, educational research, epidemiology, financial statistics, and psychometrics.  We also have other Ph.D. statisticians on call in case any issue outside of our collective expertise should arise. In addition, each project will employ at least one applied statistics graduate student, who will be selected based on his/her specific competencies in relation to the project. All student work will be carefully supervised by faculty staff.

This diversity of staff allows us to tailor staff competencies and experiences to different tasks, and make us eligible to collaborate on a wide variety of projects.  Most of our staff and students know SAS very well, and we also have staff members who know SPSS, R, and other specialized software.

There are many kinds of work that the WCSI group is well-suited to.  Our goal is to provide 100% satisfaction on all services that we provide.  If your project is one that we are not fully confident of our ability to provide excellent results, we will inform you right away that we cannot take on the project, and if possible we will point you to a group that we believe will be a better fit for your project. 

However, because we have a wide variety of skill sets in our group, 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

• After describing your study and your statistical support needs, a meeting will be set up between the perspective 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, a contract will then be provided to the client, including an estimate of time and costs, and any additional stipulations (such as authorship). 
• If the client agrees 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.

WCSI is a non-profit organization.  Our mission includes generating hands-on educational opportunities for graduate students by working on projects in a collaborative setting.  We are not allowed to make a profit - our rates are determined solely by our actual labor, overhead, and support costs. Therefore, you will find our rates to be appreciably less than other statistical consultants or firms. 

Our actual charges vary from time to time because of our changing costs. Most projects will be billed based on an hourly rate.  We will estimate the number of student hours and number of faculty hours and provide an estimate based on these hours.  Other longer projects can be billed at a fixed cost, based on estimates of hours and other overhead costs.   

For current West Chester University faculty and students, a President’s Initiative Grant has been awarded to WCSI for 2007 which will cover the costs of WCSI’s services (for projects of moderate length).