By Reubin Turner
City editor

Every semester, students in the business school sign up for quantitative business analysis. The stories associated with regression lines, estimation intervals and hypothesis testing are legendary, and students cringe at the thought of taking it, or any other statistical analysis class. I know I did. That is of course, until I realized that my job may depend on it.

In a world that is growing increasingly quantitative, the study of statistics is becoming exponentially important. From finance to economics, business fields are starting to rely heavily on methods that integrate theory, computer science and statistics. With the business world becoming more dependent upon science, business students should take as many statistics classes possible to stay up to date with trends in the field.

According to an article published by Business Insider, math is becoming more important in judging talent in the field of business. After the Great Recession many analysts started looking for analytical ways to make business decisions that weren’t so dependent upon qualitative theory. Business programs such as the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M began encouraging students to make the jump from “STEM to stocks,” emphasizing the importance of a math-based background in their careers.

Even if you’ve already taken a statistics class, I would highly encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and consider taking a higher-level statistics class. This small investment could have a big payoff in the future.