Statistics with Stata: A Short Course

With its user-friendly interface and strong analytical and graphical abilities, Stata is the preferred statistical analysis tool for large numbers of data analysts in economics, statistics, sociology, education, and biomedicine, as well as in the business domains of finance, consulting, investment management, and marketing.

Stata is extremely powerful but also easy to learn. Its amazing help files and fully integrated manuals system really set Stata apart. After achieving a basic familiarity with the syntax and interface, Stata can be learned much more quickly than its competitors.

A large community of Stata users also provides a rich network of support as well as thousands of helpful add-on commands that can dramatically extend the software’s capabilities. Overall, Stata is extremely versatile software that is a valuable addition to any analyst’s toolbox.

You are encouraged to use a computer with Stata installed. Stata 17 is the most current version, but Stata 14-16 will work just as well for the vast majority of the course content.

Seminar participants who are not yet ready to purchase Stata could take advantage of StataCorp’s free 30-day evaluation offer or their 30-day software return policy.

The course will benefit researchers, analysts, and students interested in identifying and mastering a statistical software package. Current users of alternative software packages (e.g., SAS, R, SPSS) who are interested in extending your arsenal of statistical software tools to include Stata will also find it particularly useful. The seminar generally will appeal to those who seek an accelerated and in-depth introduction to a powerful, popular, and flexible statistical software package.

The course will focus on developing mastery of software rather than on teaching statistics. Hence, familiarity with statistical concepts at the first-year undergraduate level, including topics such as basic probability distributions, hypothesis testing, t-tests, chi-square tests, and OLS regression will be assumed. While prior exposure to statistical software may be useful, no prior experience with Stata or any other statistical package is required.

Day 1

• Stata orientation
• Managing data
• Summary statistics, tables, and graphs

Day 2

• Comparing continuous and categorical data
• Correlation and linear regression

Day 3

• Logistic regression
• Advanced topics and next steps

“This is easily one of the best courses that I have taken. Dr. Vaisey is an incredible instructor with a gift for presenting complex materials in a way that is easily accessible and actually fun! I left the course with a better understanding of STATA and a more thoughtful approach to my analysis and research in general. Dr. Vaisey explained statistical concepts in an approachable way, and I think I learned more in 3 days than in some of my graduate statistic seminars! I cannot recommend this course enough.”
  Laura Wallace, Iowa State University

“Statistics with Stata was an excellent seminar, and I highly recommend it to my colleagues who are transitioning from another statistical software package or just want to augment their current knowledge of Stata. I’ve been a casual Stata user for the past 5 years, and I still learned a lot about data organizing/cleaning/management, conducting analyses, and creating graphs and tables. I wish I had taken this seminar years ago! Stephen Vaisey was an engaging and relatable instructor, too. Highly recommend.”
  Liz Goldstein, San Francisco VA Healthcare System/UCSF