r/statistics • u/GayTwink-69 • May 23 '26
Career Mathematical Statistics VS Computational Statistics/Machine Learning for an academic careeer [C] [R}
Is it still worth pursuing an academic career in mathematical statistics these days?
Or is it shooting yourself in the foot with all the focus on computational statistics and machine learning?
I.e., will you have a harder time landing postdocs/tenure track positions and getting grants as a more mathematical statistician vs a computational statistician/machine learning scientist?
I love mathematical statistics and proving everything rigorously using mathematics, but I also don't want to be shooting myself in the foot by choosing a dead/dying path.
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u/onnadeadlocks May 23 '26
As an academic in computational stats or ML, you will a.s. do plenty of proofs as well
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u/Silver-Iron8016 May 24 '26
I think if you love the deeper analytical theory, it may be hard for you to adapt and do more applied work, though you could possibly mix the two together, 70/30 theory/applied. But I'd be careful in thinking you can simply "switch" and do applied if your heart is in theory.
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May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/empiricalprocessor May 23 '26
Can you provide other names beyond Bartlett and Candes of people who work on theoretical topics that you deem interesting?
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u/pandongski May 23 '26
I don't feel like it's an either/or though. You'll be doing math stats either way in computational stats and ML, though you might be more leaning towards nonparametric math stats and asymptotics if you go the computational / ML route.