S-Plus for Windows
In class, we will be using S-Plus, version 2000. S-Plus is the 'industry-standard', 'state-of-the-art' statistical software package. Mount Holyoke has a limited licenses for this software. Copies are installed on the machines in Clapp 420, 422 and many on all the other computers in the Mathematics Department. Use is limited to 50 copies at a time. Under our new license, you can install a copy of S-Plus on your own PC, free of charge! S-Plus will run under Windows 95, 98, or NT, Unix, or Linux. If you install a copy of S-Plus from our college license, the expectation is that you will uninstall it after you graduate and leave Mount Holyoke. After that time, if you still want a copy, you have to buy it from MathSoft. A set of manuals is in Clapp 422 and in the Mathematics Department Office.

Minitab for Windows
You can also use Minitab for Windows. Mount Holyoke has a site-license for Minitab, and it can be accessed from any machine on campus. To get it, map the network drive \\csitconfig\mtab12 and click on the Minitab icon. Minitab can do almost all of the statistics we will deal with this semester, except for non-linear regression and spatial statistics. It is also somewhat weaker on testing for distribution shape. The graphics are not as good as in S-Plus, but are workable. The on-line help is reasonable, and at least it's free.

SPSS-PC for Windows
Mount Holyoke now has a multiuser license for SPSS (base, advanced, and regression modules). The available modules include most of the routines we will discuss in this class. SPSS-PC is available in Dwight Lab A, the Dwight Special Projects Lab, the Faculty Resource Center in Dwight, and in the Carr IBM lab. Student editions are available for purchase for $165 (contact Cindy Legare in LITS).

Microsoft Excel
Many statistical procedures can be done in Microsoft Excel. You have to first load the Data Analysis add-in. Then, choose Data Analysis from the Tools menu. Excel is limited in what it can do, and the graphics are terrible.

On-line statistical applications
Many basic statistical procedures, along with good explanations of what they do and how they work, can be done over the web, using a set of Java applications, called VassarStats, developed by Professor Richard Lowry in the Psychology Department at Vassar College. This is a really good teaching site, and includes information on and tools for probability distributions, correlation and regression, analysis of variance and covariance, tabular data, and proportional data. The downside is you have to type your data in to the on-line forms.