Raphael Fraser wrote:
I am being persecuted by some of my students for having to learn Stata
rather than SPSS. "SPSS is so easy to use" they say. "Why do we have
to type every thing?" one student complained. This is always the case
in my Intro to Stata classes but at the end of the course they show
much appreciation for learning Stata especially when they have to do
data manipulation. But this year is different. There is a student
rebellion. They see me as a "Stata Dictator" and is desirous of
"Democracy." So I have decided to be more "diplomatic" with a Stata vs
SPSS comparison.
Who can come up with TEN reasons why my students should choose Stata over
SPSS?
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Let them discover on their own. They choose the package, and you choose the
problem sets. Stata is easy enough that if they decide to switch midway
through, they won't be long in catching up on their own.
In all fairness to the students, who will be looking for work soon enough,
take a look at the job postings page on the UCLA ATA Stat Computing website
(URL at the bottom of this posting):
Posting #1 "expected to have experience applying a wide variety of
multivariate statistical methods to health or substance abuse research data,
managing large databases, and using statistical software including SAS and
SPSS "
Posting #2 "At least one year of SAS programming/analysis experience. "
Posting #3 "Good working knowledge of SAS and/or SPSS required. "
Posting #4 "Extensive experience with statistical programming (such as SAS
and Stata [finally!]). Knowledge with SUDAAN and SPSS."
Joseph Coveney
(I take it that this isn't your Intro to Stata course that students are
electing only to protest that it's taught using Stata . . .)
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
