Drop-In Help

Getting Drop-In Help

StatLab offers drop-in help sessions to support statistics and data analytics in a consultative setting. 

Before you come for a drop-in help session, take a few minutes to get ready. There are four simple steps.

  1. Read about the service
  2. Find a consultant
  3. Find a time
  4. Get ready and prepare your questions

How do drop-in help sessions work?

We work to make the service as accessible and valuable as possible.

  • We do not charge a fee for the service
  • We welcome anyone affiliated with Yale University
  • No appointments are necessary; we help on a drop-in basis
  • Consultations are only available virtually, via Teams
  • We welcome you to use as many sessions as are needed, but our team may limit the amount of time we work with you on a specific day if others are waiting
  • The sessions are active two-way conversations; you will need to work with our consultants as they suggest solutions

The best sessions are driven by your questions. We've got some suggestions on how to get ready for a session. Here are examples of questions you might ask us.

  • How do I import this data into SPSS or R?
  • Which tool is best for complex web scaping?
  • What does this error message in R mean?
  • Should this variable be a fixed or random effect? How do I model it in R or Stata?
  • How do I visualize these data?
  • How can I create lagged variables in Stata?
  • What type of regression model is appropriate for my data?
  • How do I move my data from wide to long format?
  • How do I know if my machine learning model is any good?

Even when questions do not have a single "right" answer, we will do our best to help you by walking through the problem and brainstorming possible solutions.

When are drop-in help sessions NOT recommended?

Drop-in help sessions are not always the best resource for your problem.

  • We do not provide tutoring, but we can help you find one from the Center for Teaching and Learning or one of the residential colleges
  • Drop-in help is not dedicated and sustained support for an individual project, but we may be able to provide you suggestions for finding a more long-term consultation partnership on campus
  • Consultants cannot act as course-dedicated teaching fellows, but we work with instructional teams in other ways to provide curricular support. We have guidelines that inform how we work with learners in courses and others using course materials.