cases and the like). For stats classes and substantive analyses in the
Social Sciences and the like, SPSS is pretty much the same as Stata in
many ways (though many others have pointed out the differences, and
remember that one of them is that with SPSS you pay for different
subsets of capabilities unlike Stata where you get an all-inclusive
package you can add features to for free).
One good thing about SPSS, though, at least at my college: It is free
(or rather, the user does not pay the costs, the University
does). With Stata, if you want your own copy, you pay for it, or
else you confine yourself to a campus machine (where you may be at
the mercy of others when it comes to updates). Luckily, with
gradplan the costs aren't too high, but still it is an expense and
those that aren't that in to statistics in the first place may resent it.
