A person would not be considered a biologist (or a medical doctor, or an engineer) with two courses in biology (or medicine, or engineering) taken during his/her undergraduate training. Statistics courses offered in many undergraduate programs are aimed at teaching basic principles and some statistical methods useful in many typical problems within a certain discipline. It will always be better to have a statistician at hand in order to identify subtleties and to explore and propose alternative solutions, in addition to addressing unforeseen situations. While a statistician can determine the best method for addressing a given problem, a person trained in basic statistics can only decide which of the few methods he/she is familiar with is more likely to be helpful.

On the other hand, someone who has had courses in basic statistics is versed in a language that will be useful to interact with a statistician when the complexity of the problem demands it. This is one of the objectives of courses in basic statistics.