[defrost]

If she hasn't done it already or else if she's forgotten it would be a good idea to sit in on a first year linear algebra and or statistics class.

Matlab (and/or numpy / sage / any of the "math" packages) work best performing operations on vectors and matrices of data (long strings of values / grids & cubes (&hyper cubes) of values ).

Expanding on the "little mathematics background" is more important than the "no matlab" issue, one follows from the other.

If she's headed into epidemiology and other such areas then make sure she's read "How To Lie With Statistics" at the very least.