baller90

Undergrad Institution: Large state school (Great stat and math program) Major: BS Statistics BA Mathematics Minor: Business Administration, Information Systems, Actuarial Science GPA: 3.5 Overall (Lower Math GPA, with explanation) Type of Student: White Male Courses/ Background: I changed majors multiple times in college. Finally settled on a double major in mathematics and statistics in the pursuit of a PhD. I took all the math classes I could in 2 years. My GPA is low because I took all these courses on an advanced schedule. I finished the mathematics major in under 2 years, and my grades suffered. I was combating a disease which should have kept me out of school. I plan on explaining this in my strong personal statement. I received 4 C's among A's in my math classes due to this. GRE: 163Q 157V, taking again in October. I took it blind the first time. I plan on taking the GRE Math Subject test and plan on doing well which should balance out my C's. Research Experience: 2 research projects in school with professors where I am listed in the acknowledgements. Chi squared tests and exploratory data cleaning, respectively. Summer Institute for Biostatistics at Emory (department loves me). I have spent the last 3 years at a large research institution where I am second author on one paper, first author on a soon to be published paper, and more (2+, most likely second author) in the coming year. My research experience involves big data. I am extremely proficient in R; I would call myself a top coder. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Made a Shiny App for a very successful startup influencing exponential growth. This was a fun project and looked well upon by a Google data scientist. Letters of Recommendation: -Research PI at research institution -Research supervisor at same research institution -Professor who helped me discover biostatistics. I have kept in close contact with her and visited her office regularly. All strong letters. Thinking of applying to: PhD: Stats: Stanford, Penn Biostats: Harvard, Hopkins, UCLA, Penn, Emory, UNC, Michigan, UW I have connections to Hopkins, although Baltimore is a question. I have visited all these schools, and each department has loved me. I plan on making up for my poor grades with excellent research experience (could not be better), letters, and GRE scores. Ideally, I would get into Harvard's PhD program (who doesn't say that?). I say I would only do a PhD due to funding. I would accept a Harvard Master's position with the hope of receiving a PhD. My best attribute is my personality. If you see me in person, you will understand I am a statistician. If I get an interview at places, I have no doubt I will be accepted. What do ya'll think?