huxlb

From what I've heard from professors/other students, it is a weed out program. They don't technically consider you a PhD student until you pass your qualifying exams, so you're on the same level as all of the other masters students. They do give you a couple chances (can't remember if it's 2 or 3) to pass the qualifying exam, because honestly, a lot of people don't pass it the first time. They do have secured funding. Take all this info with a grain of salt though, because this is just what I've heard from other people. Hope this helps!

Just for all prospective students who may find this thread and read my comment... Rankings are not everything. Your mentor is far more important than your department's ranking and you ultimately determine most of your own success. I'd be remiss not to mention that at large, high tier departments the selection of quality mentors is larger than lesser departments, but these departments can also be a lot more competitive in terms of getting to work with a specific person. Great researchers can come from mediocre programs, and mediocre researchers can come from great programs, and you can find a great mentor/adviser at places other than Harvard, Hopkins, and UW. 
I've been on these forums since 2012. I started grad school in Biostatistics in 2013 at a department that isn't in the top 10 of these rankings.  To inspire a little hope for most  people that do not have the privilege to attend a top-tier program, you can still be successful and pursue a career in academia! To be transparent, my goals have never been to have a career as a full-time methodologist. I'm pursuing an academic career as more of a collaborative biostatistician that works on methodology, but not exclusively. I have over 5-10 publications from grad school, most in clinical journals but a couple in stats journals at the level of Biometrics, JRSS-C, and Statistics in Medicine. I have won student paper/travel awards for multiple conferences, including a first place student-paper award at JSM. I've been an invited speaker at several internationally attended meetings in my area of research, having traveled throughout North America and Europe. I'm finishing my PhD this semester and I received multiple offers at the assistant professor level to various academic institutions. Now keep in mind, I'm not pursuing a career primarily as a theoretical/methodological statistician, but the offers that were made to me were from Biostat departments at several institutions ranked in the top 30 for  research universities and have highly regarded research hospitals affiliated with them. 
Look, what I've trying to say to everyone who is considering/attending a program outside of the top 10, is that you are ultimately responsible for your own success. You can still win awards, publish in good journals, and get good job offers in academia. Do not believe that unless you attend Harvard or Washington, you can't get a job in academia, because you absolutely can. And I am not an anomaly from my institution either, several other students that have graduated from my department are at top 30 research universities, and a few in top 10 biostat departments. So, good luck to everyone and just know that rankings are not everything and do not decide your fate. I encourage prospective grad students to PM me for advice if you want - I'm always happy to help. I received a lot of great advice from here ~5-6 years ago when I was applying to school and deciding where to go, so now having been through it, I'd love to pay it forward. 
 

This conversation is not productive anymore and if off topic. If someone wants to start a are domestic female students discriminated against thread go ahead, but this conversation no longer has anything to do with the rankings.