xujoine

Thanks for your suggestion, I listed as above just based on some advices from peers, my professor at Yale told me that a master did not guarantee a PhD and it was really competitive in the program nowadays. I put Michigan in realistic just because I received their master offer a year ago and it seems they accept more PhD students by looking at their website. Though I got the master offer from Brown as well, but since it was really small and has a relatively small biostats department and I am afraid it will be hard for me to get in. I heard from others that UCLA was really good and also the location is good thus making it more competitive (good in Stats as well). I really don't know whether OSU or BU or USC are harder to get in than Pitts or Iowa。。。 I ranked in this way just due to their overall ranking and reputation Quoted : "Pick your favorite 4-6 from among: UNC, Michigan, Minnesota, Berkeley, Columbia, Penn, Yale, Brown, UCLA, Emory" Thanks so much for your advice and your encouragement as well, I will definitely try out those.

My background: College: U of Toronto Human genetics with high distinction. Gpa: 3.9 Grad school: Yale MS in biostatisticis Gpa: 9 Honors (90+) + 1 High Pass (80+). Courses: 1 yr of Calculus. Linear algebra. Linear model. Linear regression. Probability. Stat theory. Stat inference Categorical analysis. Survival analysis. Epidemiology. Longitudinal studies. Clinical Trials. Etc. Most taken in grad school. Research exp: summer intern + half year part-time research assistant at Yale Center for Analytical Science. Plus some TA experience. Gre 710+800. Mcat : 29q (did so badly in verbal) Referees: one stats prof. One biostatisticis prof. And director.of YCAS where I have my intern Paper: almost none. Only 1 or 2 co-author with some physicians. My school list for biostatisticis phd is: Reach (Unrealistic): Yale U Penn Brown UNC UCLA Columbia Realistic: Michigan U Emory U of Texas USC NYU Boston U Ohio state U Florida Safeties: U pittiburgh Penn state U U of Iowa U of Illinois at Chicago Since Im not from a math background. So I took away u Washington or JHU or Harvard ( and maybe UNC as well. I heard they will only give phd admission w/o money to guys like me. ) Can anyone give me any comments?