Hi everyone, thanks for taking a look!
I am graduating this spring with the intentions of applying to Stats grad school next fall.
I am trying to figure out where I would be a competative applicant, and what I can do in the next year to increase the merits of my application.
Undergrad: UCLA
Degree: Major - Statistics
GPA: 3.65/4.00, Stat GPA : 3.91/4.00
GRE: 170Q, 159V
Research: I worked in a psychology research lab for two years. In the beginning I did normal psychology student activities, but eventually I did data analysis, programmed experimental conditions, and became lead research assitant in a lab of 25 students.
I currently work under a stats professor doing data collection, manipulation, and basic neural network analysis.
I have extensive knowledge in multiple data handling languages ( R, Stata, SAS, Spss), and recently won a data competition (not sure this matters).
LOR: I have two strong letters (One Stats professor and One very well known Psych professor) , and one decent letter.
My biggest fear is that my grades in the intro math classes may hurt me. I flopped around majors as a freshman and ended up with a B+ in multivariable 1 and a C in multivariable 2. Would getting a masters first help prove that I can handle the math load?
I have since done very well in other courses with more demanding math, but I think this could be considered a red flag.
I would not mind staying at UCLA, but I'm having a tough time figuring out a list of schools to apply to(Penn state, NCSU, UCDavis ?).
I know that places like Berkley and Stanford would be quite a strech, so a list of a decent schools would be helpful.
Also is there anything that would really help my application that I could do over the next year?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and any advice you can offer!