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JZappa

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Everything posted by JZappa

  1. If you are talking about UMD's Mathematical Statistics program I would definitely recommend UVA. UMD's program is very theoretically oriented from what I've seen and is much more on the math side of things than on the application side. I could be wrong but that's the general impression I've gotten from what I've seen.
  2. Out of curiosity what job statistics are you using? There was a study by the American Statistical Association that shows salaries are quite a bit higher. Also why don't you ask if your PhD program gives an embedded masters. If it does you could just drop out after you get the masters and you'll have been funded the whole time if you decide that's what you want to do.
  3. I'd say the biggest thing is that the lack of analysis for the very top PhD programs is going to be a big turn off. I would say that an MA from Berkeley should help considerably though. Just make sure that you talk with professors to get a good idea of which classes to take to make you more competitive for PhD programs.
  4. I disagree that UNC is just Probability, OR, or ML. I'm a student there now and we have several really good professors working on all sorts of applied things. I know we at least have a couple people doing applied statistics (Prof. Ji comes to mind), time-series, fiducial inference, and a lot of people doing biostats, and some other related fields. Also UNC is definitely not rural. Raleigh is a 30 minute drive away, there is RTP (which you can use for funding opportunities i.e. lots of available internships), and Durham is maybe a 5 minute drive as well. Plus the fact that we have SAMSI means there are an abundance of chances to do good applied work with a lot of other people. If you can definitely visit campus and talk to people about things, applied stats isn't really my area so I can't completely attest to exactly how good we are but it seems like the majority of our non-probability/OR professors are very applied.
  5. Northwestern is a really small department and they already had some admits in late Jan/early Feb. Chances are they don't do rejections until all their spots are filled so you're probably just on a wait-list (where on the wait-list I have no idea)
  6. Usually I think the answer is yes. You might have to have an advisor in the biostats department but I know it is at least somewhat typical to have a coadvisor in another department.
  7. My bad I forgot about Professor Marron, I don't see him around too often. I was only counting the stats department and I am pretty certain those are the only 3 major machine learning people, although there might be a few others that dabble in it.
  8. You definitely need linear algebra and a real analysis course (sometimes called adv. calc) to be on the safe side. Also a course in probability would be really helpful as well. If you can get those classes in and do well in them I don't see why you wouldn't have a good shot at getting in... Stats is very interdisciplinary so I think a fair number of stats students don't have a math background. I know one PhD student at my school who got his undergrad in some kind of political science and then worked for Oracle for a few years before enrolling in the program here so it is most definitely possible.
  9. Luke8ball... I wouldn't email and specifically ask if you are on the waitlist but it is perfectly acceptable to ask what your status is at this point. Just be polite and ask them if they can update you on your status or when you should expect to hear something from them and you should be just fine.
  10. So while I've been accepted to several stats departments I believe my two best choices are UNC and Michigan. The problem I'm having is that I am currently an undergrad in the UNC stats department and so for all the typical reasons would like to go somewhere else for graduate school. That being said I'm very interested in probability and some of the more math oriented theory (stochastic calculus for example) and UNC has several fantastic professors for this sort of thing (Pipiras, Budhiraja, and Bhamidi) all of which I know very well and have done research with. Michigan doesn't quite seem to compare in terms of their probability group, most of their faculty on the web page anyway seem to be older and close to retirement or not as active (keep in mind I'm solely talking about probability). On the other hand I'm also interested in machine/statistical learning which Michigan does extremely well and which UNC doesn't do so much of (only 2 professors). Probability is still my primary interest but Michigan seems to have a better overall department in terms of breadth and depth of coverage into other areas. All that being said if anyone has an opinion on what to do in terms of picking between both of these schools I would greatly appreciate it.
  11. biostat_prof... I thought Yufeng Liu was in the regular stats department at UNC. Or does he have a joint appointment?
  12. Most schools (UNC Stats does this) don't send out rejections until they have filled all their spots. In a sense you're on a very long waitlist.
  13. I wouldn't be too concerned just yet. If you haven't heard anything then you at the very least haven't been rejected yet which seems to imply you're either still under review or on a wait-list. Either way I think it's not that uncommon to get off a wait-list.
  14. Econ_to_Stats. I wouldn't worry too much I know for UNC-CH at least they've barely started doing things on the PhD end, only a few admits yesterday and from the professors I've talked with they've been moving pretty slowly this year (which I get the impression they do every year). Given that PhD students tend to hear things earlier than masters then I would guess they'd send something out in the next month or so? Spring break is coming up otherwise I'd say it would be sooner. Unless Bowling Green didn't offer you funding is there any reason why you would go to a masters program over a PhD program?
  15. Yep never fear! I had a semester that was quite poor and pulled down my GPA but at least thanks to the statement of purpose or what not I was able to explain it and I've gotten offers from several very good stats phd programs. Not that that is the same as math but still departments definitely take the whole picture into account rather than just your numbers. Also if you've done well in all your math classes which it appears you have then they aren't going to care about a few lower grades on the business end of things.
  16. Perfect example of what a personal statement is for. Just explain to them your situation and presumably all the extra work you've put in just because you enjoy math,etc,etc. I should point out that your 200% workload will show up on your transcripts when you have to send them in too so they will have some idea that you've been working overtime. Don't leave out the B-school. At least in the US they could theoretically nullify your offer if you don't tell them about all of your post-high school stuff and they find out about it.
  17. What math courses have you had? Ideally you should have (or be taking next fall or if absolutely necessary next spring) Linear Algebra, Real Analysis (2 semesters and/or a measure theoretic course), and intro to probability. As far as actual statistics classes are concerned I think you could get by without too many, although a class in mathematical statistics is also a big plus and you should take it if you have time. I would try to buddy up with a professor in the stats department at your school and ask for his/her advice on which schools to apply to and how to write a very pointed SoP that highlights your interests and eliminates worries about your background being light in stats courses. Realistically if you have good research experience involving some statistical/probabilistic models and you have the 3-4 math courses above I think you'd be pretty alright for most of the mid-range programs and maybe a top program or two depending on how you match up. If you can, look into taking the math subject gre that could potentially help as well (although as a math minor it might be pretty rough).
  18. Those rankings are from 1995 (per the faculty member's webpage). Google NRC statistics rankings for the 2010 rankings. There are a variety of factors that go into the rankings but I believe you can get those from the NRC pages.
  19. The only program ranked on NRC is BU's Biostats program from what I see. Also there are multiple ranking systems (R and S rank) and they give a range so it's only a rough estimate. BU is more math oriented from what I can see than traditional statistics programs. There is a professor at UNC who got his PhD from BU so clearly they aren't a barely adequate school, generally it's hard to move up in the academic world from the approximate range that your grad school is in (unless you are a very exceptional student). All that really matters is what you want to do and if you have a few candidates for advisors that are well known and respected.
  20. ^This. And also if you prove that you're a great student they aren't going to care about what they thought of you before they met you anyway.
  21. At least from the math end of things this is a bad idea for two reasons. 1st if you're a TA/RA or doing any other sort of work on top of your degree it will be pretty intense already and on top of that if you have to pass any comps from what I understand they are significantly harder than normal coursework. 2nd most of the learning you do in a graduate program is going to be outside of the classroom from doing research rather than from taking coursework. Generally research actually gives you the chance to learn enough about something to be useful while coursework gives you enough information to know what someone is talking about if it gets brought up.
  22. Usually by how prestigious the department is/how good the work they are currently doing is. I would say there are no hard cut offs like oh the top 10 are in tier 1 since I don't think many would say (according to US News for example) that No.10 Duke is on the same level as No.1 Stanford. Some people rank based on their personal biases or what they're interested in. If you really want an idea of how good a school is look into where their graduates are hired. There's a good paper on Dr. Peter Mucha's website that looks at this sort of thing for math programs using networks.
  23. Hmm I don't know for sure about biostats but given that they have rolling admits I generally guess that they do something similar.
  24. Hey Ehou333 have you heard anything for sure yet?
  25. I was talking with my adviser and at UNC the stats department doesn't reject anyone until very late in the game (at least according to him). Effectively they wait-list everyone who isn't receiving an offer to some extent.
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