JZappa

Shostakovich, I'm not sure this is true. I know at UNC our Biostats department is severely theory deprived compared to our regular stats department. I know sever biostats students and from what I see of their work and what they say they are doing the theory is almost nonexistent compared to what one would experience in the statistics department as a PhD candidate. For example I'm not sure they even do a heavy duty treatment of measure theory or measure theoretic probability. Both of these things are par for the course in a regular statistics program. Edit: I stand corrected the PhD track does require measure theoretic probability but it does seem to be much slower paced than what I've experienced in my measure theory class.

bayessays, I'm finishing up my undergrad at UNC right now and I can say it's definitely a smaller department than UMich. From being fairly active in the department it's been my experience that everyone is really great and helpful although I think some of the first year PhD sequences are especially difficult (theoretical statistics). I think our probability group may be slightly better than UMich and UMich is definitely better at machine learning, I think we have two people doing ML type stuff right now. Other than that I don't know a whole lot about UMich so I can't tell you about how they compare on little things but if you have any UNC related questions you can PM me and I'll be glad to help out.

I commute from Chapel Hill into Raleigh for a 10am class. It isn't too bad but I'm on the interstate at around 9:30 so that's past most of rush hour.

Another good question to ask is what the atmosphere in the department is like among PhD and or Masters students (depending on your program). Some schools are pretty laid back and some are pretty competitive. Also if you don't have an adviser right out of the gate ask about how competitive it is to get advisers in your department. The last thing you want is to go to a school where the people you thought you'd get to work with are already overloaded with students and can't take you on.

I would ask someone in your department at your current school when would be appropriate to ask just to be safe on timing but I would say that you should email the graduate director and politely ask if your candidacy will be funded or not as it will help you in making your decision in a more timely manner. Good luck!

For those interested my app center finally updated so if they've made a decision in the first round it should be up.

^^ This. All the schools are really solid but what really matters for ranking them is what you want to do. For example Stanford is hands down the best ML school in the country but if you're more interested in theoretical work UC-Berkeley would probably be a better choice. I would talk to the faculty at your school and visit. Realistically you can't go terribly wrong with any of those schools.

DMX I wouldn't worry too much. No one has posted about Berkeley on the results board. Even if a few people did hear back today I doubt they sent out a bunch and no one posted.

I'd definitely say UChicago. Duke is nice but I'd be wary of the fact that they are practically 100% Bayesian. Unless you know absolutely that's what you're interested in. Also I would say UChicago is a better school for theory than Duke.

I don't know for sure but I can't imagine it'd be too big of a deal. As long as you're very specific about why your current program isn't a good fit and why you think the programs you're applying to would be a better fit.

I live in NC and although I go to UNC I've had the chance to take a couple of classes at State. They definitely have a very good department with a few people working in just about any discipline you can think of. The only knock I have againt State personally is that they seem to be pretty good at everything but they aren't superb at any one thing if that makes any sense.

I'm not entirely sure? Mine still says no decision on the website as of today so not having heard anything back yet doesn't necessarily mean much.

Realistically any sort of math/stats related research would be a huge plus for two reasons (a) it shows you are interested in research and ( it lets you get to know a professor very well and gives you the opportunity to have a killer letter.

If you have a lower division linear algebra course you really need to take Analysis. Question though is this graduate analysis or undergraduate? I know a lot of top schools want you to have 2 semesters of undergrad analysis before applying.

I got an unofficial email from the grad director of the stats department on Thursday. According to him an official offer from the dean will be going out sometime in the next week.