student12345

I would ask the graduate program director at each department what their record of job placement is for Master's students. I haven't been to either city but I would venture to say that Pittsburg is a much nicer city to live in. Have you made sure the two professors you mentioned are willing to work with you? Some professors might not have time to work with students at the moment. You have probably already checked with them, but I just want to make sure you have since knowing that one professor already has his hands full may tip the scale heavily in favor of the program with a willing advisor.

Surely the European faculty at the institutions you're thinking about cheating will have ideas/feedback for you.

A word of advice to people reading this thread: if you are waiting for a school in Massachusetts or Maine, I would call April 14th at the latest as all schools will be closed April 15th in observance of Patriot's Day.

This is exactly what happened. I am starting my PhD in Mathematics/Statistics at 20.

The prestige of your undergraduate department matters quite a lot. Coming from Harvard with a decent GPA means more to an admissions committee than a stellar GPA at a lesser-known top 50. Without a truly exceptional math subject GRE score, it is hard for a committee to understand the relative rigor of your undergraduate preparation.

Programs won't be done sending offers until basically the day most students make their final decisions (and reject the rest of their offers), which is April 15th as we all know. Some programs may not let you know until after April 15th, once they've had time to sort out the list of people to accept after being turned down by enough prospective students. Personally, I'm waiting until April 15th to call.

Don't let what might be a textbook case of impostor syndrome hold you back from the best school for your career, especially since you're studying biology. You want to maximize your chances of getting an academic position. UCSD Scripps is very good at biological sciences as well but from what you say it appears that UCSF has the better track record for academic placement. Talk to your professors and advisors. I'm currently grappling with my own insecurities about my ability to keep up at a very mathematical program I was admitted to, but my professors assured me that they wouldn't offer funding to someone if they weren't absolutely sure they'd succeed. Just because someone went to the same undergraduate college doesn't mean they'll risk that much money.

Agreeing with Cyberwulf. I'd take the rejections this year as an indication that you should be setting your sights lower; there isn't much you can do in a little over half a year to boost your profile enough to warrant looking at higher-ranked programs. You're also applying to a lot of schools; do you have any well-defined interests, besides just statistics?

Is the program highly ranked? If it is one of the very top programs in your field I'd say it should be okay, but I'd be weary of doing both your BA and PhD in the same institution otherwise. You say that the research being done by your advisor is exactly what you want to do, but have you looked at the research being done by the top researchers your field? It could very well be that the work being done elsewhere is more interesting, or at least it will be to you in the future. Depending on the field, it could be very bad to only be exposed to one research environment.

You were admitted to UCSF's program because they were confident you would be able to successfully complete your degree there. If UCSF is truly the academic powerhouse that you say it is in your field and if it will help you accomplish your career goals then it should be the obvious answer here.

Hi all. I'm currently trying to decide on a PhD program to attend. Here are my options: UCSD, PhD in mathematics. Standard 30k TA/fellowship award. Would study statistics or probability theory. Seriously considering it due to the feel of the department. All of the faculty were extremely nice and I had a very good impression of the department from their Open House event plus the big Probability and Statistics Day conference that they hosted. However, since the 5 statistics faculty are in the mathematics department, they are not a well-known group. UNC, PhD in statistics. Stipend is barely livable at around 14k after tax. There are many faculty working in statistics here but I'm not sure if they're all that well-known, in constrast to big names like Ruth Williams at UCSD. I will be visiting only a couple of days before April 15th. UF, PhD in statistics. They're giving me their best possible offer, a four-year graduate school fellowship at 25k per year with very minimal TA work, and only during my second year. This will allow me to focus on my research. I'm very reluctant to accept their offer because they lost a lot of senior faculty (in particular Casella who passed away last summer) and don't have the finances to recover the faculty they're losing. On the other hand there are faculty here doing some interesting work with MCMC. UConn, PhD in statistics. So far only a standard TAship, but if they get a grant they'll offer me a fellowship as well. The department is already very big and they're growing very rapidly. There are many probabilists and also several bayesians from Duke here. I had an okay impression of the department from my visit but I feel like I would only go if I was set on industry, which I'm definitely not. I mainly want an academic position at a decent school but I wouldn't mind working in financial mathematics (I already have a foot in that door). April 15th is only a week away and I feel as if I'm utterly incapable of committing to the obvious choice, UNC (unless Cornell or Carnegie Mellon admit me). Is there anything else I should be considering? I'm not that concerned about location or weather although I have many friends who graduated from high school with me who are sophomores at UF. And obviously I really liked San Diego.

Do you know what kind of research you're interested in? Unfortunately Yale has a very very small department, so if you don't work with the few faculty there who have good records of placement or aren't interested in the work that they're doing then you really shouldn't go there. Uchicago has tons of faculty and I'm sure all kinds of interests are represented there. I'd go with Chicago in your case unless you already know that you want to work with a specific faculty member at Yale or Michigan. Also, is this for a Masters or PhD?

Well, what are your other options?

A haiku to summarize the thread: Don't don't don't don't don't, Don't don't don't don't don't don't don't, You might get sued, don't

Congratulations on (almost) deciding! I'd love to help anyone with stats

I don't believe that your lack of funding is necessarily due to you being an international student. Instead, it might be that your English was not deemed to be good enough for the programs to offer you a graduate assistanceship (meaning that you work as a teaching assistant for the department). I assume you've taken the TOEFL? If your score was very high then I might be wrong about this, but I have heard of many cases where students are withheld funding for this reason.

crazyhappy, you don't want to be seen as the applicant who is "good enough for having five children." I'd say tarrman is absolutely right here.

This is pretty solid advice. I'd like to also raise the question of whether OP mentioned any specific interests in his statement of purpose. I realize that without a few years of dedication to a certain problem/field that the student's interest in it may be shaky, but at least the SoP will demonstrate that OP knows something about current research in the field; if this was missing, and OP had no kind of research experience plus a light math transcript, I'd say that OP might not have any idea of what stats research actually is, especially since he hasn't taken any graduate-level courses where professors tend to point out open problems and areas of current research (at least mine do). Additionally, it will give OP something interesting to talk about, and it will be leagues better than just submitting a "second transcript", which I hear a lot of students mistakenly do.

You can just send an email to each department's head of graduate admissions. Explain your situation and let them know you are declining to accept a PhD offer. They should understand, and no bridges will be burnt.

There's a good chance I'll accept my offer at UNC! By the way, what are the standard assistanceships in your departments? Students at mine only get 15k after student fees...

It is absolutely appropriate to ask for funding, especially in the form of a fellowship. It indicates that you intend on focusing on acing your coursework and getting a head start on your research. I was only offered the standard assistanceships at two schools until I visited; during each visit the head of the graduate programs offered to replace my assistanceships with fellowships. So visiting and showing your intent to accept their offer would entice them to fund you. But there are other ways of showing your intent, and writing an email is a perfectly appropriate way.

Haven't heard a peep either. I emailed them nearly three weeks ago, too.

Gainesville rocks! I hope you'll visit!

Stanford claims that the average Math subject GRE for students admitted to their Stats PhD program is consistently close to 80%. My own research advisor got a 98% when he applied to programs. He and other professors recommended against sending anything below 80% to a program that didn't absolutely require it.

Don't worry about getting an RA or whatever. Stats/Math work isn't done in labs. You can start collaborating with people at your undergraduate institution. Definitely contact the professors that had the best impression of you and ask them if there's anything that you could help them with!