phd_123

I applied to both of those programs and did not get in, so congrats! But seeing as I looked into those schools quite a bit I figure I can offer my two sense(s). I went to the Summer Institute of Statistical Genetics last summer and was really blown away by UW. Great campus, cool study spots, and seattle is a cool place. Doing statgen at UW seems fantastic: there is money, community (applied researchers at the hospital), and a number of faculty throughout biostats and stats. CMU does have some people in statgen such as Roeder, but I don't think there is enough critical mass there if thats your primary research focus. CMU is better for general machine learning stuff, which of course can be applied to statgen as Witten and Shojaie do. To sum it up, UW is definitely the place for statgen and they have machine learning focused statgen profs which is a hot area right now. CMU is probably (not to say that UW doesn't have pretty decent ML people) the winner in terms of machine learning (also hot) and they do have statisticians working on statistical genetics (though not as many that are full time and solely focused on statgen like at UW). Both stats programs seem top notch so you will get very good training at either place. Seeing as your primary research interest is statgen, I would wait it out, as it seems like it would be a great fit for you.

Thank you for your honesty! NC State does seem like it would have a great statistics community. And it is warm. Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences with Purdue?

Yes, the research triangle is definitely an appealing aspect of NC State. I would just like to clarify that by working in industry, I would like to do something Research & Development related, as opposed to being a programmer at SAS. I think that for these more academically oriented industry positions, research and publication record is very important. Does anyone have any experience or input about the quality of advising at NC State or Purdue?

Hello Everyone! First of all, to all those waiting to hear back, keep your hopes up! Otherwise, congrats to those who have received offers thus far. So I got into NC State, Purdue, and most likely Toronto (no official decision yet) for the PhD programs in Statistics. I feel quite lucky, but I am having a hard time trying to figure out where to go. About me: I am a slightly older student (26) looking to focus on statistical genetics research. I suppose I am tending towards industry as opposed to academia, though I feel I could do something Biostats related in academia if I really worked at it (I think I am just a bit put off from academia seeing as it is extremely competitive nowadays and don't know that I want to move 3 times in the next 8 years going from phd to post doc to assistant professorship). I was nominated for a fellowship at Purdue so no TA work and extra cash, and got basic funding from NC State, with TA work ( and probably the same for Toronto). Would the Grad Cafe mind weighing in on my options? Either a quick, gut response answer, or a more informed, personal-experience laden, answer would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!