persistent_homology

Hey I got an informal email February 5th telling me I'd have some sort of funding, then I got the details Feb 13th. I'm sure you'll hear soon!

Congratulations! I really hope I get into the joint program also, but I think the plain stats program will be awesome.

That's a good point. I found this more when doing the university of Michigan's 'Personal Statement' where you kinda tell your life story - I'd never tried to sum myself up before!

Thanks for the thoughts, I am not sure I will be able to attend the open days, living in the UK what they offer towards travel will not cover it. According to this http://www.areavibes.com/cost-of-living-calculator/ithaca,+ny-vs-pittsburgh,+pa/ pittsburgh is 8.4% percent cheaper to live in, although even after accounting for this their offer has an edge because they offer free health insurance. Are any internationals going to open days?

My first sentence was something like "Three areas of statistics that I am excited to learn more about are...". I wrote the SOPS in latex, and had section headings: "Introduction", "Why University X?", "Academic Preparation", "Research Experience". I kept everything the same apart from the "Why University X?" section for each application, and it seemed to work well (although perhaps in spite of my SOPs - who knows).

Out of curiosity: would anyone take Cornell over CMU? They've offered me a really nice fellowship that makes it tempting. But my interests are firmly in machine learning, and so it seems crazy not to go for CMU.

Not yet, waiting to hear about a fellowship thing same as a few others. They said late Feb I think to hear results.

Don't forget to factor in cost of living. Although Pittsburgh is the cheapest area I've looked at. Also CMU didn't offer me health insurance, so I will have to subtract at least a $1k from their offer for comparisons to other places. Although out of curiosity it seems that Minneapolis is much more expensive than Pittsburgh see. I'm sure their offer is livable though otherwise why bother.

That would be great but I'm in the UK so I doubt I can afford to go. Maybe you could let me know what you think when you go though.

Hi I don't know much about statistical genetics, but CMU I've heard is the place to be for machine learning. If it were me I would avoid the waitlist because I am sick to death of all the uncertainty and waiting! I didn't apply to UW so I don't know much about them, hopefully others can enlighten you. I plan to take up my CMU offer, and hope to see you there.

Hi I am in the same boat as you. Some offers I received state that funding is guaranteed for 5 years and so if you have one like that then there should be no problem. Some offers I have guarantee funding for the first year and say that they expect to continue to fund all students that make satisfactory progress. In this case when giving the evidence of financial support, I think, if the university is friendly to J1 visas they will extrapolate their offer of first year funding for the purposes of demonstrating financial support for the duration. Some universities are perhaps not so J1 friendly, so you need to contact them as you have done to find out the deal. I think the general idea is that as long as the university vouches for you, you shouldn't have any problems. Good luck to you, I hope someone more knowledge can chip in.

Hi I didn't mean to sound insulting or anything! I come from a very suburban background and I was worried about Pittsburgh's reputation for crime. Looking at the numbers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate it actually seems like it doesn't rank that highly for crime compared to other US cities, so perhaps that reputation is unfounded. I am glad other people seem to like it though. I am international and so can't really afford to visit before I decide, and this makes me somewhat anxious about the process.

That seems strange as CMU is ranked much higher than Cornell. I have an admit from Cornell, but CMU seems like the place to be if you like machine learning. Pittsburgh looks like one of the less nice places to live however, which is a shame, but on the other hand it is cheap.

I got CMU! I am over the moon they are my top choice! Just need to convince my fiancee that they are her top choice . Accepted to stats phd, I applied for joint with ML which has yet to be decided, if that is successful then I can choose between. My scores are nothing special Q:164/V:169/W:4.5. I don't exactly know how to translate my GPA, but high. I am basically a pure mathematician turned statistician so I have a lot of graduate classes which I think helped, and one publication and another on the way. One of my coauthors was my LoR writer who told me the letter was 'very strong', and I someone who I have done a lot of independent study with also told me his letter was very strong (both pure mathematicians). My third letter was from a mathematician who doesn't really know me, so I suspect the letter was rather generic. I don't want to waffle in this thread so if you want to know anything else pm me. I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Thank you, but you never know. OSU is a solid choice, hopefully you will get the fellowship.

I got one from UMich.

Yeah I feel like it's a long shot for me, but we can dream though!

Nothing from CMU stats for me either.

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison Program: Statistics PhD Decision: Admitted Funding: Guaranteed funding for 5 years, at least $19,500 for the first year. Not sure on my position, but says usually TA @ 50% time for first semester. Notification date: Jan.27th Notified through: Email Comments: International student.

Me too! Even though you're the competition! I think it reasonable that if we are nominated for fellowships, then if we are not successful, then other forms of funding like TA are likely. OSU is a great fit for me and I would probably take it over Michigan, Alberta and Cornell. If I got into CMU or Chicago though I would probably take them, but of course those schools are long-shots. Not sure about Toronto or Wisconsin-Madison if I got in there. What about you?

Institution: Ohio State University (OSU) Program: PhD Statistics. Decision: Accepted. Funding: Nominated for university fellowship, find out late Feb. Notification date: 14th Jan. Notified through: Email.

It does not mean you haven't got funding, it means funding decisions have yet to be made. I had the same thing happen to me, I emailed them and they said that I had been nominated for a fellowship, the results of which come out late feb. I imagine you will be contacted saying something similar soon.

I agree, one funded acceptance and I can get back to living my life.

I am curious: what are these obscure research interests?

Perhaps its a new year's resolution from CMU, and everyone gets told accept/reject/wait list by the 30th.