ginagirl

My dad is also very knowledge driven, so when I mentioned to him about my graduate school plans, I know for sure the first thing he did was google programs, career paths, etc etc etc (which sounds similar to your personality). But, I think for me, if he had come back to me with everything he had learned before I had really started digging into it myself, I might have been a little bit deterred or irritated. Instead of bombarding me with everything he had read, he kept it all to himself and helped me as I went, as I came to it. When I needed thoughts on a specific school or if some amount of debt was too much to take on, etc, he was able to offer some knowledgeable/informed feedback right away, since he had done some reading of his own. This helped me feel supported and not alone without feeling "smothered". If you know that your daughter is fine with you doing this stuff on her behalf, then I don't think there is a problem with it (although I think she still should want to do a lot of this on her own). However, as I alluded to, there are definitely ways to be a helpful and well-informed listener/advice-giver without giving her a packet of information before she has done some research on her own. I know she may be busy and I know you're just trying to help, but deciding on a graduate education path is a very individual process and she still needs to find the time to complete applications and things anyway if she is going to be applying soon. She should be motivated to do these things on her own, and I know that the process is made easier by having a supportive parent (like yourself). I guess I am just cautioning you from being too involved. EDIT: I will say though as a final note that of course you are welcome to post here!

I'm sure other people will have lots of valuable advice so I'm just going to pick what I think was the most important. I tend not to have a very good memory when I'm stressed out, so it was really useful for me to write down my reactions/thoughts throughout the visit-- between meetings, at the end of the day in the hotel, on the plane. Especially if you're visiting multiple campuses, it may start to blur together who said what thing, or which program recommended that you do such-and-such. Being able to recall your visits well will help you make any important decisions down the line, and also might help you draft any follow-up emails you might want to send (ie you are able to reference specific topics that you had discussed, etc). As an afterthought, I will add one more: SMILE. Genuinely smiling and being engaged non-verbally (at minimum) in meetings/presentations/discussions is an underrated part of these visits, I think. It helps convey the excitement you should feel/are feeling, and it also helps me feel more relaxed

I second this- as a science undergrad I wouldn't have thought I would end up going to graduate school for statistics, but while doing medical research post-grad, I realized how cool and useful it is. Part of the draw of applied fields is that often it isn't the classes that inspire you, but the research, and actually doing the work. So, not to discount your feelings about statistics, OP, but since you're fairly early on in your academic career, it might be a good idea to not entirely exclude a field at this point!

I'm sure you could find applications for most of mathematics. However I would still say that getting a PhD in mathematics is not as focused on these applications as a more interdisciplinary degree. An Applied Math PhD program would probably be a slightly better option. I would suggest looking online at what research is being done in graduate level math departments to see possible career directions, or to look at the placement of their alumni if it is listed. This would just be to give you an idea of what career options might be feasible with that degree and to see if they might sound like something you would be interested in. Maybe there are also faculty in your current undergraduate program that you could ask about what directions you might take to get the "applied" nature you're looking for, and they even might be able to help you figure out if a PhD is necessary at all. There are also other areas (besides statistics) that could help combine your interests, like biomathematics or bioinformatics, but I don't know enough about these to speak in detail about them.

It's true that the pay is better for statistician/analysts in government or pharma, compared to hospitals, academia, or non-profits. But statistics is a very in-demand field right now and so the job market overall is very good.

You might want to consider statistics instead of math, which has more applications in areas that you might be interested in. You may specifically be interested in biostatistics which is focused more on these applications and (a bit) less on the theoretical aspects that you would get in pure math or statistics. Also, biostatistics programs are usually located in schools of public health, which sounds more in line with your research goals, since it allows more direct collaboration with areas such as reproductive health, epidemiology, mental health, etc. I admit, I'm not too familiar with strictly math-related jobs and fields, so there may be other options that I'm unaware of. Since you're only a sophomore now, you have time to take some statistics courses if you have them available to you to see if you like it, and explore other areas as well.

I second this- definitely poke around on Coursera and see if any of the stats/data science courses offered by Hopkins (and others) interest you and fit what you're hoping to learn. If you want to take one to try it out, that might be a good idea before jumping into a masters program full-on. These topics won't be entirely the same as what would be covered in a Stats MS since the a lot of the Coursera courses now are "data science"-heavy, but would still be a good starting point. I'd stay the statistical inference course, R programming, and regression models would be good places to start. https://www.coursera.org/course/statinference https://www.coursera.org/course/rprog https://www.coursera.org/course/regmods

I agree- I didn't buy an undergrad class ring. Instead I bought a necklace from the school bookstore with a school-related charm on it that is distinctive enough that a fellow collegian would notice it but anyone outside of that community would think it is a normal necklace. It's my small way of feeling connected. However you decide to commemorate your time there is your choice and as long as you wouldn't regret the money spent on a ring (I'm not sure how much they go for, but am sure they're probably not cheap), then go for it!

One thing I do right off the bat to help these situations is always signing my emails with "Thanks," and then my name (instead of Best, or other closings that people like to use). Not only do I think it is the best multi-purpose email closer, it often removes the need to send an additional "Thanks" email after. In terms of more specific examples, I would say if it was just a simple question that they responded to, I tend not to send a reply. For example, asking if I can come by their office at a certain time or if I'm asking something else pretty straightforward. If it's maybe a more technical question where I am asking for lengthy feedback or a more detailed response on their part, I usually respond with a reaction of my own and an additional Thank You type response. So in general, if their email is short, you don't really need to respond, but if they spent some time thinking about something you've asked or it's a lengthier response, I usually try to find something to say in return and show appreciation.

Depending on where your schools are located, September might not really be too hot anymore. It would probably be fine to just stick with dress pants/slacks and a nice sleeveless or short sleeved top, or whatever business casual attire you might have. You might even want to consider also bringing a sweater so you're comfortable indoors, where I assume most of your meetings and events will be held. I personally like to have one with me anyway just in case.

There's a good chance those numbers could be just for undergraduate admissions, but it's also possible those are numbers calculated across both undergrad and graduate programs. Either way, they're probably not very helpful numbers for you to know in terms of how to choose programs to apply to or to figure out what your chances might be. You will need to do a bit more searching on the specific graduate department websites to learn about their admissions guidelines and expectations.

I remember seeing this same question. The "trick" (not really a trick) here is to understand that when they refer to a "percentage of the population", they are talking about percentages of subsets of the population. This bar graph shows the population broken down by age. The percentages refer to the percent of people within that age group. As explained in the solution, comparing the percentages of these subsets is not going to give you the correct answer since the subsets have different (and unknown) absolute totals. Another key here is to notice that these are not percentages of the same number (total US population)-- if it was, your total sum of percentages across each of the years would be 100%. To give a simpler example, say in a graduating class of 600 students, 80% of the history majors are female and 50% of the chemistry majors are female. Notice that this mirrors the question above, but the subgroups are academic majors instead of age groups. Here, it would be incorrect (with this being the only information given) to say that there are more female history majors than female chemistry majors. It is easy to see that you might have a case where there are 70 chemistry majors (35 of which are female), but only 10 history majors (8 of which would be female)--there are actually more female chemistry majors. So it is incorrect to simply compare the percentages to each other because this is not capturing the full picture of the data.

If anyone cares, I just noticed that these coasters are back in stock right now

*Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with admissions in your particular field. I doubt these scores will get your application thrown out. I'm not sure where exactly you obtained those schools' ranges of scores and if they are cut-offs or simply a summary of recent admits' scores. I doubt they're harsh cut-offs. If money isn't a limiting factor and if you could use the peace of mind, I would say just do your best to improve on areas you might have been weak in and retake it. You would likely want to just focus on the verbal section since it seems that the quantitative is overall less heavily weighted by the schools (ie you just need to perform around the same on quant as you did the first time). Otherwise I think the rest of your application package sounds strong enough that it might not be an issue, although you don't mention LORs which are also a very important part of the package. Generally, I think the decision is up to you whether you would feel better retaking it or not. Only you know what you are capable of regarding how well you can perform on standardized tests.

I agree with this- I also used a brute force method and just memorized definitions/synonyms and stuck to learning 10 new words a day. That meant even if I got them memorized quickly, I would stop there and just keep practicing those. The next day I would add in 10 more, but also review all the old ones. I would go thru the stack multiple times (and shuffle them up- this was important for me so I didn't start to just remember what came next in the stack) until I could give a strong synonym or a quick definition without much thought. Along the same lines of what TakeruK said, don't underestimate the power of mnemonic devices or silly ways to remember things. Do whatever you can, and I think you'll find that it pays off.