stats_applicant

Agree with this. I like both places a lot and they're really not comparable -- comes down to personal preference.

Tier 1+: Stanford, Berkeley Tier 1: Wharton, Harvard, Chicago, CMU Tier 2: Washington, Wisconsin, NC State, Duke, Michigan Tier 3: A bunch of others

There's no quota or anything for the quals, so it's in everybody's best interest to help each other pass. We're allowed to work on homework together in most of my classes (it's up to the instructor) so we frequently discuss problems. It's not competitive at all. I think the social atmosphere varies by department. My department is rather small but we still have activities now and then. But it does take a while to meet people outside the department and outside your classes, especially first year when you have a heavy courseload. Really its what you make of it; the workload is such that you could spend every waking moment working and not be 100% comfortable with the material, so if you decide to do that, that's what'll happen. Not that that's a bad thing and a lot of people are satisfied with that lifestyle, but I make it a point to prioritize social events, playing sports, etc. and I don't think it detracts too much from my academic life.

This time last year for statistics, really the only results that I remember were from Wisconsin, Washington, and NCSU. A bunch came out around the second week of February.

This is true. However, for me the approach to coursework has still been fundamentally different from undergrad. I'm not so concerned with finishing every little problem on every homework set, and grades below A- are rarely handed out. If I want to spend time working on a coding or data analysis side project, or attending a seminar or reading group, or reading survey papers or supplementary material for a topic I don't understand particularly well, I'll sometimes choose to do it instead of finishing my homework. Yes, I need to pass my qual, but ultimately I think the main goal is to develop the tools to become a strong researcher (which is sometimes orthogonal to some of the qualifying exam material).

Thanks. Do you know how many offers they typically make initially?

Last year was the same -- 280 applicants for 10-12 spots. Might be a generic thing they put in the email.

Many start coming out the first week of February. IIRC Washington and NC State were a bit earlier last year

You're underselling yourself; you should definitely apply to NC State but shoot for the other top 10 programs too (though perhaps you're omitting those because the deadlines for most have already past). Math preparation wise, schools tend to look for good grades in analysis and at least some exposure to probability, and you're set there. You should be competitive at most of them. Many people come from pure math degrees; I had little statistics undergraduate background and had no trouble getting into top programs last year. Don't worry about funding; it should come with admission at any of these places.

In contrast to some of the posts above, I can assure you that won't be expected to have much of an idea at all. Statistics is different from other disciplines in that many if not most graduate students didn't do their undergraduate work in statistics, so faculty understand (and expect!) that your research interests will be shaped by your first year experiences and in fact very few students end up doing what they thought they were interested in. Of course it helps to articulate why you want a degree in statistics and perhaps a few broad sub fields you think sound interesting, but you don't need anything beyond that. Talk about why you're switching to stats from civil engineering and how the civil degree makes you stand out -- I think that could be a cool story. Head over to the stats sub forum for more discipline-specific advice.

In math all the authors are alphabetically ordered and given equal credit. I don't know if stats/CS/OR are similar or not. In any case I wouldn't worry too much about it; I had zero publications and got in almost everywhere I applied.

Spend half a paragraph mentioning a few names who may be doing work broadly related to your interests. Don't bother contacting them.

I don't think they even need to be this detailed. Talk about your broad interests and a bit about why you're not interested in pursuing what you've worked on. You'll be judged primarily on your math preparation.

I had a spelling error in mine and was still accepted to 9 of the 10 schools to which I applied. Don't worry about it.

For what it's worth, I think linear algebra courses vary much more in content than calculus courses do.