biostats2015

I'm getting the same error. I contacted Harvard a couple of weeks ago and they told me that decisions would be made by mid February and then forwarded to GSAS, who send out the results (acceptances and rejections both) via post. So unless GSAS has decided to post results on their website instead and the biostat people weren't aware, it seems unlikely this was intentional.

Thanks, I really appreciate the advice- actually those were my instinctive choices as well!

Thanks for the tips! Yes, there are about five people I'm trying to decide between. They are: 1. My masters research project supervisor, a statistics professor, knows me quite well and should be favorable. 2. A public health research supervisor (I work as a research assistant), has known me for about 2 years and would write a very good reference. 3. A co-supervisor on my masters project- applied mathematician working in a school of public health, has also known me for about 2 years, should be a decent reference but maybe not as favorable as no. 2. 4. An intership supervisor, who is a very senior and well-regarded biostatistician. I think he would write a favorable reference, but I have only worked for him for a few months (and very part-time). He knows me less well but could probably also draw on the thoughts of others I have worked with during my internship- I don't know if people sometimes do this? 5. An associate professor who has taught me three subjects during my masters degree, is a probabilist rather than a statistician but would be well-placed to comment on my academic record. I get the impression he regards me as a good student. What do you think? I understand that some schools allow you to submit more than three references, in which case I would be tempted to ask all five since they could all comment on different aspects of my ability. The selection committee might get bored reading them though...

Hi Everyone, I'm applying for biostatistics PhDs, fall 2015 entrance, and currently trying to work out who to ask to write letters of recommendation for me. I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts about who are the best types of people to ask. Specifically, which of the following qualities are most important in a good letter-writer: How well they know the candidate/ for how long they have known the candidate Relevance of their own work (for example, I have a work supervisor who knows me well and I'm confident would write me a very strong letter, but who is a public health expert and does not have much of a quantitative background) How well-regarded/known their research is Position/seniority (e.g., Professor, A. Professor, head of department, postdoc, etc) Whether or not they have taught the candidate in a classroom setting Whether or not they have supervised the candidate doing research Likely favorability of the letter- obviously very important, but how to weight these against other factors? Other? Thoughts? (I hope it's okay that I posted this here rather than in the LoR forum- I'm most intersted in the thoughts of people who are familiar with the biostats PhD application process, as I figure recommendations might differ from discipline to discipline.)

Because I read on some application page somewhere or other that the first two years of undergraduate study are sometimes not considered. It doesn't make any difference though; my GPA is still 3.8 if I include the first two years of undergrad. Partly out of curiosity, why do you suggest applying to only a `handful' of top 10 departments? If I have some chance (however small) of getting in, would I not be best advised to apply for as many as possible?

Do you have any experience with interpreting the grades of overseas students? The university I'm at here in Australia has a good reputation so I hope that will help somewhat with the translation issue. I'll definitely address the lower grades during my exchange year in my personal history statement and the reasons I think that happened; I don't believe they're a true reflection of my ability but obviously I'll have to convince others of that! I realise I'm being ambitious- but am I being completely unrealistic in applying to those schools? I would have hoped that my research experience would help me. The thing is that, if I have no chance of getting into a reasonably well-ranked school in the US, I have opportunities at good universities here in Australia and so would probably be better off staying put. I guess what I'm asking is, am I wasting my time trying? Many thanks for your advice. It's hard to get a feel for my chances from way over here!

Hi everyone, I'm interested in applying for biostatistics PhDs in the USA, starting fall 2015. I'd be an international student, and so have relatively little idea of what my chances of getting into a good school would be. I'm very keen on biostat and have been thinking about this for a while. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! As a note: I'm not entirely sure how my grades stack up in terms of GPAs, as most universities don't use that scoring system here in Australia. I've tried to calculate my GPA using the Australian system, which is out of 7 (on a very coarse scale, only 4 or 5 levels), and then scaled it down to the usual 4.0 system. However, I'm unsure if this gives an accurate representation of my GPA relative to the US system- I suspect it might be lower than it appears. If anyone has an opinion on this, let me know! I did the last year of my undergrad on exchange at an excellent US public university, where unfortunately my grades were lower than usual- GPA 3.2 during that year, I'm worried this is going to hurt me. Degree history Undergraduate: Bachelor of Science with major in pure math, minor in biology Post-graduate Diploma of Public Health Master of Mathematics & Statistics (currently in my final semester) GPA 3.8 for everything excluding first two years of undergrad 3.97 for current masters in maths & stats GRE 167 verbal 161 quant 6.0 analytical writing Wasn't happy with my quant scores so taking it again soon. Experience I did two substantial research projects in my undergrad, both in mathematical biology type areas. I've had several research assistant positions since, three in schools of public health doing math biology or applied stats type stuff. I'm currently doing an internship with a biostatistics group in a research institution attached to a hospital. I've got three first author papers to my name, not exactly published in top tier journals, but of a relevant nature (applied stats/ math bio). I'm doing a research project for my masters (25% of total degree work), which is in a statistics-related area. I've tutored one applied statistics subject (aimed at 3rd and 4th year students without a strong math background) and one math biology subject (for first year pre-med students). Letters of Rec Masters research supervisor: professor of stat Past and current research supervisors: one professor, one associate professor (a public health expert, not a math or stat guy), one dr Lecturers: associate professor who's taught me three times Schools that I'm interested in I'm aiming high at the moment but unsure if I'm being realistic (especially with my gre quant score, although like I said, hoping to improve that). I'd love to apply to: Harvard, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, Emory, UNC, University of Michigan It's very hard for me to judge the next tier down. Any tips? Thanks in advance!