[Already Applied, How likely? (Stats PhD)]

I have no insight as to your chances, but wish you the best of luck this season! I applied to a couple of the same departments.

[Harvard statement of financial resources - how to submit?]

Thank you for the directions, really appreciate your help!

Actually, it turns out the Embark online form is misconfigured and intentionally won't display financial aid documents to people applying to my program. This is despite the fact the GSAS website specifically says it is required. I'm still trying to get some resolution on what to do about the statement of financial resources, but I did submit the rest of the application on time.

[Harvard statement of financial resources - how to submit?]

Thanks for the reply. That's certainly what I would have thought, but no links of that sort on the left hand side or on the bottom of any page, unfortunately. Left hand panel just has "Home", "Instructions", "Application Form", "Essays" (SoP, resume, writing sample, transcript, additional academic info), "Recommendations", "Application Inspector", "Payment", and "Submit Application".

[Harvard statement of financial resources - how to submit?]

The department I am applying to at Harvard requires a statement of financial resources. This form doesn't seem to be available through the online application, though!

The Embark application just has a one page PDF with these "instructions" and no actual form:

This Statement of Financial Resources is required of all applicants to the Graduate School

except those applying to Astronomy; Biological Sciences in Dental Medicine; Biological Sciences in

Public Health; Biology: Medical Sciences; Biology, Molecular and Cellular; Biology, Organismic and

Evolutionary; Biophysics; Biostatistics; Business Economics; Chemical Biology; Chemical Physics;

Chemistry and Chemical Biology; Earth and Planetary Sciences; Organizational Behavior; Physics;

Statistics; Systems Biology; and applicants for the PhD in the School of Engineering and Applied

Sciences.

Financial support is the shared responsibility of the student and the Graduate School of Arts and

Sciences. Information provided on the Statement of Financial Resources will assist the Graduate

School in identifying potential sources of external and internal funding.

Note that Harvard À nancial aid is not available in certain master’s degree programs (see “Application

Instructions and Information”). If you are applying for À nancial aid, you should be able to

demonstrate sufÀ cient resources to support your graduate study.

If you have any questions completing the Statement of Financial Resources, please call between the

hours of 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday, (617) 495-5396.

That's it. No links to anything anywhere. I did find a PDF copy of the statement of financial resources buried on the website beyond the reaches of Google here: http://www.gsas.harv...t_of_finres.pdf, but no instructions anywhere on how to submit this. My deadline is tomorrow at 5 pm, so I'm a bit panicked.

Anyone else struggling with the statement of financial resources, or am I missing something obvious? Will it magically appear after I submit the main application or something?

[Stats phd - realistic for me? If so, what schools?]

Very helpful followup comments - thanks, cyberwulf and dendrogirl!

[How bad does my math subject test score have to be before I don't bother sending it?]

I'm treating "strongly recommend" as "require": UChicago will get my barely above median, four-year old math subject score but none of the rest will. Not sure if this is the best course of action, but my letter writer most familiar with stats admissions agreed the score probably would not help my application, but better to show I didn't completely bomb than to let them assume the worst. Though personally, I think if I'd scored maybe like 40th percentile or lower, I would not have sent them to any schools unless explicitly requested.

Side rant: ETS lowered my subject test percentile by 5 points from what it was in 2007! (And my score wasn't too hot then.) At least they seemed to have raised my analytical writing percentile by a few points since July as consolation.

[Stats phd - realistic for me? If so, what schools?]

Wait, so there is consensus that someone with:

• a 3.9+ GPA
  
• from a top 10 school
  
• with a math major
  
• and a good number of relevant classes
  
• and solid GRE scores
  
• and an MS in statistics(!)
  

doesn't have a realistic shot at top 10 statistics programs? For real? Maybe this is just hitting a little close to home and I'm in denial, but isn't that just a tad pessimistic?

[GRE Math Subject for Stats grad school?]

I'm also curious. Is there a rough threshold at score-optional programs (most everything besides Stanford and UNC apparently) at which your score can hurt you if submit it?

I'm quite unsure what the lay of the land is because I've actually known people with middle-of-the-pack GRE math subject scores (50-60th percentiles) who got into respected pure math PhD programs (e.g. UCSD, Minnesota) without having a recommendation from a Fields Medalist or anything like that. I would guess that statistics programs would be even more lax about the math GRE? I only got 63rd percentile, for what it's worth, and I'm not sure if I should be submitting that score to score-optional programs when I apply next year or not.

[statistics with applied social science focus]

Hi everyone,

New here, seeking a little guidance! I'd really appreciate any advice you all have.

I've been working in economic consulting ever since I graduated from college in 2008. While I am quite happy with my job for the time being, the expectation is generally that we ship out after 3-4 years and go back to school because of the limited advancement opportunities without an MBA or PhD. With this in mind, I'm preparing to apply to stats PhD programs this fall for entry in fall 2011.

I'm looking for statistics PhD programs that would offer faculty and research opportunities with an applied social science focus, specifically in education and economics. There seem to be a number of universities that have interdisciplinary groups bridging statistics and these fields, e.g. Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science and U Washington's Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences. Am I on the right track in thinking that a school with these sorts of groups will offer what I want, or will most of those be directed at students actually in social science departments? I'd really appreciate any suggestions for specific programs that anyone here has to offer. So far I've found this professor at Northwestern who seems like he does a lot of what I want to do, but obviously more options would be great.

I'm not sure how competitive of programs I should be aiming for - here's what I've got:

- white female, US citizen (which I'm told will be help me?)

- B.A. in mathematics in 2008 from a top liberal arts college

- 3.9 GPA overall, close to 4.0 in major

- senior thesis was a group research project related to random walks (but no other academic research experience )

- haven't taken general GRE yet, but only 63rd percentile on GRE math subject test from senior year of college because it had been four years since I last did calculus

- some coursework in statistics: probability theory, mathematical statistics, regression analysis, survey sampling analysis

- some coursework in computer science: introductory CS, data structures

- fairly extensive pure math coursework: calculus sequence, linear algebra, real analysis I & II, abstract algebra I & II, topology, complex analysis, number theory

- lots of experience with SAS (from my job actually), and some experience with R, S-Plus, Stata, Java programming, LaTeX (from college)

Thoughts? (And thanks in advance, of course!)