BrownianEmotion

I've been following this thread like crazy to hear when people have heard things. Accepted: Nowhere yet... Rejected: Washington, CMU, Princeton ORFE, Wisconsin, Stanford MS&E Waiting to hear back: UNC-Chapel Hill INSTORE, Columbia IEOR, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Wharton, Cornell, Chicago, Berkeley I may have made a mistake not applying to any safety schools. I thought the sheer quantity (13 schools in all) and my research interests would help mitigate that, but after receiving 5 rejections... I guess I assumed independent acceptance rates when I shouldn't have. If I need to apply again (I hope not!), I'll be more careful about including safety schools. Good luck to everyone!

@znw Where did you apply for MS programs to get funding? I might be able to catch a couple MS deadlines... I am primarily interested in PhD programs but would like to have a backup if possible, and ideally with funding so that I'm not swimming in debt (part of the reason I haven't found a good backup MS program yet).

I'm interested primarily in simulation and statistical questions that arise naturally in Actuarial Science. In particular, I'm interested in applying simulation-based optimization under uncertainty to Actuarial Science problems and comparing with traditional methods, as well as developing new, faster, and more exact simulation techniques for insurance companies. In addition, I am interested in dependence modeling for high-dimensional data that tends to be heavily skewed, which is more characteristic of insurance data. With both of these, I have an overall goal of applying Operations Research/Financial Engineering concepts to the field of Actuarial Science and reconciling any differences between the literature. The second professor I listed is a math professor. The courses I took with him were Stochastic Caculus and Linear Programming. Although Stochastic Calculus wasn't strictly proof-based, there were a fair number of proofs in the course. I think he can attest to my proof-writing because of my class participation in both courses. Thanks for the help! I will definitely look into some of those. Do you think I have a chance at the schools I've listed?

· Hi all, I've been a lurker on here for a while, and I wanted to get a better gauge about what schools I can/should apply to for a PhD in either Statistics or Operations Research. I'm interested in statistical simulation problems that arise naturally in Actuarial Science. On a more practical side, I am interested in bringing the simulation and statistical techniques from Financial Engineering to Actuarial Science. I’d love to hear your thoughts. EDUCATION: o Major: Actuarial Science and Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science from University of Wisconsin o GPA: 3.73 overall, 4.0 in Actuarial Science classes, ~3.8 in Math classes o Relevant Courses: Calc III (AB), Intro to Probability (A), Proof-based Linear Algebra (AB), Stochastic Processes (A), Real Analysis I (AB), Stochastic Calculus (AB), Mathematical Statistics (A), Intro to Computer Science (A), Actuarial Mathematics I and II (both As), Loss Models (A), Interest Theory (A) o Currently in Linear Programming, Numerical Analysis, Real Analysis II, Regression, and Data Structures o I plan to take Measure Theory and possibly an Integer Optimization course next semester RESEARCH/RELEVANT ACTIVITIES: o Currently involved in a research project with an Actuarial Science professor comparing Machine Learning methods with more traditional GLM as applied to Actuarial Science. I oversee the coding (in R) and the conceptual picture for the ML side of the work. We will likely not have a paper until the end of the school year. o Programming: Proficient in R, MATLAB, and Java o Two actuarial internships, one at a smaller life insurance company, another at a bigger property/casualty company doing insurance claim modeling in R using Markov Chains. o I've also graded for two different Actuarial Science classes, and tutored introductory Statistics and Calculus, as well as passed three actuarial exams. GRE/Letters of Rec: o GRE: 164Q, 162V, waiting on writing o I have one excellent letter of rec from an Actuarial Science professor who I have graded for and who I am working with. Two other letters of rec, one from a professor I am taking a class with now and took a class with last semester who knows I am a good student, another Stats professor who I had a class with who I have asked for help with graduate school. Likely that they might not be particularly stellar except for the first one. Schools: Statistics PhD: o University of Wisconsin o UC-Berkeley o Duke o Wharton o John Hopkins o UNC-Chapel Hill INSTORE o CMU Operations Research PhD: o Columbia IEOR o Princeton ORFE o Stanford OR (dream school) o Cornell OR Do I have a chance at these schools I've listed? Is it too top heavy? What should I add/take off? Also, should I retake the GRE? I really don’t want to if I don’t have to…. But I will if my chances are far too low.