[Eval: Statistics MS and or PhD (Machine Learning)]

On 12/6/2016 at 6:14 AM, footballman2399 said:

It depends. Yale has a very small program but Columbia's is quite sizable. More than anything, I would say the Ivies are heavily international in terms of their PhD student body. It's difficult to compete with people going to Peking University in China when you went to a state school in the US. 

Not too sure regarding your second question. I'd imagine Berkeley and Washington are similar because they are very top tier programs. UNC I doubt is anywhere near as competitive. 

Interesting about the international competition. Care to elaborate on why students form say, Peking, are more qualified? I know its arguably the best school in China, but globally there are plenty of "state" schools within the U.S. that rank higher, given you believe the rankings are calculated without bias. 

[Eval: Statistics MS and or PhD (Machine Learning)]

Here are my stats:

Undergrad Institution: University of Colorado, Boulder
Major: Mathematics, Computer Science
GPA: 3.81

Type of Student: White Male

Upper Division Courses:

Math: Calc III (A-), Analysis I (A), Analysis II (A), Intro Linear Algebra (A), ODE (A), PDE (A), Operations Research (A), Numerical Analysis I (A), Probability Theory (A), Statistical Theory (A), Markov, Queues, Monte Carlo Simulation (A)

Next Semester: Stochastic Processes (Grad Level)

 

CS: Algorithms (A-), Artificial Intelligence (A), Machine Learning (A)

 

Others: Generally A- and As in the basic maths and computer science courses. Two Bs (one in Calc II), several B+ (all non-related classes), a B- in a history class. 

 

GRE: 168Q, 165V, 4

 

Research Experience: year long research project with two professors in math department, undergraduate thesis in machine learning area 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List, several (recent) scholarships

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: BB bank quant summer analyst, Data Science team, active with elementary/middle school volunteer programs

 

Letters of Recommendation:

-Two mathematics professors (research with both)

-Computer science professors (thesis advisor)

 

Plan to apply to (mix of MS/Phd Programs):

Chicago, Berkeley, Harvard, MIT (CS only), Penn, Yale, CMU, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Toronto, Cornell, Texas (CS only), UCLA, Virginia, and a few  "safes"... 

 

Am I reaching too much for some of these schools? I would rather not settle since I have an offer from the same BB bank I interned at, but I'd also prefer to further my education. Would working a year or two help at all?