Don't worry, I'm not trying to apply under the wire for fall 2017. I'm looking to enter a program in fall 2018.
Undergrad Institution: Large state school - graduating this semester Major: Marine Biology
Minor: Mathematics GPA: 4.0
Type of Student: White male
Courses/ Background: I went to high school at an early college program that allowed me to simultaneously finish with an Associate in Arts from a community college (4.0). I don't know if that really does anything to help me look more competitive at a graduate school level (or less because community college credits). I don't know any people from my early college program who would have any good advice on this yet because it was new when I entered it and no one has gone graduate school yet. Everything I list here was done in three years at university.
Calculus 1-3, intro to statistics, intro to probability, introductory linear algebra, differential equations
I have a couple of other courses that I didn't need for my major but I just dabbled in:
organic chemistry II, biochemistry I (chem department), the engineering general physics sequence.
I don't know if these would help my application at all given that they are typically regarded as challenging.
GRE: Haven't taken yet
Research:
Undergraduate thesis in biology with a first author publication - involved some ANOVA. Not a top tier journal by any means, but it's international.
Internship with NOAA - data sciency (used R heavily)
Did part time research every semester of undergrad in someone's biology lab (and over the summer). I moved around a bit because I wanted a diverse experience. I don't have any REUs because I opted to take summer classes and do part time research on my campus. I'm not sure if my lack of REU is harmful because I see a lot of people have them when they apply to grad school.
Letters of Recommendation:
Biology professor I did my publication with
Another biology professor (a really quantitative one)
Internship advisor
Why I want to enter a program in statistics instead of a more quantitative biology program:
I want to be a more of a statistician interested in biology rather than a biologist interested in statistics if you catch my drift. I'm interested to delve deeper into theory, and just get a broader education in statistics in general than I would get in a quantitative biology program. I think in doing so I would leave more jobs open to myself in the future. I could see myself being a statistical consultant, a wildlife biometrician for the government, or possibly a professor if I had minimal teaching responsibilities.
Programs I'm Considering:
Stanford
UC - Berkeley
University of Washington
Harvard
I will add another one or two lower ranked schools later on that I am more sure I will get into, but those are my top choices. I think a statistics degree would be more versatile than a biostatistics one because I would have a better chance at making a transition to another field if I ever felt so inclined. My other problem with entering a biostatistics program is that most seem to be geared towards people looking for employment in medical field research, whereas I'm more interested in marine science. However, Berkeley and University of Washington seem to be more appropriate for me in this respect.
Specific Questions:
I seem to meet the minimum math requirements of top programs, but I understand many applicants come from pure math backgrounds. Do you think my background and research experience would help boost my application into being a very competitive one?
How bad does it look for my application to those programs that I haven't done an analysis class?
Do you think I should bother to apply to a top phd program?
Any recommendations for what I could do in a gap year? I will likely end up doing something in marine science (because that's what I'm most qualified for), which could very well involve some statistics. I am open to doing a job in just statistics if I could, but I'm not sure my current skill set would give me much hope to compete with statistics undergrads in the job market.
Is anyone from an early college? Are there any anecdotes of early college people in top graduate programs you know of, and did that experience made them more competitive, less competitive, or make absolutely no difference?
Thank you for your help!