Bayesian1701

You can try to negotiate but I highly doubt you will be able to turn $12,000 a year into $50,000 a year. That's four times the amount and it is not uncommon for masters programs in the US to be unfunded (with some variation depending on field). Maybe you can get a thousand or two more but not an increase that large. I guess you could say you can't attend without funding that covers tuition and living expenses but they are probably going to tell you no. Fully funded offers that have a stipend for living expenses usually require an assistantship and the department you applied for may not have any assistantships available.

@Laoceberg What would you do if you couldn't get a job in the US? If you never get funding at Florida State you probably won't be competitive for faculty jobs because you weren't funded and don't have the experiences that come with it. In the decisions sub forum there are dozens of threads about should I accept an unfunded PhD and the answer is always no. It’s possible even if you spend the money you won’t get a faculty job or even a pharmacy job. Reapplying is probably your best bet. If you are willing to self-fund a good US masters program might be a good idea and might help you get into a good PhD program. Sure Florida State is a good program that has placed people in faculty jobs but it isn’t good enough in my opinion to justify self-funding.

@Laoceberg I guess I overestimated the living expenses. What's your career goal?

Do you have any funded offers? It would probably cost you somewhere in the range of $80-100k for those first two years. I know that my offer was renewable so I wonder how many of the previously unfunded students they can afford. It's a gamble and you may be better offer reapplying if you don't have any funded offers and focusing on programs known to fund all of their students.

I went 5 hours away for my undergraduate degree. I didn't get to come home as much as my friends from high school who mainly stayed in the area, but I went home about 2-3 times a semester. The drive was hard at first but after doing it like 20 times it doesn't feel that bad anymore. I listen to an audiobook or podcasts and I think long drives are relaxing. If you have never lived away before I think it's a valuable experience. 5-10 hours is not that far (especially if it is by car) relative to the size of the world (or even the US). Ironically I am making the opposite move and moving closer to home for graduate school because it just happened to work out for me that way. Being close to home has some value if you have supportive family/friends but I don't think it is an important of a factor as fit.

Their response was that they can't find enough qualified students so they have to admit subpar ones they know will not complete the degree. I explicitly asked about this after they told me the completion rate was approximately 30% which shocked me because everywhere else I know has one easily double that so I was curious about why so many people didn't complete. They said I shouldn't worry about it but I had better offers at better programs so I wasn't willing to risk it personally. Looking at your profile I would guess that they aren't worried about you completing and if they gave you the fellowship I really wouldn't worry about it.

If quals are at the end of the first year then I don't think it would matter that much for spending more time on research. Harder quals (at the end of the first year) might indicate that hard material is covered quickly giving you possibly a better background for research than less difficult coursework. It's a factor for me but hard quals aren't a deal breaker unless I think I can't pass and run the risk of being kicked out. It definitely does vary but in most cases, I don't think its common to be kicked out because of quals. Duke's quals (first-year exam) looked tough but during my interview, my interviewer said no one actually fails them, but at Virginia Tech most people fail. At University of Texas, they said their quals were difficult but passing was more determined by whether or not you were ready to do independent research and not by getting certain grade. Baylor and Mizzou seemed to have a similar philosophy to UT, as well as my undergraduate institution's statistics quals for their program.

I am having the same feelings about one of my programs. I am intimated a bit by the coursework and how great of a program it is. But I think I am going to go for it. Program B didn't have to accept you, but they did. With the competitiveness of graduate admissions, programs don't accept you unless they think you can be successful.

Statistics Visits Days with a travel day before and after the visit: UT Austin - Feb 23, Not likely to send out more offers because there was 8 people at the visit for around 5 spots Virginia Tech - March 3/29, I declined the offer Missouri - Columbia - March 3/5, 7 people visiting no clue on how many spots and how many international admits All of these visits were funded for people inside the US. Texas A&M did not have a designated weekend but they did fund my visit.

I wrote an overview of books and practice test here that covers what I used to study and how realistic I thought it was. There are similar ones if you search for ”advice” in the GRE subforum.

On Wednesday I found out that my first choice basically waitlisted me because of research fit. I knew that might be a problem but everything else about it was so great. On the other hand I got an offer I can’t refuse at a top 10 program with an average of $30k a year where a nice 1 bedroom is $700 a month. It's never been high on my list before due to rivalry issues both on the university and departmental level between them and my current school. I applied last minute because it was a free application. I feel like a bit of a traitor but I think they are extending an olive branch by letting me in and getting me a university wide fellowship. I thought they were going to reject me out of spite or something. But seeing the money issues I might have elsewhere and knowing the power of having this school on my CV I can't imagine how overall it could lose. The only way I wouldn't go there is if I hate the department environment significantly more than others. I would have never had guessed I my second to last choice would turn into my first but weird things happen in the process I guess.

False alarm unless I am missing something. I guess it will be the next one.

@cannonwalker On a similar note to what others said I just felt something wasn't right. In one case the program had some structural flaws in coursework and research that didn't match what I wanted in a program. In another case, there was a divide amongst the domestic and international students and they were cliquey and the international students didn't participate in the recruitment other than attending a dinner and avoiding the prospective students at the dinner plus huge class sizes (40-60!) and a high teaching load. And fit is something that I processed more after I got home and thought about it for a few days. Hopefully my final visit will go well and will have what I am looking for or I will get off the waitlist at my first choices.

At least it looked like the preliminary stuff for the FY 2019 budget doesn't have a funding cut for NSF like the FY 2018 budget did. I think that document is old and from the beginning of this process. They didn't want to cut spending obviously but they were trying to comply with the president’s budget. So maybe there will be 2,000 awards. Or at least that's what I hope because I don't want my chances to be cut in half. Plus there might be another shutdown on March 23rd. I guess we will know soon enough.

Maybe but it seems early and it is fishy that it's a weekend so it may be a false alarm. However, I will still check it on Saturday. This is pure speculation but could the application limit that is just now fully in effect maybe lead to faster application processing due to less applications? Since the number of applications per applicant was lowered for 2017 the number could have gone down this year since less graduate students are eligible to apply. But if less current second-year students did not apply last year and waited the number of applications could be the same or higher.

I think OSU is better for Bayesian statistics plus a fellowship is better than a TA position. Yes, NCSU is technically higher ranked by US news but I think OSU isn’t a bad program.

For the first point if you have access to professors who are knowledgeable then yes listen and seek their opinions but a lot of people I think don't have that. The profiles are generally vague on research experience which I think made it really hard to tell for myself personally since I didn't have a lot of knowledgeable professors who had sent their students to stats PhD program and it's hard to judge how good research experience is. On the GPA/GRE and coursework side it's a lot easier to judge. And comments on rec letters are basically pointless and nobody really nows what a "good sop" is and what it means. What I meant about there are no safety schools is that from a US undergraduate prospective safety schools are places where it is highly likely, say 75%, you will get into them. But graduate safety schools don't have that large degree of security imo. I totally categorized my programs into reach, match, and safety but I also knew that I could not get into all my safety schools (even though I actually did but other's don't). That's what I was trying to say, it that is almost nothing like US undergraduate admissions, there are no places with automatic acceptance and safety school rejections happen. If they are a Stanford/Berkeley level candidate a "safety school" for them might be like a top 20 vs a 50-100 for most people. For another applicant at the 50-100 level Missouri might be a reach, where Missouri was a safety school for me. It's all relative. It's also true that self-selection does occur and acceptance rates are a bad judge because you don't know what they are in most cases. Even if they tell you how many applications and how many spots, without a yield number you don't know how many offers are made.

Got accepted to Florida State as well. Will likely decline soon. Still waiting on Baylor. I am emailing the DGS at Baylor tonight. I want to be done waiting.

@Zaphod2020 Sorry but because it is an odd problem that would make it very easy to identify me through a google search if you knew what I did. I would like be remain anonymous here for now at least. Edit to add: Also I hate the Bayesian is better always debate because I don’t think it is always better. Maybe that’s because I have done research with a frequentist for three years and been exclusively taught by frequentists. Sometimes Bayesian statistics is better and sometimes it over complicates thing and the prior beliefs can screw up the results.

So me. I am still waiting for my first choice and it is awful. I was told that I should hear in early February but now it’s early March. I just want to know regardless of the outcome.

I am totally biased as someone interested in Bayesian statistics applied to the social sciences. I think P(Bayesian| Social Science applications) is at least 0.5, and probably much higher (.7ish) but my priors might be biased. I don't want to get into why Bayesian is popular in general but I like it because the problem I am interested in has a lot of parameters and great prior information that lends itself to work well with Bayesian methods.

I am stuck in an airport with nothing else to do and not enough WiFi for Netflix so I figured I would start an advice thread on all things Statistics PhD admissions that I have learned from the process. I wanted to share all the things I wish I knew when I was applying. Anyone else feel free to add to it. I wrote this from a general statistics perspective but some of this probably will be similar in biostats and perhaps even math. Admissions - Where to apply The best indicator of how you will do is looking at the past profiles that are most similar to you. You will unlikely find a perfect match, but try to look at similar applicants first and then see what kind of programs they got into. Expect a lot of randomness and try to have a more balanced list than I did. Also know that safety programs really don’t exist and lower ranked programs (particularly smaller ones) can be just as hard to get into as large high ranked programs. There are programs that you have a higher probability of getting admitted at then others. Also research fit is very important so consider that if you have known interests. Admissions - What to Expect When you are Expecting to go to Graduate School TL;DR Expect a lot of waiting. I am going to be totally and completely honest with you about my experience applying for graduate school. For undergrad I was admitted two weeks after I applied and had an departmental scholarship two months after that. I knew I was going there because it was my first choice and I had automatic acceptance. So I have never not know what I was doing next. This whole process of not knowing where I am going to be in Fall 2018 for over a year now has been hard. I still don’t know where I will go. I have watched results tell me that I was waitlisted and rejected before I knew officially and checked admissions portals multiple times a day. To protect my sanity and prevent me for spending my entire life on the gradcafe I blocked it from 9-5 every day on my laptop. I highly recommend it. I have cried more than I ever have in my life and have questioned myself almost daily. My impostor syndrome has been awful. I have doubted whether or not I am ready to jump into a PhD program at 21. I have questioned why programs admitted me and felt intimidated by the people at visits who already have masters degrees. I have read all the profiles dozens of times and knew that most domestic students with my level of research experience typically do well but I didn’t think I would do as well as I did. I have questioned if I really do know what I want to do and whether or not being able to pursue my research is a deal breaker. I have struggled over how to decide and what qualifies as a deal breaker. If you had/have any of these feeling you are not alone. Interviews I interviewed two times (three if you count Baylor) so thought I would share my experience. For Duke the interview was very informal and was more about me as a person than me as a prospective admit. I was asked what my hobbies were (which totally threw me off) and we talked about life at Duke and in the research triangle. It was about 20 minutes long and with a single assistant professor on the AdComm who was the original reviewer for my application. I was asked for more technical details on my research but that was the only thing application related we talked about. For Virginia Tech, they just asked if I had any questions and I asked about funding and their completion rate. It was implied that funding was competitive and I was told the completion rate was “around 30%” because a majority of people fail quals. They were definitely trying to court me calling me their “top applicant” and “favorite application” and I really though I had gotten the fellowship. I had an single semester of support with the possible option of renewing but it didn’t have the language that my other offers did which offered more security. I mainly applied for the fellowship so when I didn’t get it I wasn’t very interested. Baylor was a causal visit and I meet with everyone at the department that was there. It wasn’t really an interview. Visits I have completed three visits so far and I wanted to help answer the what do I wear question that I had. On both my prospective student weekends there was a range from button down and tie for men and nice blouse and heels for women to tee shirts and jeans. The average was around business causal and that’s what I would recommend you do. Don’t worry about knowing anyone research interests and memorizing CVs if they aren’t your POIs. All my meetings with professors started with a basic explaination of their research and since you will likely be supported by a TA ship your first year you don’t need to find an advisor right off the bat. I didn’t really take notes and made a list of people I liked. You will have information overload and it takes time to fully realize the pros and cons after visiting. Program Impressions Next I wanted to share my impressions of programs based on my interactions with them. Baylor Baylor is my favorite program so I am biased. Demographically it is a majority domestic program (~75%) with about 40-50% women. Waco is very much a college town but it still has a lot of things to do. They told me 82% of their students graduate in four years with almost all of them finishing by year 5. Their placements are mainly in industry with a lot of people at Eli Lilly which is huge supporter of the program and has funded RA positions and grants for the faculty. It has 3 Bayesian statisticians and 5 other faculty members doing different things. The main fields of application are biostats and environmental statistics. They have a nice bank of computers for faculty and students to use to run simulations on. I think it is severely underrated. On the Academic side of placements they occur mainly at state universities and liberal arts colleges. They offered to buy me a plane ticket but instead they reimbursed me for mileage which was over $300 plus a nice hotel room. It’s a great department that is totally underrated. UT Austin It may be a young department but it is growing fast. They have a ton of people doing Nonparametric Bayesian statistics with some machine learning and hierarchical modeling mixed in. It is entirely Bayesian to the point of the visitors being told that if you want to be a frequentist don’t come here. A lot of the faculty is double appointed in both stats and the business school but they are committed to the Stats PhD program. It seemed to be about 40% female and a slight international majority but the domestic and international students were really integrated with each other which doesn’t always happen. Austin is a very expensive city (at least for Texas) and most of the graduate students I talked to spend around $700-1000 on housing a month, my stipend offer was $2000 a month so that seemed expensive. They also have a lot of computing resources for research. They are very proud that their first graduate got a job (post doc I think?) at Berkeley straight out of a PhD (who wouldn’t be) My visit was completely funded. University of Missouri - Columbia Also know as Mizzou, the University of Missouri is state university in a college town. Columbia’s airport is awful (I have been stuck here for 5 hours since there are only like 5 flights a day), but Columbia is a nice city that is bikeable and the bus system is apparently good. The department has a wide variety of research but it probably more Bayesian than classical and more focused on environmental statistics than most programs. Demographically it appeared to be about half and half domestic and international but not a single international student did anything at the visit until the free dinner where they didn’t sit with the prospective students. A grad student made a comment that they never want anything to do with us (referring to the domestic students). This is a lot different than UT and Baylor where all the graduate students knew each other pretty well. The faculty do seem nice and hierarchical modeling was a common theme from the research presentations. Their placement was a mix of academic and industry and generally good for a mid tier program. My visit was completely funded. Virginia Tech I never actually visited but it I didn’t like the completion rate and the potentially unstable funding package. The professors seemed nice but I am kinda bitter about how they called me their top applicant and then didn’t even give me two semesters of funding. I am sure it is not a bad place but I was no longer interested when I began to get my other packages. Their academic placements aren’t great as well. I personally wasn’t interested in visiting given my concerns but they offered to fly me out on a paid visit. I talk about TAMU when after my visit.

I am not in your field so I don't know what at MAPH is. How much is a decent scholarship? I don't think it is generally a good idea to turn down a fully funded PhD offer for a partially funded masters offer though.

Columbia is a cash cow program that had 435 (you read that right) people graduate in 2016. I wouldn't recommend because I don't think it's worth it financially. What are your grades in all your statistics classes and calculus, and any proof based or upper level math?

Agreed with @bayessays turning down a PhD offer a top 25 for a chance at getting into another program is a bad idea. Plus you could be burning bridges if you left your masters program halfaway to go to another program if that is what your plan is. Top 10 admissions are random and you may end up not doing better or possibly doing worse next cycle. I could see you not getting readmitted because they would know that they were your safety program.