Bayesian1701

I think it would only be worth it if it was funded because the COA is almost $80,000 if I found the right program. If it’s funded and you think it’s worth spending an extra year in school maybe it is a good idea. But I don’t think it’s smart to turn down a funded PhD offer for an unfunded masters.

UT Austin is a lot warmer and sunny (maybe even too warm in the summer) than Ithaca. I personally hate winter so I restricted most of my applications to the south so that is something you can consider. The automatic admissions cutoff top 6% now. Like @mccp77 said UT is also known as a great engineering school and so you should be fine in terms of industry opportunities.

@Oklash I am also not a fan of US news. They have a methodology page somewhere and for stats at least it’s a survey where they don’t rank all the scores but instead rate them on a scale. From a statistical perspective I don’t think it is advanced enough to really be exact and rankings should be determined more as plus or minus 3 spots. Honestly I have my own ranking system where I rank them on certain factors (funding, completion rate, etc) I care about. Ranking the factors generally works better than assigning a number in a range because it avoids ties.

I think the advisor reputation is just as important as program reputation and A is still a top program. It sounds like A is your first choice. C also seems good, and it sounds like you don’t like B as much as A or C. I think at A with the great advisor you may do better than B. I think happiness can affect your graduate school productivity. I know in stats rankings don’t matter other than broad differences bigger than five or so places so I wouldn’t be surprised if the difference between the three isn’t that great. Rankings aren’t perfect indicators of student success. Try comparing the placements and see if how much they vary. Still visit B and see how it goes but if A (or C) is what will make you happy and productive go for it.

How expensive is the area? I have two PhD offers around that range: one in a low cost city and enough to live on and another in a more expensive city where it is going to be more difficult. Rent is going to be the largest part of your stipend likely so see how much that is. If you are going to a US program and are a US resident you can get federal graduate loans. But if you are an international student and have an on campus job as a part of your stipend you may not be able to work anywhere else so you would have to verify that you can have a second job.

Any housing suggestions? I am trying to avoid undergrads but still be on the bus route. Safety is important to me as well although there probably isn't anywhere that dangerous in College Station.

@GirtonOramsay Me too but it's a lone rejection for my top program. They told me when I visited that they try to send out offers by early February but we are way past them. I keep saying every day is the day my decision will come out and one day I will be right .

I have received what I am pretty sure is an internal fellowship for my first year with no required work. I think I can TA if I want but I wouldn't have to and the fellowship is big enough for me to live on. In the remaining years I will work as a TA or RA with relative funding security. I would assume that 3 years of TAing would be enough for the academic job market and not working would be less stressful and give me the flexibility to work on research. It also includes a scholarship with I think I receive in addition to a waiver for years 2-4. It's my best financial offer so far and no work requirements seem really nice. The first year coursework at this institution is pretty intense and I was concerned about my ability to handle it, but if I don't have to work I would definitely be able to study enough to pass the first year exam. Is there any downside to missing a year of TA experience when I have the flexibility to work on research that is somewhat time sensitive and focus on coursework?

Past years: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 As someone who read and used the past results a lot during the process please contribute even if you don't want to fill out all the information. You will only be allowed to edit for an hour so you might want to wait until you have all your results. Below is the template: Undergrad Institution: (School or type of school (such as Big state/Lib Arts/Ivy/Technical/Foreign (Country?)) Major(s): Minor(s): GPA: Type of Student: (Domestic/International (Country?), Male/Female?, Minority?) GRE General Test: Q: xxx (xx%) V: xxx (xx%) W: x.x (xx%) GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: M: xxx (xx%) TOEFL Score: (xx = Rxx/Lxx/Sxx/Wxx) (if applicable) Grad Institution: (school or type of school?) (if applicable) Concentration: GPA: Programs Applying: (Statistics/Operation Research/Biostatistics/Financial Math/etc.) Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications or conference talks etc...) Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?) Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...) Letters of Recommendation: (what kinds of professors? "well-known" in field? etc.) Math/Statistics Grades: (calculus sequence, mathematical statistics, probability, real analysis etc.) Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: (Such as connections, grad classes, etc...) Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome) School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined

@ray92 They may not even be on the admission committee though and they get so many emails according to the professors at my institution it may not even help if they are the committee. They may not even read it and it's easy to fake having read a paper or interest. I didn't even name professors in my SOP (much less email them) at three of the programs I have been accepted to. I see your point of view but I don't agree with it.

The very few places (Missouri, Florida State, Iowa State) I know have funding for masters students (based on past results) are places you should be competitive for a PhD. And if you don't make the PhD cut they should consider you for a masters. Apply to a lot of places and you should get in somewhere. You don't want to reach too far but you don't want to limit yourself either. Like I have said before we have similar profiles and I honestly believe that you are overcorrecting. Your first list was too high maybe but you should get into a few of the programs from your list on Monday. I definitely was very afraid of striking out. I would have never guessed I would get into both UT and TAMU and be on the waitlist at Duke. Applying to masters programs would be a waste of your time/money unless you don't want a PhD. Yes admissions are competitive and random but you should be fine. I am not personally a fan of contacting because no one except Baylor actually responded or answered my questions. Some people have been spotty even post acceptance.

Should we start the profile thread? You can only edit for an hour so you don't want to do it until you know all your results.

Not surprised but I was rejected from Columbia. I skipped the subject test and had only 1 POI so it was expected. On the plus side I got a first year fellowship at A&M. Still radio silence from Baylor.

Plus if you apply to Ph.D. program they will sometimes consider you for the masters program if you don't get in. I would apply mainly to PhD programs.

They stole my idea. I don't think I am getting in so at least someone else did it. Columbia University (GSAS) Statistics, PhD (F18) Accepted via E-mail on 26 Feb 2018 ♦ A 26 Feb 2018 report spam Imma get a scholarship to king's college, probly shouldn't brag but dag I amaze and astonish

@BL250604 They likely have really good research experience or amazing rec letters or connections with the department or some combination of the three. Plus they were domestic which probably made them a little more forgiving of the GRE/GPA. Plus they could have went to UChicago or somewhere else with grade deflation (making their GPA not as bad as it seems) or have a masters from a top program. GPA/GRE don't tell the whole story.

A rejection got posted at my first choice. I know I shouldn’t be stressed especially with my other offers but I don’t know if I will sleep tonight. One of my organizations is doing a fast to raise awareness of child hunger and since not eating would be a bad idea for me medically I am giving up gradcafe for 30 hours. I have a website blocker so I can’t cheat and honestly I am a little excited about taking a break. I already block out most of the day but when it’s allowed I spend a lot of time on it. I have no self control.

@DJ3SigmaIt seems like very few of the active people are getting multiple offers and applications seem to be up across the board. Sure this is a biased sample, and it's not universal (I have done better than expected) but I would have expected people do better than they are. I don't think the funding problem is a big deal since not much on the federal funding level has changed but public institutions rely on state funding that can be fickle. For example, funding may be a problem in Iowa, but not Texas. Maybe the international student disadvantage has increased at certain public institutions. If funding was cut I think it would be tougher to justify spending more money on international students tuition (if they have to and they may not) especially with the America first mentality that is popular right now in some places. If you could afford 5 domestic students but only 4 international students you might go for 5 domestic students even if the international students were more qualified. Maybe people did overshoot their chances and it's not as bad as I think it is. This could all be selection bias and it could be typical but just not seen in past threads on gradcafe.

@Shnoztastic domestic biostat PhD students are typically funded but if @Crystalzhao95 is international it's very difficult to get funding since there are no teaching assistantships usually and a lot of the funding is restricted for Domestic students (NIH training grants). It's still possible that they will receive funding but an unfunded PhD isn't worth it. still I would definitely reapply if you don't get funding because I don't think you can justify spending $200k+ for a PhD. I don't think you can count on landing a good job in the US (if that's what you are planning) with the current political climate. Even without changes, H1-B visas are hard to get and I don't even think you would make enough on OPT to cover half of your educational costs. Try stats programs with a more of a biostats focus and apply again if you don't get funding, but if you are international I would expect that you won't get much funding especially at Berkeley's masters program.

@GoPackGo89 I also wish it broke it down by masters and phd. It's probably close but there are more masters student spots since it is a shorter program so you can get 2-5 masters cohorts (depending on if it's a 1, 1.5, 2 year program) through for each phd cohort. I looked up the ASA master data and Columbia had 435 people graduate in 2016, so it's definitely a cash cow program. There were 3249 stats masters graduates and 657 biostat graduates. The ASA data is here.

SAME! I feel bad that I am going on 4 visits where each program is spending approximately a $1000 on me and I can only attend one of them. And all of the people have been super nice and I like them. I feel like I am going to hurt their feelings or something. All of my programs knew where I applied so I think they know that I am sitting on multiple offers. I also feel so bad that while so many people are shutting out this year I have 5 offers and 3 programs to hear back from. I am not trying to brag but this is not a frequent occurrence in stats. One of my programs emailed me telling me that they have a large waitlist and I realized that I am holding so many spots. I don't know what I want to do anymore and of course, I am still waiting for my first choice. We have 45 days to decide. This is so stressful.

Plus people who graduated in 2016 started in the early 2010s so it has probably grown by then and more programs have definitely popped up. I would think stats would have a higher completion rate than math/physical sciences and be closer to engineering. The NSF graduate student survey has about 8,000 stats graduate students that number may include biostats some might be counted in the life science category. Computer science has over 10 times that and math has two and half. I am basically guessing here and mainly I am just curious how stats compares to other fields. I know psychology is highly competitive and depending on the subfield have average acceptance rates of under 5%. It seems like a rough year this year for stats.

Is UCB Berkeley? And can you afford $60k+ a year?

@Jairo333 maybe you are waitlisted? They call it the “alternate list” but being waitlisted (maybe unofficially) is an possiblity.

Good idea. In 2016 there were 402 stat phds and 190 biostat. Assuming 75% completion that would be 790 spots approximately.