elefish92

@statbiostat2017 Wow, that really made my day, thank you so much!!!

Just for some context... I'm applying for summer 2018, currently a second-year, and as much schools as I can, especially considering my low GPA (sub 3.0) due to mental depression. I'm a minority but male from a top Cal State. I seriously need some test taking advice if anything as well, particularly for midterms. For example, I got an A on my CS Intro to Programming final but a C in the class...yeah...lmao I did get a B in my Applied Probability and Statistics I calculus-based class, which I'm so happy about but obviously need improvement for the future! I loved the class. It really sucks that I won't be able to get in my grade forgiveness in time by the round of applications (I think it'll be a 3.5+ if I get straight A's next semester haha) Anyway, I pretty much have everything else in the books. I'm applying to (as of now, I will probably apply to more...just a draft list): Auburn // Ecology Carnegie Mellon Colorado State // American Statistical Association Columbia // Biostatistics Harvard // Biostatistics Michigan Michigan State Oregon State // RUSIS Penn // Biostatistics I can't really find any other programs right now, mainly due to low GPA (not qualified for the two other ASA REUs at Morgan State and UNCG for ex.... damn) or kinda useless summer program (SIBS). If anyone can answer the questions, suggest summer programs, or/and advice for a prospective Stats PhD student, that would be awesome!!! Otherwise, have a good day and thank you for reading! I

It wasn't that bad, and I am in good standing. Based from what I have read from official sites and forums on here, freshman year does not really matter that much. I am not considering schools based on prestige, otherwise I would have done Ivies and other top private schools. I have Cal and Stanford on my list only because they are top stats programs relatively close to where I want to live, and their research interests match what I think I want in the future. UCLA are the same reasons but in my hometown. Based from what I have read, that it's not that great as expected. Duke is there because I am genuinely interested in Bayesian statistics, although I don't know much. Alright, do you have any advice for those schools at least, or the best advice for the top schools, whatever they may be? I honestly think my mind won't change for those schools. Yeah, that's what I figured, thanks for your input. Also, I don't think I'm going to switch majors because I have done a lot of work in Stats and I absolutely love it. A statistician has been my dream since I was really little, actually. I looked through majors and still chose Stats. But yes, things can change but I'm just saying it probably won't (not to be close-minded). I'll do that, thank you. Thanks for this input, it really told me a lot! I'll definitely do that. Yeah, that's what will probably happen to be honest. I still have a lot of time, I just want to get ahead of the game. --- To everyone, the main reason as to why I skimmed a lot of graduate schools is because of courses. In essence, a lot of schools stated what courses they look at the most. In all honesty, if I didn't do this I probably would not have the schedule I do now, especially CS intro to programming. I forgot to mention this in my thread. Again, thanks to all of you for your input. If any of you have any advice, please tell me, because it will help a lot.

Hey everyone, this is my first post! I'm excited to take upon the journey of applying to graduate school. I'm an upcoming sophomore, so I'm taking this pretty early and seriously. I had a rough freshman year due to depression and other personal unique circumstances, but I should work things out & should be all gone once school starts again. I'm planning to briefly discuss about that in my personal statement, but I have a lot of time. =) It's never too early to start. Anyway, my research interests thus far are leaning to applied statistics; notably speaking, design of experiments/experimental design, inference/analysis, and algorithms (bootstrap). I am doing a minor in Philosophy so you could see how my research interests came to be. I don't mind anything pure as long as it can be immediately useful to society. Obviously it may change later on but it may not. Onto discussion, I have looked at schools that has what I want and need. I'm probably doing Stanford and Duke as well as definitely doing UC Berkeley and UCLA. I also have Northwestern on my list, but one big issue I have is the selectivity. Northwestern is No. 34 in Stats (US News)/No. 40 (Great Value Colleges), which isn't as great. I expected a very selective acceptance rate, but it's still most selective (5.4%). http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/documents/program-statistics/S25PH_adm_enr.pdf Also, what are the match and safety schools? Are safety schools just applying to M.S. programs nearly disregarding reputation? Are match schools those who aren't as prestigious as the top 10, or are there none since getting into a PhD program is hard on its own? Thank you all!