hopesandprayers

I think your profile is pretty good, and that you'll get into several of the lower ranked schools on the list you produced - i.e. if you're satisfied with going to one of those places then you can relax. My advice is to apply to your dream schools even if you think you don't have a shot because you might regret not doing that if you get into most of the places you applied. Also, I think USnews' grad schools ranking is very poor because their methodology is purely based on an opinion survey of faculty members and doesn't directly account for actual research done by a department. It's more important, in my opinion, what faculty in a department actually produces in terms of research, and this will govern reputation in the long run regardless. Look through faculty at the schools you wanna apply at to actually get an idea of who you might want to work with, gear your SOP at each school toward those areas, and hope for the best

I think your profile is fantastic and I think that you'll get in to several of your "probably not gonna happen, but one can dream" schools. Apply anywhere that you feel like you would regret not applying to later. I thought my list was really top heavy when I was applying (based on my own insecurities and evaluation on here), and it still ended up being top heavy, but I removed two schools (Berkeley for Statistics and Princeton ORFE) and proceeded to get in nearly everywhere I applied (with the exception of Harvard, Stanford (where I was waitlisted) and Carnegie Mellon) and I'm going to Columbia. I really regret not applying to those two programs because I feel in hindsight that I would have had a good shot of getting in. My profile was worse than yours (take a look if you want, it was posted last year), so you're in fantastic shape. Write off ~$500 (if this is affordable) to apply to your dream schools. Please do not undersell yourself. You will get into Columbia with near certainty, and if you base your prospects on having a better profile than me, you will also get into UChicago and Duke as I was admitted to those as well. Obviously I say near certainty because of the variation between applicant pools. Best of luck, and feel free to PM me

I just committed to Columbia, so thank you all for helping me get to the decision I was clearly trying to convince myself of from the get go

I would argue Columbia's stats dept is nearly as elite as Chicago's, perhaps not quite but somewhat close. Some lists even rank it above Chicago - not on US new of course but that seems to be an average of scores given by faculty only. I'm trying to make the "eliteness" of a program or its prestige mean as little as possible to me, but of course it still impacts my feelings about the decision (and I've clearly looked it up, lmao). I think the quality of life in Chicago might be better due to the lower living costs and a more studious atmosphere (at least I got that vibe - and Chicago's campus is the best thing ever), but if we compare Hyde Park to Morningside Heights I'd say the latter is somewhat safer.

Definitely a Bayesian - wouldn't really be considering Duke otherwise, although it's definitely third on my list in terms of research I'd like to do. I'm putting it up here because I loved it when I visited and they do still have an excellent department of course. I lean toward Columbia because I feel like I should make this decision as much about research fit as possible, but I feel like I'm going to regret not going to Chicago because I absolutely loved the visit there too. This is impossible for me to be honest.

I can't decide which one to go to, and I obviously need to by April 15th. I feel like Columbia is the best fit research wise (I'm interested in applied probability/stochastic differential equations and Columbia has tonnes of probabilists), Chicago also has great people and is better if I change my mind and want to do more stats instead of probability (or for more theoretical probability - pure theory doesn't seem like a smart move career wise though), while Duke also has fantastic faculty and (this is somewhat important I suppose) seemed to have by a million miles the happiest grad students. Any advice from those who have already made their decisions (or have already started/finished a program at one of these places)?

Congratulations @Cauchy! Your decision is obviously a really awesome problem to have, and I'll keep my sliver of hope for now. Also @MathStat and @Schweinchen feel free to hmu if you guys wanna get in touch before Chicago's visit day if you're going

Thanks!! And good luck on your remaining results!

Has anyone heard from Columbia, CMU or Harvard? (regular PhD, not Biostats) The waiting game is actually eating my soul right now.

@MathStat congrats on Chicago! Fingers crossed for the both of us, and good luck on your other applications! @insert_name_here, thanks for the info and I really hope that will hold this year too lol

Thanks for the detailed reply! I've been accepted at Chicago and Duke and the rest are pending, so I'm not desperate to go to Stanford but I really would love to. We'll see how it all falls but I'm not going to get my hopes up at this rate.

My situation is exactly as the title states. I'm wondering if anyone has had an experience where they've gotten in off the waitlist (and I recognize it's unlikely for anyone to say no to the best stats program in the world, but I am still curious lmao).

Thanks for your advice! I know I'm not a sure thing for any of the top places - but I assumed that there's a decent chance I get into at least one of them - perhaps I'm wrong. I wouldn't say my institution has tonnes of prestige, although our statistics department is quite well known in Canada. Do you think I should report that math subject GRE score to any of the places that don't require it (all of them other than Stanford)?

I have a few major questions: Should I report the GRE mathematics subject score to schools that don't require it? If so, which ones? And is that score bad enough to exclude some of the top ones like Harvard, Stanford, Chicago or Columbia? I recognize that it might be. Thanks so much for any help/advice you can provide! Type of Student: Undergraduate in final semester Undergrad School: Smallish Canadian School Undergrad Major: Statistics, Minors: mathematics, economics Undergrad GPA: 4.30 out of 4.33 (4.33 in math and statistics) GRE: Q = 168 (94th percentile), V = 159 (83rd percentile), AW = 4 (59th percentile) Math Subject GRE: 77TH PERCENTILE Relevant Undergrad Courses & Grades: (All A+ grades) Intro Analysis I, Intro Analysis II (essentially first 11 chapters of Rudin in these two), Statistical Theory, Stochastic Processes, Applied Time Series, Complex Variables, ODEs, Sample Surveys, Design of Experiments - and currently taking: Abstract Algebra, PDEs, and two ML intro courses Research Experience: 2 Undegraduate Research Awards (equivalent of REUs in the US) with different professors over the last two summers (one in experimental design, the other in uncertainty quantification). No papers, this summer's project might turn into one, but not before the applications are done - I feel like I'm lacking in the ability to actually show research potential. Recommendation Letters: 2 strong letters from professors that know me well and can speak to my mathematical background. One that might not be perfect since he doesn't know me as well (but I've had 2 A+ grades with him and spoken to him on occasion) Applying to: (ALL PHD IN STATISTICS unless otherwise noted) - Tentative list (it's huge I know but I have a little bit of money to throw away): University of Toronto UBC (MSc statistics) NC State Washington Michigan Carnegie Mellon Duke Columbia Chicago Harvard Stanford Berkeley

Thank you both for the advice. My "smallish" Canadian school has some well known professors (and the two letters I'm really confident in are from two of them). I'll consider applying to some of the schools suggested to make to not so top heavy.

I just took the math subject GRE on saturday, and I feel I did horrible based on my usual standards (see below - I'm estimating roughly 70th to 75th percentile - not sure yet). I'm (tentatively) planning on applying to the following places, all PhD programs in statistics unless otherwise noted: Toronto, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Waterloo (Master's program), Washington, Michigan, Columbia, Stanford, UBC (Master's program), Chicago, Duke. I selected to send to Stanford as one of my four "free" reports since they're the only place that requires it. I recognize the 75th percentile is not good enough to get in there. I don't even think the second score will reach them in time since the application is due on the 4th of December (and even though they apparently take the higher of the two and allow you to self report and receive the score later, my self reported one will probably be from the retake if I decide to do that so my report might be different than the one that they have and that could get complicated). Anyways, would you recommend taking it again in October (registering by this Friday)? Or should I wait to see my score and then if it's super shitty try and take it as a standby? Or is this good enough to send to some of those other programs (in which case I think I might say fuck it and drop Stanford and Chicago from this list and just throw in that towel lol)? My profile is as follows: Type of Student: Undergraduate in final semester Undergrad School: Smallish Canadian School Undergrad Major: Statistics, Minors: mathematics, economics Undergrad GPA: 4.30 out of 4.33 (4.33 in math and statistics) GRE: Q = 170, V = 159, AW = 3.5 Math Subject GRE: Unknown but likely 70th to 75th percentile Relevant Undergrad Courses & Grades: (All A+ grades) Intro Analysis I, Intro Analysis II (essentially first 11 chapters of Rudin in these two), Statistical Theory, Stochastic Processes, Applied Time Series, Complex Variables, ODEs, Sample Surveys, Design of Experiments - and currently taking: Abstract Algebra, PDEs, and two ML intro courses Research Experience: 2 Undegraduate Research Awards (equivalent of REUs in the US) with different professors over the last two summers (one in experimental design, the other in uncertainty quantification). No papers, this summer's project might turn into one, but not before the applications are done - I feel like I'm lacking in the ability to actually show research potential. Recommendation Letters: 2 strong letters from professors that know me well and can speak to my mathematical background. One that might not be perfect since he doesn't know me as well (but I've had 2 A+ grades with him and spoken to him on occasion) Applying to: (ALL PHD IN STATISTICS except UBC) - Not 100% sure yet, but my tentative list is: Toronto, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Waterloo (Master's program), Washington, Michigan, Columbia, Stanford, UBC (Master's program), Chicago, Duke.

If I take a subject test in October, the ETS page says I will know the result (it will be available online) by November 24th, but won't get sent to universities (or won't be there until, this is a little unclear) until December 7th. This provides me with a problem because some of the schools I wish to apply to have deadlines of December 1st. The subject test is optional for my intended program (statistics). Do any of you have experience with self reporting an optional test and having the official result get there later? I have called the universities in question and they say to attach the unofficial (self reported) score and the department will PROBABLY take the score. I don't like the word probably so that's why I'm asking here too just in case anyone else has had similar experiences

Thanks for the advice to all who provided it. I will likely go to a Canadian masters program (probably U of T) first based on the advice I'm getting around the internet and from my school's advisors Averages in all the math classes I've taken have been a C+. Stats has varied between a C+ and a B- for all of them. We only get letter grades. Not sure about the proportion of A+ grades (I only get to see an average and a breakdown of A- to A+, and the A- to A+ category usually ranges between 8-15% of a class). Not terribly easy, but again it is undergraduate coursework so not so hard either. That being said, I'll probably finish in the top 3 students in my grad class, so I don't think that the inflation is heavy at all.

TL;DR - What are my chances of getting into a top statistics graduate program (either masters or doctorate) with excellent marks but little research experience? I am a student at a Canadian university ranked 151-200 in mathematics and statistics (on QS at least). My major is statistics. My GPA is a 4.30 out of a possible 4.33, and I have A+ grades in every math and stats course I have ever taken, obviously these include: calc I-III, intro algebra (theoretical version), ODEs, intro complex analysis, real analysis I and II, regression, time series, probability theory, multivariate stats. If I maintain my current GPA I am likely going to graduate inside the top three people in my graduating class (top GPA in grads this summer was 4.29). I graduate next year, but only have one semester of research experience and no publications. I am curious, for the sake of my ambitions and time + application money's sake, how likely am I to get into a top school such as Stanford/Harvard/Princeton, etc. for statistics or mathematics? I imagine mathematics (or CS) requires more of a research background than the stats does (this is coming from the advisor at my university and my research supervisor for the one semester I have). I appreciate any advice you guys can give. Thanks!

TL;DR - What are my chances of getting into a top statistics graduate program (either masters or doctorate) with excellent marks but little research experience? I am a student at a Canadian university ranked 151-200 in mathematics and statistics (on QS at least). My major is statistics. My GPA is a 4.30 out of a possible 4.33, and I have A+ grades in every math and stats course I have ever taken, obviously these include: calc I-III, intro algebra (theoretical version), ODEs, intro complex analysis, real analysis I and II, regression, time series, probability theory, multivariate stats. If I maintain my current GPA I am likely going to graduate inside the top three people in my graduating class (top GPA in grads this summer was 4.29). I graduate next year, but only have one semester of research experience and no publications. I am curious, for the sake of my ambitions and time + application money's sake, how likely am I to get into a top school such as Stanford/Harvard/Princeton, etc. for statistics or mathematics? I imagine mathematics (or CS) requires more of a research background than the stats does (this is coming from the advisor at my university and my research supervisor for the one semester I have). I appreciate any advice you guys can give. Thanks!