Hello all, I've been thinking about grad school for the past few years and decided that I should apply for Fall 2019. I was wondering if any of you would be kind to share any input or advice on my profile and what schools I should be applying too? Here's my profile:
Undergrad Institution: Lower end of Top 30 National University according to US News. (It's a public university) Major(s): Math and Stats (double) Minor(s): GPA: 3.73
Type of Student: Male, Domestic GRE General Test: I have not taken it yet. I will hopefully take it early November. I would say 167+ on Quant, 155+ on verbal and average writing score based on a practice test.
Programs Applying: PhD in Statistics
Research Experience: Did a small research (more data science/mining) project with a professor.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Grader for an Upper Div Probability course.
Letters of Recommendation: I think I will have two decent letters of rec both from stats professors. I don't know who my third would be, but I might reach out to a math professor and hopefully it's half decent.
Math and Stat Courses:
Lower Division: A's in Calc 1-3, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra
Upper Division: A in Data Mining (Grad), Design of Experiments, Intro Analysis, Real Analysis I, Graph Theory, Operations Research, Linear Algebra 1-2 , Complex Variables, PDE's, Probability and Stats 1-3, Abstract Algebra I
A- in Time Series (Grad), Regression Analysis, Stochastic Processes II, Topology
B+ in Real Analysis II, Real Analysis III, Stochastic Processes I
C- in Abstract Algebra II
Applying to Where: UC Berkeley, JHU, UC Davis, Columbia, Michigan Ann-Arbor, Iowa State, NCSU, CSU (Fort Collins). I want to keep the number around 5-8 and might not apply to JHU just to save some money.
I know that UC Berkeley, JHU, Columbia, and Michigan are a long shot, but I wanna try my luck. I also hope to leverage the personal statement for Berkeley and Michigan. Do you think I should apply to less reach schools and apply to more safer schools like ASU or others around the rank of CSU. I'm also afraid that my GRE scores won't be sent on time because I'm taking it in November, so I want later deadlines.