thecsguy

Hi all, any feedback is appreciated. I also have an interest in machine learning, so something to keep in mind. Undergrad Institution: Large public school. No statistics department, in the 85 - 100 region of US News. Major(s): Computer Science, Math (a lot of overlay between the two at my school) Minor: Economics GPA: 3.75 (3.7 math) Type of Student: Domestic white male GRE General Test: Q: 168 V: 160 W: 4.0 GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: Did not take (and probably won't given my current time constraints). Research Experience: Project in math department -- not related to statistics. RA at Columbia University, involves computer science -- some applied statistics and economics, but not much. This is on-going and started as a summer RA experience. RA for the National Bureau of Economic Research -- using machine learning and NLP methods within economics. Math Courses: Calc1 (A-), Calc2 (B), Calc 3 (W, A-), Linear Algebra (A), Intro to Proofs (B+), Intro to Probability (W, A), Differential Equations (A), Real Analysis I (A-), Real Analysis II (A), Operations Research (A-), NOTE: I have Ws in Abstract Algebra and a Stochastic Processes courses too. CSCI Courses (with some relation to stats): Grad Machine Leaning (A), Grad Natural Language Processing (A) ECON Courses: Econometrics (A), Statistics (own course separate from math -- more applied) (A) Letters of Recommendation: 2 from research advisors (these will be great), and one from the professor who taught real analysis. Programs Applying: Honestly, I'm leaning towards a masters given that my math background isn't too deep. However, there are a few Phd programs I'm looking at (specifically where my LORs are at or have some type of connections to). PHD: Columbia UCLA Illinois Urbana-Champaign Cornell Penn (Wharton) Penn St Chicago Booth (Econometrics and Statistics) Some CS departments with strong Machine Learning/NLP Masters (taking a shot at a few relatively higher ranked schools): Yale Harvard Wisconsin Washington Chicago Berkeley Michigan Duke John Hopkins Waterloo Some CS departments Concerns: Lack of more advanced math classes and 4 Ws in math. The Ws primarily come from just taking too many classes at once and trying to fulfill my research obligations/other jobs over the past years -- needed the money if I was to get by. Also declared CS/Math major at the beginning of my junior year, so I was sort of trying to play catch-up (starting all the way back at Calc 1). Do I have a shot at any of those masters programs, or is it not even worth applying to a few of the top? Should I target more CS programs instead of stats given my research experience?