statcan

Agreed. If you look at previous profiles and results, you probably won’t get the sense that international students have a huge advantage at stat over biostat departments (if any). It seems Harvard is really tough for international students, but from my limited exposure I get the sense that UW, Michigan, UNC, and possibly even Hopkins have been accepting lots of non-Americans over the years.

What do you mean by "lack of computing"? According to the course requirements at Wisconsin and at UNC, it seems like UNC actually requires students to take a course in computing, whereas Wisconsin does not.

It seems like UNC has quite a few faculty working in clinical trials. You can find 14 of them listed under "clinical trials" here. It doesn't seem to me like Wisconsin has a clearly bigger focus on this area than UNC. There's also the "IMPACT" program joint with UNC, NC State and Duke with plenty of UNC Biostatistics faculty taking part: http://www2.cscc.unc.edu/impact7/ . To add to this, the primary grant funding this project is focused on cancer clinical trials, entitled "Statistical Methods for Cancer Clinical Trials". I don't know too much about this field but from a first glance, it seems to me like UNC is a great place for your interests. What makes you say that Wisconsin has better opportunities?

Undergrad Institution: Canadian institution Major(s): Math and Statistics Minor(s): GPA: ~90% Type of Student: International (Canadian) GRE General Test: Q: 168 (94%) V: 157 (76%) W: 4.5 (82%) Programs Applying: (Statistics, Biostatistics MS/PhD) Research Experience: Did two research assistantships at my university and held one research job in industry. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Letters of Recommendation: All from research supervisors Math/Statistics Grades: A's in real analysis, abstract algebra, regression, mathematical statistics, and some other Math/Stat courses. Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Most research I did was biostat-focused. Applied: Statistics/Biostatistics PhDs except at the Canadian schools University of Waterloo (MMath Statistics) - Accepted University of Toronto (MSc Statistics) - AcceptedUW-Madison (Statistics) - Accepted CMU (Statistics) - Accepted University of Washington (Biostatistics) - Accepted UNC Chapel Hill (Biostatistics) - Accepted University of Washington (Statistics) - Rejected Harvard (Statistics) - Rejected University of Chicago (Statistics) - Rejected University of Pennsylvania - Wharton (Statistics) - Rejected

If you're debating between UBC and Waterloo, make sure you look closely at your financial support since these cities (Vancouver and Kitchener-Waterloo) have drastically different costs of living. Waterloo is very affordable, while Vancouver is one of the most expensive cities in Canada. That said, Vancouver is beautiful and it's an amazing place to be if you can afford it.

CMU has had many great industry placements and they're available online: http://www.stat.cmu.edu/phd/thesis They may have fewer academic placements, but the ones that are listed are excellent. I wouldn't worry at all about your job prospects coming out of CMU especially given your interests in ML which is what they seem to be known for. I don't know much about Columbia, sorry. Did you visit the departments and/or cities? Pittsburgh is a smaller city but is pretty charming, and people seem to like living there. That said, I don't need to tell you that NYC is a city like no other, so it really comes down to preference.

The CMU visit day is not until this weekend. If people reject their offers, they'll most likely do so starting next week.

How might these programs compare with Wisconsin-Madison Statistics?

Check the U of T SGS admissions site. My status is “decision made”.

Still waiting.

@statscan9 Congratulations on your offers! Have you applied for a Masters or Ph.D. at McGill? Best of luck with your decision, and if you end up at McGill, enjoy the lovely Montreal.

I appreciate your honesty. Truly, they are both great research fits and I think they're both awesome programs. I just wanted to hear the grad cafe's opinion on the whole thing.

This is what I was afraid of. I've heard the opposing opinion from my mentors though. They say prestige matters somewhat, but research output (and to a lesser extent, one's adviser) trumps all when they consider who to hire.

I'm fine with having to write tough qualifying exams as long as their purpose is to make the students stronger, rather than weed people out.

Hi everyone, I am really fortunate and have received two offers so far. One from UW Biostatistics, and the other from CMU Statistics. Even if I receive no other offers, I'll have a really hard time deciding on a program. I'm not exactly sure what I'd like to do for research, but I've been generally interested in high-dimensional statistics, statistical computing, nonparametrics, statistical genetics, causal inference, epidemiology, and a few other rather niche areas. My ultimate goal would be to obtain a faculty position, but if that market tightens by the time I graduate, I'd also be very happy to work in industry. Also, I don't think this will be an issue in either department, but I really want to be in a friendly environment that is more collaborative than competitive. I know that UW Biostatistics ranks ahead of CMU and has a great track record of placing graduates in academia. However, I feel like CMU is a slightly better (i.e. near-perfect) research fit. I hope to visit both campuses but I just thought I'd seek out advice from you knowledgeable folk first.