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Thank you, bro! I do feel the limitation of research in UMN. I am looking into OSU interdisciplinary biostat program, which the first two-year coursework are the same to OSU stat. I could choose professors from stat as dissertation advisors. From the list https://biostatprograms.osu.edu/biostatphd/faculty, half of the stat faculty are there. Compared to UMN, OSU allows for more interactions with the stat, which I prefer. However, this program does not have a ranking and I guess some professors' background is not as strong as UMN and even BU. BU professors' education background are all reputable schools. How would you value this OSU program?

Yes, you are right. There is no funding for the 18-month UW Capstone program. It is designed for job hunting so students will not be requested to take STAT 512\513, which is the core courses for 24-month Thesis program. I think it is a disadvantage. I do not feel the fund is a very big point but the time and its output. Based on your experience, do you think there are some professors in BU are strong enough could place their students to top posdoc? I did not find some on their websites.

Recently, I received Biostat PhD offer from the Ohio State University and Ms. Capstone admission from the University of Washington. It makes me feel harder to decide... Thank you for your help!

Thank you for your honest sharing! 1. That is the case but I do not know how bad this program will be. 2. Definitely, there are not professors in network analysis but some are in ML like Prof Wei Pan? I think big health data is interesting but I am not a fan of clinical trials. 3. That is true. But first I want to try to figure out whether I do well in academics. If not, I want to go to IT. Given this, I feel BU is not that reputable than UMN? 4. I agree. I just thought about whether I could suffer from this in order to go to a more reputable program. Now I think this is really a hard decision. How do you think about UW biostat MS capstone as a stepstone to a better stat PhD program?

My current interests are network analysis and might be high-dimension data and Bayesian statistics. I admit that I lack enough exposure to all stat fields. I am not that interested in clinical trials but I think big health data is interesting. I would like to do more methodological things rather than applied. I see there are some professors doing network analysis in UW biostat. If I go there, I want to work with them. But I am not sure what kind of stat PhD I could get because my undergraduate school is not famous. Would you mind offering some suggestions? Thank you!

When I paid a visit to BU, another professor there said that there are not that many things happening in network analysis. And Dr. Kolaczyk seems to be working with Geometry professors so that I am a little bit afraid because I did not study geometry. When I looked into UMN biostat professors' research interests, I do not feel that excited. Maybe I did not look into their papers carefully. I see UMN biostat graduates have a very impressive academic placement: 2 FSU stat AP without Postdoc and 1 JHU biostat with Postdoc. I chatted with some current students and they said that I would find something interesting there after the first year coursework, more familiar with UMN. There is another option, that is UW Biostat Capstone - 18-month program aiming at job hunting. I would like to treat it as the stepstone to apply for Stat PhD programs. But this is their first year and the director said this program is at disadvantage for further study compared with their 24-month Thesis program. In the last year, two Thesis students successfully transferred to UW biostat PhD program. Another two went to UBC and Pittsburgh Stat PhD program. I am not sure whether I could go to a Stat PhD program like UCLA or PSU after finishing study there. Many thanks!

Thank you for your comments! I have paid a campus visit there and find 90% of the stat PhD students go to industry. I have no doubt that Boston is a nice place. However, considering two big names on the opposite side, will it make disadvantages to BU students?

Hi everyone, My undergraduate major is STAT. And I really want to learn something in PhD training. Up to now, I only received two STAT/BIOSTAT PhD offers and am really confused about them. My research field is not that clear because I will not be supervised to do a typical statistics paper before graduation. I am not sure how well I could do so I am not sure I could go to academia or industry. But if I do well in academics, I prefer to being a professor. BU: Pros: 1. Boston is a big city so it is better to live there than Minnesota. 2. It is Statistics. It has wider applications and it is easier to shift into another area than Biostatistics. 3. They are some professors researching in Bayesian Statistics and Network Science, which seems to be two potential research areas for me. Cons: There is no ranking in USNEWS for it. I do not know this program's reputation. I did not find where the graduate students go after finishing this program. UMN: Pros: It ranks 24 in USNEWS. I have heard it is a program with a good reputation. Cons: 1. I have checked the research fields of professors there but find no professors focusing on network science. There are some doing Bayesian statistics and machine learning. 2. One of my friends graduated from UMN said Minnesota is so cold and boring... 3. It is biostatistics so it seems to narrow me down in this field. I have confidence in finishing the PhD training in either school. However, since my research area is not settled and I am not sure about academia or industry, I really need your advice! Thank you very much!