omicrontrabb

Your profile is pretty solid. I think you should generally aim for stats programs ranked 20-40. If you want to maximize your chances of being accepted, apply to large programs in less glamorous locations, for example Ohio State. I would recommend not applying to Virginia. Their admission rate is extremely low despite their ranking. Boston has a combined math/stats department and recommends the math GRE subject test. You probably don’t have the math background they want. Wisconsin and UNC are reaches.

@Taxxi It's just quite difficult to get into CMU in general. They are one of the top programs and focus a lot on machine learning which is really hot right now. Compared to the OP, you went to top 3 university in South Korea, so a top 100 university in the world, and you said you think you'll get 90%+ on the Math GRE. That would make you a standout applicant. The OP has a really good profile and I think should definitely still apply to CMU and other similar schools. They're reaches, not impossible.

@Dandelion_97 Very few PhD applicants in statistics have any publications. It’s difficult to get involved in statistics research without a graduate degree in statistics. You have a very solid profile and you should be able to get into some great PhD programs. Since you’re an international student and didn’t go to a super famous university, I think you’ll have a tough time getting into CMU. But you should have a good shot at TAMU, Penn State, NC State, Ohio State, etc.

With your GPA being so low, I don't think it's worth it for you to apply to Stanford, Berkeley, Chicago, CMU, Duke and Columbia. Those are the top programs and have tons of applicants with near perfect grades and GRE scores to pick from. I'm not exactly sure what you should expect since very few people get B's in calculus and linear algebra, then an A in graduate real analysis. I would apply to a range of schools ranked between 20-50 and see if someone is willing to take a chance on you, since you clearly are capable of advanced math. It's not a good idea to apply to only UC schools, since their location makes them more desirable and harder to get into. As for your GRE, it's probably not worth retaking.

You have a good profile, but you're applying to way too many reaches. I would be shocked if you got into Harvard/JHU and I think it's unlikely you'll get into Yale/Brown/Columbia. A few things: Ivies are more selective than their ranking suggests, since everyone wants the prestige of going to an Ivy. Yale/Brown are very small programs and therefore extremely selective. For getting a job, departmental reputation is far more important than overall university ranking. For example, people in the field would consider Minnesota better than Columbia. You should have a good shot at BU. You should apply mainly to schools like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pittsburgh, etc. Lastly, if you could improve your GRE-Q score by a few points, I think that would be helpful.

@Rasha.K I would consider adding places like Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, UCLA and maybe Washington.

Have you considered applying to epidemiology PhD programs instead? They're similar to biostatistics, but less math intensive. They also value public health and biology experience a lot more that biostat programs do. I'm not super familiar with epidemiology admissions, but your background seems like a good fit for that.

Have you taken other math classes besides what you've listed? Have you taken Calc 1/2/3, linear algebra, etc?

Even for PhD programs in statistics, professors don’t really want you to contact them before you’re accepted. It’s mostly a waste of their time and isn’t going to increase your admissions chances. There’s just too many applicants for professors to have time for that. Go to an open house or visit day if you want to talk to people.

@likewater That looks about right. Although with how competitive admissions are, I wouldn't consider anything a "safety." I go to Harvard/Wash/Hopkins and was rejected from BU. Yale and Brown are probably reaches since their programs are very small (like 2 students a year) and everyone wants to go to an Ivy+. I would consider adding Pitt to your list. Lastly, you might consider applying to Washington (Seattle) in addition to/instead of one of Harvard, Hopkins. UW seems to be a bit easier to get into, since again, everyone wants to go to an Ivy+.

I think 1 of the 12 programs I applied to asked for fall grades, so I don't think it's very common. I was also rejected by about half of those programs, so I must have been on the "cusp of admission" at some of them. I was also enrolled in real analysis during that fall semester. So a few might, but generally they won't.

You should definitely apply to all of the top biostatistics schools. You're really underselling your background. You took Calc 3, linear algebra and real analysis. (I'm a PhD student at one of Harvard/Wash/Hopkins and as an undergrad, the only math courses I took besides those were differential equations (not useful) and another semester of real analysis.) You go to a top university with excellent grades in general plus a high GRE score. You also did SIBS, which I think is a plus. I would not consider you a non-traditional applicant. I'd be fairly surprised if you didn't get into at least one of Minnesota/UNC/Michigan/Berkeley. (Although Michigan frequently admits people to their MS instead of the PhD.)

@DanielWarlock The original poster is a domestic applicant. You're an international applicant. It is much harder to be admitted as an international student. (He's also an Ivy League math major.)

Do you think that could improve your GRE score? A mediocre GPA, few math classes, and a low GRE score is a tough combo, since those are the main ways to show your math ability. Getting a 165+ on the quantitative portion would probably help. Even if you improve your GRE, without real analysis, you're not going to be accepted into UNC and I think it's highly unlikely you'll get into Brown, Vanderbilt, Penn or BU. (Vanderbilt and Brown both have very small programs, Ivies are very competitive regardless of ranking.) What is the topic of your publications? Admissions committees at ranked biostats programs do not seem to care much about applied research experience or work experience, since those are so different than the type of stuff you do as a PhD student. I am not familiar with most of the other programs you listed, but you may have success with them. For example, Maryland's is a PhD in biostatistics and bioinformatics. They may value your CS background and work experience.

I graduated with a BS in statistics and a math minor from a top 15 stats school. I had a 4.0 GPA and similar GRE scores as you and was rejected from all of those stats programs you listed (but accepted into some of the biostats ones.) Your research experience is definitely exceptional, so you may have better luck than me, but you should probably also apply to some lower ranked schools.

Most statistics masters degrees in the US are not funded, even for domestic students. Basically all of the funding is allocated to PhD students. You may be able to find funding at low ranked schools, especially at places that do not award PhDs. However, I'm not really sure that's worth it. What's your goal? Are you trying to build your profile for a PhD in stats or are you looking to go into industry? At this point many statistics masters in the US are professional programs generally meant to prepare people for industry, for example MPS in statistics at Cornell or MS in statistics at NCSU. My understanding is that the Canadian programs are all research focused and require a thesis. There are research focused statistics masters in the US, so if that's important to you, be sure to look for it.

I disagree with the above poster. You have a 3.5 GPA in a math major from an Ivy and you’re a domestic applicant. Assuming you get a solid a GRE score, I’m sure you could get into some solid masters programs. I’m not super familiar with masters admissions, but I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into Rutgers. I think you could even get in somewhere ranked higher if you applied to a bunch of programs. By “work as a research assistant,” do you mean funded? Because you will have a hard time finding that. Additionally many statistics masters are focused primarily on coursework and feature basically zero research, so if research is important to you, be sure to look for that.

You’re going to have a really tough time getting accepted anywhere. 162Q GRE score is really low, especially for an international student. Additionally, I took a quick look at RIT’s applied statistics curriculum and that is not adequate preparation for a statistics PhD. For the bare minimum, you need to take real analysis and linear algebra. Admissions committees are going to question your ability to succeed in Casella Berger type mathematical statistics.

Here's a pretty solid list of data science programs in the US. https://analytics.ncsu.edu/?page_id=4184 The statistics ones are much easier to find since they have been around much longer. Just look at the US News rankings for a general idea of which programs are considered good. As for your question about whether it's worth it to attend lower ranked schools, it really depends on what your goal is. If you want to boost your profile for PhD admissions, maybe not. However, it sounds like you want to become a data scientist and you should be able to do that from a lower ranked school. I interned at a Fortune 100 company as a data scientist and my boss had an MS in statistics from a directional university that I had never heard of.

Just to clarify on my post, I also think it’s really unlikely that you’ll get into places like Stanford. I think it’s unlikely you’ll get into places like Duke/CMU. I had similar stats to yours but from a very well known university and was rejected by those schools. What I meant is that given your profile, I don’t think it’s completely impossible for you to get accepted. It really just depends on how much money you’re willing to spend on applications. Is it worth $100 for you to have like a 15% chance of being admitted to CMU or a 1% chance at Stanford? For me, I thought it was. I’m only applying to PhD programs once and I wanted to give it my best shot.

With a 4.0, tons of math classes and a 168Q GRE score, you should aim higher than the programs that you listed. Stanford/Chicago/CMU/etc are reaches for everyone and your chances probably depend somewhat on the reputation of your current university, but I don't think it would be a waste to apply. You should have a really solid chance at places like NC State, TAMU, Iowa State, etc. Generally, the best schools for probability theory are also the top few programs, like Stanford, Chicago, etc. But you should also consider UNC and Michigan State. Those departments are both known for strength in that area. As for your question, basically no one going into a PhD in statistics has published. Some people will not have any research experience at all. You're fine.

If you’re primarily interested in natural language processing, you probably shouldn’t get a PhD in statistics. That’s typically a topic in computer science or computational linguistics departments. Many statistics departments have no one working on it. I’ve done some work on natural language processing and most of the cutting edge stuff, like GPT2 or BERT, is close to pure computer science. Sure there are probabilities in those models, but they don’t mean anything in the traditional statistical sense. You should probably apply for computer science PhD programs if you want to be an NLP researcher. If you’re more interested in application, I’d focus on gaining experience. A lot of people working in NLP seem to have CS backgrounds and then learn NLP themselves from free online resources.

I agree with @bayessays You mention that you would like to ultimately become a professor. Your most realistic path to that is probably something like this: Getting a masters degree. You could probably get into somewhere around the level of FSU. According to the FSU website, their average admitted GPA was around 3.3. You're probably not going to get funding. Do well in your masters. Get As in mathematically rigorous classes and get some research experience. Some programs allow you to transfer from the MS to PhD or apply to other programs around that level. If you look at the placements from FSU, almost all of their graduates go into industry. That might be selection bias since they can earn far more in industry. The ones who go into academia generally go to schools ranked around FSU or lower. I don't think you have a realistic chance at places like Texas A&M or Purdue even with a masters degree. I'm not very familiar with masters admissions, so other people might have better advice than me.

Realistically, you're not going to be admitted to a top 50 statistics PhD program with a 3.3 GPA from an unknown school. Your coursework at Harvard Extension is unlikely to help. Most students get As in those sort of programs. An admissions committee will be seriously concerned about your ability to do the advanced math required for a stats PhD since you have Bs in linear algebra, real analysis and numerical analysis. I attended the visit day for Ohio State's stats PhD program this year. This seemed to be a typical admitted student: Attended a well known, but not prestigious university. Think something like UConn. Math or stats major with mostly As. Most had math or stats research experience. I assume the admitted students at the other programs you listed would be broadly similar. What is your goal? What are you hoping to gain from getting a PhD in statistics?

I hate to be a bearer of bad news, but you are going to have a tough time getting in stats PhD programs. The most important criteria seems to be math ability. Discrete math seems to usually be a math course for non-math students. (For example, math majors at UCI are not required to take it.) So I’m not sure how admissions committees will look at that. But they are very interested in calculus 3 and linear algebra, which you got B+’s in. Your stats courses seem to be fairly applied, which admissions committees don’t seem to value much. Stats PhD programs also usually expect you to have taken real analysis. If you really want to get a PhD in statistics, you should start by getting a masters in statistics and doing well. Look at traditional statistics programs, not applied statistics, etc., so you can improve your math skills. That would also give you a better idea of what it would be like to get a PhD in statistics. PhD coursework is quite theoretical and math heavy. What’s your goal? You said you want to pursue data science. There seems to be a solid amount of data science jobs available for bachelors grads with your background. It also sounds like you mainly enjoy applied work, whereas stats PhDs are more focused on theory. So I’m not sure if getting a stats PhD would actually help you do what you want to do. You might get be better served by getting a CS masters degree focusing on machine learning or a statistics masters degree or even getting work experience in data science.