data_scrub

Not yet! Think I remember their first acceptances were Feb 1st last year

Still waiting on NC state as well! Based on past years seems like there will be another round or two of acceptances before they start waitlisting, good luck to everyone else still waiting!

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone was familiar with Illinois Urbana Champaign's PhD Statistics Program, if they could comment on how strong the department is (in particular the strengths and weaknesses of the department) and how the program compares to other state universities such as Wisconsin's PhD Statistics, Penn State's PhD Statistics, NC State's PhD Statistics, UCLA,? Thank you very much.  

Congrats to everyone who has gotten acceptances already, and for those of you who haven't keep your heads up - you'll get them soon!
I have to admit that I am more than a little jealous as an MS applicant that you folks are getting your results in so early

Same here! Still waiting. Good luck to all of us?

Sorry to hear that; I am still waiting to hear from NCSU. Hope you get in somewhere else, we still have a long way to go!

Just got an email to check my portal at NCSU -- rejection. Not surprising. Good luck to everyone else who applied!

I got an email from NCSU offering unofficial acceptance from the department for the Stats Ph.D. program! Departmental funding was also offered. I also posted this on the results page. Congrats to those of you already admitted, and good luck to everyone still waiting! 

Okay, thanks for the advice, Bayesian! 
I also have an additional question related to my previous one about prestige, one that touches on another recent post about the prestige of an individual department versus the prestige of an institution. One of the things that I noticed when looking at different programs was that at certain schools, many of the departments related to statistics--such as departments of math, comp sci, econ, industrial engineering, etc.--received higher rankings than did the statistics department itself. Some of these programs, moreover, feature interdisciplinary seminars and dissertation advising across the departments, with a few even having specializations that directly combine the two graduate programs. What is the general opinion of such programs, especially if the particular area of statistics that one wishes to study has a direct interface with a higher ranked program at the institution? I know that every institution is different, but in general, would this be something that should affect one's decision in choosing a program?

Got an Ohio State PhD acceptance today via email. Praise be! Funding info to be announced in the future.

Heard about UIUC today as well!

It doesn't appear to be a school that those worrying about admission decisions applied to, but I just said I didn't get any grad school e-mails today and was bummed out, then checked again and saw I got my first acceptance, so I'll second cyberwulf's optimism for us all!

I am not in statistics, but I know two people who did their PhDs in Stats at NC State and I also did my undergrad at NC State. NC State has strong connections with SAS, which is a large software company. SAS funds a lot of projects at NC State and I believe there are a lot of collaborations with the two (https://news.ncsu.edu/2014/08/sas-agreement/). The Statistics Department is located in SAS Hall. The program might not be super well-known but I think having that connection with SAS is good and NC State is a top research school in general. The two graduate students I know seemed to like the program and they were able to work on multiple projects while they were there. Additionally, NC State is part of the Research Triangle, which allows for a lot of collaborations with various companies, universities, and government agencies in the area. Also, Raleigh is a really cool place.

NC State is by far the strongest and most well-known of those programs, and any statistics job worth having will know that it is among the best programs in the country. UCLA has a strong but small department. Iowa State is historically very strong, but has declined somewhat and the quality of the very large faculty varies more widely than any program I've ever seen, though some are very good. Virginia Tech is definitely the weakest of those programs by far, especially for an academic job, although they might have some industry connections. 

I would go ahead and apply for the REUs.  I agree with the others that the CS courses aren’t that helpful unless you don’t have any experience and they are in languages you are likely to use. 
Now onto your second question. You will be judged a little harsher with a masters and the masters probably isn’t going to make you graduate with a PhD any faster.  The exception is you do extremely well in a top masters program and get great research experience in your first year but that’s pretty rare.   You don’t need any research experience so I wouldn’t worry about that.  I would apply to PhD if that’s what you think you want.  A lot of programs will consider you for a masters if you don’t get into the PhD program. You almost always have the option to drop out with a masters after a few years.

I'm a junior math major looking to ultimately get a masters or phd in stats and trying to figure out how to spend this summer. I'm between either trying to get into an REU to get some research experience under my belt, or taking some Computer Science courses over the summer. (Unfortunately, my schedule constraints are such that I can't fit Computer Science classes into my schedule during the year, but I have heard they are important for stats). Which do you think would be a better use of my time? (If it matters, I will have an opportunity to do research through an undergrad math thesis the last semester of my senior year, but I guess I wouldn't really be able to report this on grad school applications unless I take a year off after undergrad).
Also, one more question: I've heard that if I get a terminal masters degree in stats first (and do a thesis to show research experience), and then apply to PhD programs, I can actually be at a disadvantage for admissions into the PhD programs since undergrads going right into PhD programs are judged less harshly and aren't expected to have as much research experience as people who already have masters degrees. Is this true, and if so, (leaving out the question of funding) is it to my advantage to apply to PhD programs right out of undergrad rather than masters programs?
Thanks!

Hello! Senior undergrad majoring in Math + Stats and minoring in CS (so take my opinion with a grain of salt!) My CS background has been very valuable to me, but as far as coursework goes introductory classes in CS aren't super helpful if you already know some statistical programming (R, python, SAS, matlab, etc). Later courses such as Data Structures and Algorithms have helped me improve as a programmer and mathematician, but I do not value those courses over any of my research experiences or internships. I would recommend to go the research route this summmer, especially if you can apply to an REU! One thing I regret is not getting a letter for my phd application from my REU advisor.
Speaking of which, I'm applying to 8 different phd programs for next fall, and have been accepted to one so far! If you think you want to get a phd soon, I've been told there's no need to get a masters, but that it still can be a valuable experience. Those who do better in masters than they did in undergrad obviously have a more competitive phd application

Don't worry about it.  It's super early.  My guess is that OSU sorted applicants by GRE/GPA pulled out the best candidates to try to start recruiting top candidates before anyone heard back.  I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't done admitting yet. 
I posted this last year with some timelines of places I applied to and my signature has all the dates I heard back which except Duke and Columbia  and Baylor (edited) were the earliest reported dates on hear (unless someone backdated stuff in results without my knowledge): 
.  

cyberwulf makes good points. If I were hypothetically applying to Stat PhD programs again and were admitted to a Harvard, Berkeley, UChicago, Penn Wharton, CMU, etc. (or a JHU, Harvard, UWashington for Biostat), I would probably be inclined to go with one of those. Below the very top tier, I would probably be a little bit more choosy though. For instance, I quite admire some of the smaller programs which are quite strong, in my opinion, like UIUC, Rutgers and Yale -- they have some truly pioneering faculty like John Lafferty and Cun-Hui Zhang. I do not know for certain that I would pick a more "prestigious," large state school program over one of these smaller but very solid programs.
Just my opinion though. Others may disagree, and of course, it is always easier to evaluate things in hindsight after you have gained more experience and knowledge of the field. ?

Those were two excellent posts by cyberwulf and stat now.  Faculty at prestigious institutions may be under a lot of pressure to publish for reasons other than tenure.  It could be because of ego, salary bumps in the future or for getting. consulting gigs in the future. Also top professors may travel a lot or simply have a lot of commitments.  I would generally say going with the prestigious institution is a good move but there are always exceptions .

Prestige is something you should certainly take into account but it is not the only thing. It is probably a good idea to visit the programs you are admitted to in order to get a sense of where you would be most comfortable. In addition, even if a program is ranked "below" the top tier, it likely has niche strengths that are very strong, e.g. Rice University and UCSB Statistics are very strong for financial mathematics, while OSU and University of Missouri are both strong in spatial statistics. So if you are interested in a niche area, it makes more sense to go with the program that has particular strengths in that area.
In addition, your PhD advisor matters more than the program. I attended a mid-tier program (in terms of overall USNWR rankings), but I worked with one of the most distinguished professors who has great PhD placements... former PhD students of his are now faculty at Duke, TAMU, University of Georgia, etc., and from 2012-present, this PhD advisor has had his students taks postdoc appointments at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Penn, etc. So while the prestige of the institution is something to take into account, your success is ultimately up to you. Your publications and recommendation letters are what carry the most weight in academic hiring for Statistics. 

Ohio State as well! No word on funding yet either but I'm in the pool for fellowship/assistantship

Ohio State as well! No word on funding yet either but I'm in the pool for fellowship/assistantship

Ohio State for me also. Received word on the 18th and was notified that I was in the running for the Univerisity Fellowship.

Ohio State as well! No word on funding yet either but I'm in the pool for fellowship/assistantship