blehperson

Your profile is really good apart from the GRE score, which doesn’t align at all with your course grades. I would really recommend retaking it. I feel like with a better GRE score most of these schools are attainable. Besides, in grad school you will be taking exams that are much harder than the Q section of GRE.

With your profile, I would apply to mostly top 10 programs. I don't see reason not to apply to all of the top 10. I think undergrad institution counts for a lot - most people I know with decent GPAs from an ivy league school got into most of the schools they applied to. Btw I had a similar profile, feel free to PM me

Undergrad Institution: Ivy Major(s): Statistics and Mathematics Minor(s): Computer Science GPA: 3.88/ 4.00, major: 3.93 Type of Student: Domestic Asian GRE General Test: Q: 168 V: 162 W: 5.0 GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: M: n/a TOEFL Score:n/a Programs Applying: Statistics PhD Research Experience: 1. 7 months research on spectral methods for estimating parameters of network models, culminated in senior thesis 2. physics REU Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 1. school level awards (magna cum laude, highest honors, etc.), award for being top 10% of the class Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 1. two internships - one in tech, one in finance 2. TA for 4 semesters: data science, linear algebra, machine learning, and grad level GLMs Letters of Recommendation: 2 from well known professors in the field (one from research), 1 from teaching faculty. All should be good. Math/Statistics Grades: Math: real analysis (A-), linear algebra (A), complex analysis (A), topology (A), dynamical systems (A), abstract algebra (A), combinatorics (A) Stat: probability (A), inference (A), machine learning (A), stochastic process (A), data science (A), nonparametric stat (A) grad level stuff: machine learning for NLP (A-), GLMs (A-), advanced probability (A-), advanced inference (A), market design (A) misc: E&M (A), Mechanics (A), quantum mechanics (A) Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: took 5 grad classes, TAd a grad class, good recs, good grades at a top school, low GRE (took it cold) Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome) Harvard - Stat PhD/ admitted - Declined Wharton - Stat PhD/admitted - Declined UWashington - Stat PhD/admitted - Declined UCLA - Stat PhD/admitted - Declined Wisconsin Madison - Stat PhD/admitted - Declined Columbia - Stat Phd/ waitlisted / admitted - Attending Duke - Stat Phd / admitted - Declined CMU - Stat Phd / rejected Stanford - Stat PhD / rejected (no math GRE...) Berkeley - Stat PhD / rejected Michigan - Stat PhD / pending / withdrew Chicago - Stat PhD / pending / withdrew Toronto - Stat PhD / pending / withdrew I decided to apply to PhD programs very late, and didn't have time to take the math GRE. Applied to Stanford anyways based on advice from my professors, but it didn't work. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results though.

I don't know much about JHU, but I chose columbia's stat phd over my other options (harvard and UW). I think they are stronger in applied research than many other top stat phd programs, and have a broader definition of statistics research than many other schools. A handful of faculty work in computational biology and neuroscience, and they have a strong machine learning community that is integrated with the stat dept. At many other schools (such as UW) machine learning is dominated by CS, so this was a major factor for me.

My unqualified opinion: it can't hurt to write a letter to the admissions committee stating your continued interest and intention to accept the offer if accepted, and updating them with any news since you submitted your application. I'm not sure about contacting the professor directly, but maybe ask an admin to add the letter to your application?

^I was waitlisted by Columbia yesterday, and accepted today. Seems like they're accepting more people.

From what I can tell, Stanford grads completely dominate the academic job market (just looking at the education of profs at top schools). How quickly do the chances at academia drop as you move down the rankings? Harvard seems to produce a decent number of amazing academics (like Avi Feller, Peng Ding, Shane Jensen), but for Washington I can only find two (Drton and Volfosky).

I have a related question, which is: how steep is the talent gradient going from the very top schools (Berkeley, Stanford) down to the second tier (such as Duke and Washington)? I feel like having very talented and motivated peers should definitely be a consideration, reputation of the program aside. Based on the student profiles, my first impression is that there is a fairly noticeable gap between Berkeley/Stanford and everyone else.

did anyone else not hear back at all from Chicago?

Also rejected from CMU

I got in Harvard

I got into UPenn just now! Also UCLA and Washington over the weekend.

Anyone else not able to view UCLA decision? I get a system error

Official rejection from stanford just now

Was it an official decision? Still nothing for me...

@theduckster Applied scientist is actually different from research scientist. Research scientists work at MSR and essentially function the way they would in academia (i.e. publishing papers). Applied scientist is essentially data science - the job is to improve Bing/ Windows autocomplete. It is very rare for an undergraduate to get a full time position at MSR as far as I know.

Hi all, I've been holding onto an offer from Microsoft as an applied scientist (in Bing Natural Language Understanding). I also applied to PhD programs, and am waiting to hear back. As I'm looking at the alumni profile page of some of these schools, it seems like a large number of people don't really land top tier/ high paying industry positions even after completing their PhD. I feel like doing a PhD will be fun, but in case I don't make it in academia, do you think it would hurt me for applying to industry positions? What are your thoughts on weighing industry positions vs PhD in general?

anyone get a Chicago PhD decision today?

accepted to duke as well just now (no interview)!

I'm also wondering what happened with Duke

Anyone hear from Duke stats PhD yet?

Also not sure whether to report. I did it for Wisconsin because they asked for it, but none of the others.

Did anyone hear from Duke? In past years they sent out interviews around this time.

Did everyone get a fall transcript request from Wisconsin?

Thanks. My concern is that reviewers might wonder whether it was due to academic dishonesty or something like this.