Hello everyone,
I am planning to apply for PhD programs in Statistics and/or Biostatistics. I am seeking advice about the programs I should target. I would like advice based on my background below. Thank you a lot for your time!
A quick summary about me - I have undergraduate degree in environmental science and master’s degree in applied stat. I graduated in 2019 and have one-year work experience. I attach my questions at the end.
Type of Student: International, Asian
Undergraduate Institution: Asian, top-50 by US news ranking
Majors: Environmental Science
GPA: 3.46/4.0 by WES (84/100)
Courses taken (score by WES):
CS
Intro to Computation (A)
Data Structure and Algorithm (B)
Math
2 calculus courses (A and B)
Linear Algebra (A)
Probability Theory and Statistics (A)
Stat
Applied Statistics (B)
Graduate Institution: Master’s degree, top-20 by US news ranking in stats major
Majors: Applied Statistics (courses only, no thesis), dual degree in environmental science
GPA: 3.6/4.0
Stat 400-level
Intro to Theoretical Stat (B+)
Applied Probability (B)
Stat 500-level
Stat Learning I (A-)
Stat Learning II (A-)
Stat Inference (A)
Stat Consulting (A-)
Probability Distribution Theory (A-)
Stat Inference (A)
Stat 600-level
Linear Models (B+)
Survival Time Analysis (A)
Stat Computing (A-)
GRE General Test: Q: 170 (96%); V: 152 (56%), W: 3.5 (41%)
Research Experience
Second author of a paper that is under peer review now. I did plenty of map visualization on the topic of air pollution. No modern stats method applied. (*big name prof. in biostatistics, not sure how the rec would be)
One presentation at the School Symposium about a minor project, using spatial statistics method to answer an environmental question.
Undergraduate thesis is about applying non-linear optimization method in a environmental problem. (*prof. in environmental science, good but not strong rec)
Graduate capstone is much like consulting about clean energy, no related to stat. (*prof. in environmental science, might be strong rec)
Research assistant for a social scientist for half year. I mainly cleaned data in R and SAS, and did some simple tests. (*prof. in social science, strong rec)
Working Experience
One-year work experience in a software company. Daily work includes programming in Python, R, Git; researching for spatial-temporal statistical methods, such as time series forecast, spatial outlier detection. (*supervisor)
Letters of Recommendation
I listed the potential recommenders with asterisk* in the Research/Work Experience above.
I can reach out to prof. who taught stat courses but that would be weak rec I guess.
Currently considering schools
Planning to focus on 20-50 tiers schools in the U.S., such as UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Davis, OSU, Boston U, UUC. In addition, I am planning to apply for British Columbia and McGill in Canada.
My questions
Here is my main question - I like statistics, and based on by background in environmental science, I think biostatistics would provide a good balance between theory and application for me. Yet with little research experience in biostats, I find it hard to compare the programs. What should look for when I scan through the programs? Any advice about how to filter programs would be appreciated!
I have another concern about the targets – I am worried my low GPA and weak background in math would become a constraint. Is there anything I should be aware about? For example, does programs usually filter applicants' GPA first?
In addition, I would love to hear about who you think would make the best combo of recommenders. The fact that most of my rec would not come from prof. in stat concerns me as well.
Thank you in advance for your input!