Jdriii

I hesitate to ever suggest programs for people but it really does sound like Florida would be a great choice for you in almost every way. Good luck!

@NothalfgoodYou're right that when I project myself 3 years in the future I smile just a bit more in the sunny weather of Florida, and the placement of many Rutgers students into finance is unappealing. Maybe that's what really matters.
 
Thanks for the feedback

Hey all, I have applied to and been accepted to several Statistics PhD programs for the Fall and am unsure how to begin to narrow down which school I should consider.
The programs I've gotten admission into: Rutgers, Stony Brook, Florida, Boston, Virginia
Programs I haven't heard from yet but still might consider: Rice, Northwestern.
 
I have no idea where to begin in deciding which program to attend! Everywhere except for Stony Brook seems reasonably funded considering their respective locations. I am interested in pursuing an academic career (or at least would like to not rule it out), so I'm sure the rankings of the departments/fame of particular faculty members is important. 
As far as research interests are concerned, I am not particularly set in stone. I lean applied and am broadly altruistically motivated, though this could manifest in different ways (many areas in biostatistics, spatiotemporal modeling for climate, longitudinal analysis for track disease spread, etc).
I enjoy the weather of the Florida, but the intellectual and cultural community that you find in Boston is also appealing.
 
In summary, I'm convinced that graduate school doesn't have to be a miserable time. I want to have fun and do good for the world one day, and I hope to go to the place that helps me leverage my 20's in the best way to do that (if that means becoming an academic, then optimizing for academia. Same for working for Govt., etc.).
 
I know that this is a broad problem to ask strangers on the internet for help with, but I'm just looking for some guidance. I;m sure there are many unknown-unknowns and lapses in my reasoning that I'm unaware of. I'm happy to flesh out any questions you have as well. Thank you

It sounds like many of you have been admitted to multiple amazing schools- congratulations!! That is such an incredible accomplishment! If you haven't already, would you please decline any offers that you know you won't be using as soon as you possibly can?  I know some of us are still waiting on schools and it would make our lives just a bit easier. Thank you!! Good luck with your difficult decisions!

If the NCSU graduate coordinator has not already done so, you can ask for a list of job placements from recent years. They should be able to provide it. Duke's placements are readily available here: https://stat.duke.edu/people/phd-alumni
I think NCSU would be fine, personally. I am currently collaborating with a postdoc at University of Chicago who got their PhD from NCSU.
Grad students who are interested in academic careers should be focused on publishing papers in statistics journals and machine learning conferences like NeurIpS, ICML, and AISTATS as early as possible (and getting teaching experience as instructor of record if they are specifically interested in pursuing careers at teaching-focused institutions). Most students won't really do much or any research while they're completing coursework (the first 1-2 years of the program), but you should be thinking about it early if you want to pursue academia. I think a nice thing about Duke is that they require the first-year students to take a Readings in Statistical Science seminar each semester of their first year, so they can become acquainted with the most recent statistics literature earlier. But even without this, there are many other things grad students can do to get a "head start" (e.g. attend seminars, do independent study, get involved early with interdisciplinary research, etc.).

Just got accepted to Rutgers PhD Statistics program. I must have been in the first round because there's no word from any other schools yet.
 
What are people's opinions of the program? I've heard that is is underrated in the rankings due to it's small size, but I don't know much.

Rutgers is solid and probably ranked appropriately.  Harry Crane has an awesome twitter and I'd go there just because of that. 

Just got accepted to Rutgers PhD Statistics program. I must have been in the first round because there's no word from any other schools yet.
 
What are people's opinions of the program? I've heard that is is underrated in the rankings due to it's small size, but I don't know much.

Your list of schools for your profile is very reasonable. I think your strong performance in upper division math classes can compensate for your lower overall GPA, which seems to be mostly due to your grades from freshman year (you should have a LOR writer emphasize this trend and make it clear in your application that your GPA is due solely to a rough start your freshman year, not due to inconsistent performance throughout all of college).
As long as you are showing an upward trend and can secure very strong recommendation letters, I think you have a good shot of getting into one of the programs you listed (of those, NC State and Penn State may be a bit of a reach).