Fred210

Undergrad Institution: (Three year college in Netherlands) Major(s): Mathematics and Physics, double bachelor of science. Minor(s): NA GPA: 3.95 (Cum Laude) Type of Student: Domestic (USA) male GRE General Test: Q: 170 (96%) V: 161 (85%) W: 5 (92%) GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: M: 800 (80%) Grad Institution: UC Berkeley M.A. Statistics (1 year) Concentration: Statistics GPA: 3.95 Programs Applying: Statistics and Biostatistics Ph.D. Research Experience: 1. Bachelor Thesis in Functional analysis and Quantum Mechanics, some original results proved. 2. Graduate student researcher position in Statistics (started after having applied to programs but was mentioned in application) 3. Various small projects in statistics and mathematics, both non-academic and academic. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Cum laude Bachelor Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 1. Tutored for graduate level statistics and probability courses 2. Tutored for undergrad mathematics for biology course 3. Student chair of academic board at undergrad Letters of Recommendation: From professors I've taken courses with in math and physics. I don't think they were very strong. Also, as a warning, europeans tend to write letters in a much more dry way than Americans. In some places, it is standard to actually write criticisms in the letter. I don't think this happened with me but I've heard such stories from people in admission committees. Math/Statistics Grades: (Took 40-50 courses in mathematics and physics) Undergrad: Calculus 1,2,3 (A), Linear Algebra 1,2 (A), Numerical Mathematics (A), Real Analysis (A), Probability Theory (A), ODE's (A), PDE's (A), Systems Theory (A), Dynamical Systems (A), Statistics (A), Asymptotic Statistics (A), Metric spaces (A), Measure and Integration (A-), Functional Analysis (A), Differential Geometry (A), Analysis on Manifolds (A), Data Science in Python (A), Computer Science in Python (A+), Complex Analysis (A) Quantum Mechanics I, II (A), Advanced Mechanics (A), Quantum field theory (A), Group Theory (B+/A- ish) , Representation Theory in Physics (A) Grad: Measure theoretic probability 1 and 2, Theoretical Statistics 1 and 2, Statistical Computing in R , Data Structures and Algorithms in Java Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: My profile was strong (academically). At the time of applying (I had not yet completed the masters) , I didn't have as much relevant research experience nor did I have strong letters. It didn't help that because my masters was a one year program, I had to apply for the PhD programs immediately upon starting the masters. I thought that my profile was strong enough to make up for this. It was not. My take away is that strong letters are essential for the top programs. My profile is much stronger now and I will be reapplying next year. Last year when I applied to masters programs I was accepted everywhere except Stanford (including some Ph.D. programs in mathematics even though I applied to the masters). As a result, I did not change my application (essays etc) by much, thinking they were already good. I believe that this was a mistake and that my application was focused too much on my academic performance/aptitude and not enough on my research performance/aptitude. I did not apply to any Safeties since I had good reason to believe I would be accepted into one of the programs below. Funny enough, the first response I got was being waitlisted at Stanford which, at the time, I took as a good sign. Applying to Where: (All Phd's) School - Stanford University, Waitlisted (I.e. Rejection with honors) School - UC Berkeley Statistics / Rejected School - University of Washington, Seattle Statistics, Rejected School - University of Washington, Seattle Biostatistics, Rejected School - Carnegie Mellon Statistics, Rejected School - Harvard Statistics, Rejected School - University of Chicago Statistics, Rejected School - John Hopkins Biostatistics, Rejected

I would also highly recommend applying to Berkeley Biostatistics with van der Laan. He deals with state of the art statistical machine-learning methods (TMLE, SuperLearner, HAL) that are rigorously backed by mathematics. Your very strong mathematical background will definitely stick out in the application, and I think you have a very good chance of getting in.

I got into a number of the Masters programs you listed (and other of similar tier). I had no internship experience and had little formal coding experience (though I did have some small coding projects on the side). Although, I did have a very extensive math background which likely contributed to my acceptances. So, I don't think you have to worry much about your lack of internship experience and coding, as the programs tend to accept a very diverse range of students. Your scores and performance are very good so I'd bet you would get into at least one of the programs you applied to.

Undergrad Institution: International University at Western European country(3 year) Major(s): Mathematics and Physics double BS Minor(s): Statistics GPA: 3.9 Type of Student: (Domestic, Male) GRE General Test: Q: 170 V: 160 W: 5 GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: M: 800 (79%) TOEFL Score: US Born Programs Applying: Statistics masters and Mathematics masters(Didn't directly apply to any Ph.D's) Letters of Recommendation: Three strong letters from professors whose courses I did well in. Math/Statistics Grades: Grades were all equivalent to an A in US. In total, I have/will complete around 40 courses in mathematics/physics/statistics. Some relevant courses are as follows: Lin algebra and calculus sequences, real analysis, Complex Analysis, group theory, ODE, PDE, Systems Theory, Dynamical Systems, metric spaces/topology, differential geometry, measure theory, manifold analysis, functional analysis, numerical mathematics, probability theory, statistical inference, asymptotic statistics, generalized linear models. Some physics courses: Mechanics, EM, StatPhys/Thermo, Quantum Physics, Lagrangian/Hamiltonian Mechanics, QFT, Representation Theory Applying to Where: Statistics Masters: School - UC Berkeley / Admitted School - University of Washington Seattle / Admitted School -Columbia / Admitted School - John Hopkins / Admitted School - UCLA / Admitted School - NCSU / Admitted School - Stanford(Data Science Track) / Rejected Mathematics Ph.D: (Both programs I had applied to the masters and was instead considered for Ph.D.) School - UC Davis / Admitted School - University of Washington Seattle / Waitlisted Mathematics Masters: School - University of Pennsylvania / Admitted

What does the topology course cover exactly? Sometimes real analysis courses are disguised as topology courses. If it covers metric spaces then it will be useful for graduate level theoretical statistics.