dm_stats

Hello all, Just wanted to update you guys who helped me on here that I have made the decision to go to UW. @Stat PhD Now Postdoc and @Cavalerius thank you so much for helping me out, your advice and input was truly invaluable and incredibly informative. I wish you both the best!

Thank you for that description @Cavalerius! That actually does help a lot. Right now, my interests lie more in the underlying topological objects of statistics, rather than "problem-solving techniques". If I may ask @Cavalerius what did you end up choosing (between Stats + OR) and why?

@Stat PhD Now Postdoc thanks for the discussion. It really is helping, especially given the really tight timing. Given what you've said above, I understand a subfield such as topological data analysis (TDA) uses mathematical tools such as algebraic topology to then apply to data/statistics. In that regard, UW has people like Marina Meila who has worked on Manifold Learning, and Yen-Chi Chen who has some work on applied algebraic topology for statistical inference. At Princeton in terms of TDA and related fields, I can only find Ramon van Handel who has done work on the geometry of probability. If I want to do research in fields as close as possible to TDA and its applications to statistics, I'm leaning towards UW currently over Princeton. Do you think that is a relatively correct assessment?

@Stat PhD Now Postdoc Thank you so much for your reply! I really appreciate your thoughts, I just have a couple followup questions/thoughts. I've done a lot of research (before and after being accepted) on UW and found that there are a couple of people doing geometric/topological methods/foundations for data analysis (one of the big areas I'm interested in). I know that for this field, I need a lot of pure mathematics, but also statistics. I'm not entirely sure the state of Princeton's ORFE program with regards to geometric/topological methods/foundations for data analysis. I've looked at Ramon van Handel from Princeton, who MIGHT look like he does some things with high-dimensional probability and geometry. To address your considerations above, I love pure mathematics and would love to apply techniques from maths to statistics. I understand and would agree with your distinction between probability theory and statistics and ML. One other thing I would like to ask about is: is there any pros/cons to an "OR" degree over a "Statistics" degree? Particularly in the Academic job market?

Hello, it is only a couple of days until the April 15 deadline and I just came off of Princeton's ORFE phd waitlist. I had been pretty much all set to go to UW Stats PhD program, but I just wanted to know what the community's opinions are between Princeton's ORFE program vs. UW Stats program. These are both fully funded programs with UW giving extra fellowships on top. Specifically, my interests lie in mathematical connections to statistics. My goal is to do research in a Statistics/Math department in the future. Given this, what are your thoughts? Any help/thoughts would be super appreciated. I'm really kind of freaking out D=