trynagetby

I've been worrying about this too. From the people I've asked it seems that cohorts might be slightly smaller, but not by a lot as biostatistics funding is less dependent on funding from the parent school/TA responsibilities and is more from grants. In terms of competition being higher, I don't think it should be too bad for PhD. The reason MBAs get more competitive is because the opportunity cost of 1/2 years of graduate school is small in a recession and many people always were planning to get an MBA anyway. However, a PhD is a 5 year commitment and I don't think people who planned to be in industry want to spend that long in school. Also getting phd-admission level recs is something one has to plan very far ahead for. People who just decide to get a PhD for the first time in a long time likely won't have the strongest applications. The only significant effect would come from people who were planning to take a gap year in industry before going into a PhD and are now deciding to apply because the job market is so bad (and the job market isn't even that bad for people with the skills to apply to stat/biostat phd programs). But at the same time some people might also wait for the admissions/funding situation to normalize. So overall I think it's a wash.

Rice Stats just offered a 9 month stipend of $24,000. I think Columbia Stats offers like $44,000. The NSF graduate research fellowship is like 32,000 a year. So I feel like the range is 20k - 40k depending on where you are with 40k being on the high end and 20k on the low.

The April 15th deadline is a resolution that some universities agreed to sign and others did not. You can check whether or not the university is a signatory here: https://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_April15_Resolution_Oct2020Revision.pdf

Generally the earliest acceptances roll in starting the last week of January to the first half of February

Hi all, might be a little early but might as well start this thread to share information/collectively freak out about the covid situation. Here's a link shared by a last year applicant detailing interview information. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1epem4r5loco8ZZwJNodjZun2JReXNXIm0RiTPBeiq6s/edit

Can verify it's the case at Columbia, UNC, and Cornell for those applying there.

It definitely seems odd, your profile doesn't seem close to an auto-reject.

one of my rec writers is based in the Stats department , gets his grad students from CS, EE, Neuroscience, and Stats, but is a pretty big name in computational/statistical neuroscience. I chatted a lot with his students. They seem to be closer on the science/engineering side of admissions. They expect you to have pretty foundational mathematical background like Analysis, Advanced Linear Algebra etc.. but don't really put that much weight on more crazy math. Research from what I gather is pretty important, like you should have at least one strong rec writer from computational neuro/neuroscience who knows your research potential. Neuroscience coursework seems to be pretty optional.

Hi all, I would be delighted to go to both a School's Statistics and Bio-statistics program. To cast a wider net to compensate for COVID eventualities, I'd like to apply to both the bio-statistics and statistics department which is allowed by the school. My personal statement and story is pretty much the same for both. Is this okay? Or could there be some communication between the departments that will result in my application being thrown out? Thank you all so much for your help!

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I reviewed the top bio-statistics departments and definitely think I would as happier, if not happier in them as in a pure statistics program. I'll be applying to a mix of programs now.

Thank you everybody for your super thoughtful and helpful advice. I'll definitely add some biostatistics schools to my list. I was more worried that the research involved would require some in depth biological knowledge even if self-studied/gleaned. Is it possible to succeed in bio-statistics with only a superficial understanding of biology?

Hi all, so I've been trying to think of ways to broaden my application chances. One of my rec writers recommended bio-statistics programs. To be honest, while I don't hate biology I've also never been particularly interested in it. I enjoyed a biostatistics REU but more for the statistics side part than the bio. I don't mind and think I would actually enjoy the more applications-focus of biostatistics programs. Would it make sense to apply to biostatistics programs for me or would I end up being miserable?

I actually have a friend who went to a usnews top 60 state flagship school with a slightly weaker profile (less research) than you who go into UNC phd Stats last year. Just wanted to add a datapoint.

If you have the money, I think that having a masters from a top school with A's in 2 semester of real analysis would make you competitive at anywhere minus schools like Stanford. Currently, it seems likea crapshoot but I think its worth applying to PhDs.

I think for places like CMU Stats+ ML and UNC ML it'll heavily depend on the quality of your publications. If they're in ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, JML,Annals etc I think you have a good chance and should even think more about applying to CS grad programs based on your background. If they're more applied papers in niche journals like computational basket weaving I think you're heavily overshooting for stats programs given lack of mathematics coursework.

Hi all, so I think a lot of applicants this year are nervous about how COVID is going to torpedo admissions. Can anyone familiar with the admissions/funding process comment on how bad it'll be (25%, 50%, 75%, or 90% reduction in cohort sizes?). Also how do people recommend we adapt. So if an applicant's match schools are top 20, should they expand to top 30, top 40, top 50?

I just graduated with a Bachelors from Columbia University and talked to a Columbia Statistics professor this week. He/She indicated that they would be cutting back but they would still be accepting applications. Perhaps the chronicle has inside information and the professor isn't being straight with me idk. On a sidenote I don't think the outlookindia article is independent of the first, the language seems to be copied.

Thank you for your responses! That's super comforting to know that this coronavirus won't completely destroy our admission chances.

I just heard from friends that a certain school (Ivy league with a 10+ billion dollar endowment) is no longer providing funding for PhD applicants this cycle. The communication said "school of arts and sciences regrets to announce a one year pause in School-funded phd admissions for the year of 2021". However most science departments have not cancelled their application cycles (same can't be said of humanities). If this wealthy of a school is doing this I can't imagine other schools not pursuing a similar policy. Can someone familiar with funding mechanisms for Statistics departments speak to how this development affect admissions for statistics specifically? I know many sciences allocate funding by advisor so they aren't affected as badly, but to my knowledge statistics department use departmental funding. How much trouble are applicants this cycle in/should we all jump ship to OR and business schools? Specifically for this school, it doesn't make a difference however as the stats department is in the business school.

Just wanted to say that this back and forth thread was extremely informative and helpful for someone applying this cycle.

Hi all, I've never really considered an OR phd until now, so I have no idea what PhD programs are looking for/where I fall. I would really appreciate any advice on what type of OR PhD programs I could expect to get into. Thanks! Undergraduate Institution: Columbia University Major: Mathematics-Statistics GPA: 3.88 Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male Relevant Classes: Statistics Courses: Statistical Inference (Casella and Berger) (A) , Bayesian Statistics (A), Statistical Machine Learning (A-), Stochastic Processes (A), Probability Theory (A), Math Courses: Calc III-IV (A), Linear Algebra (A), Optimization (A), Algebra I (B+), Analysis I-II (A), Probability Theory (measure theoretic) (A-), Fourier Analysis (B), Numerical Methods/Analysis (A+), ODE (A) MISC: Data Structure and Algorithms (A), Analysis of Algorithms (A-) GRE: 164 V/ 170 Q Research Experience: Got accepted to a biocomputing conference and gave an oral presentation (Bayesian classification). Currently working with a professor on machine learning projects applied to neuroscience. Recs: They should be standard.

You can try but I think chances for mere mortals like us is pretty low. People I know who get into those (these are domestic student btw) have perfect grades in Analysis and additional classes like Measure theory, Differentiable Manifolds in R^n, functional analysis, and topology. But then again, if you have good grades in really hard physics classes that might help a lot. But anyhow you should only apply if you're okay with the fact that there's probably a ~5-15% chance of getting in.

I'm not super sure as I'm applying to schools too. But I've been stalking this forum for 2 years now so I'll try to pass on my absorbed knowledge. As an international your math background is a little weak (depending on what "introduce to abstract" is. If it's Abstract Algebra and you got an A in it then I think you have a good shot at programs rated 30+ on us news like CU Boulder UVA etc. I'm not sure how big a difference Analysis vs Advanced Calc would be, I'd just take which one covers the subjects your interested in.

I totally agree that the at-home testing sucks and schools should just take the MIT approach and not even aceept the GRE. However, from what I know from Stats professors I've worked closely with at my home institution, they consider the GRE pretty trivial and aren't very understanding of the situation haha Also best of luck to you too!

Hi! I think you have a good shot at UCLA. CMU and UW are definitely reaches for most people but I think its worth applying for you. Your profile is really similar to mine so if you go look at my profile evaluation I think you'd get a lot out of it! On a side note I think you'd benefit from retaking the GRE. Word on the street is that you want to be 90% on the GRE at least. I got a 164 Q the first time I took the GRE too, but a little studying and you can definitely get a 170 with your math background.