umichmydrm
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Posts posted by umichmydrm
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4 minutes ago, MathStat said:
I see, this may indeed be a sad reality for international students and so the solution may indeed be doing whatever masters you can get that has a strong researcher there to discover you and believe in you.
Yeah, there are many international students with stunning GPA and GRE scores.
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34 minutes ago, MathStat said:
I personally do not think average grades in multivariable calculus and linear algebra are so dramatic.
For what it is worth I got B+ in multi because I couldn't do the tricky double/triple integrals fast enough during the midterms. This did not affect my phd admissions but granted I had grad level math courses with As to make up for it.
Linear for some is also a tricky course the first time you see it. If I hadn't struggled with it before in high school I would've also gotten a B in my first semester linear class. I would say it is perfectly understandable to mess up the math classes in your first year if you didn't have exposure before.
" My grades in stats, machine learning and CS classes have all been A/A-'s and one or two B+'s. " <- that is very good.
I have B on my Linear Algebra and Intro CS, and I have all A in other math classes, but I still find myself not competitive because of my 3.5 cumulative GPA(I have three Biology classes in B, one econ class in C, and a seminar class in C-). I believe the admission process would be extremely tough if you are an international student.
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For the UW Master program, are you talking about the thesis one or the capstone one.
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41 minutes ago, honguyen94 said:
Hi, Could you please give me some insight about this program? I heard that they have a huge class size, and the PhD placement is not so good, but I can not figure out the reasons since the curriculum looks pretty good to me.
Yes I agree, but it seems like their PhD placement is not really good...
Are you a math or a stat major for undergrad and took some intro stats? If so, the three requirement course provided by Columbia would be very easy to you. A lot of people with 3.2 GPA and 320 or lower GRE accpted by this program. There are serval of good students there, and I believe the facultys are great. But speaking of class size, you will definetly have a hard time getting in a solid PhD program because of the competition and/or the reputation.
I have one profressor from Michigan and one professor from Columbia Biostats that don't recommend this program. Hope that helps.
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All good except Columbia University - M.A in Statistics.
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14 minutes ago, bayessays said:
Funding is not the relevant issue here- were they admitted as "fast-track MS/PhD" students? I have never heard of a fast track student who did decently, wanted to continue, and was not admitted to the PhD.
I am not sure if they ecourage/consider every amitted student who want to persue a PhD as a fast-track MS/PhD student. In my friend's unofficial letter, it states as "Although you are being admitted to the Master’s program, we believe that your preparation will make it possible for you to include doctoral coursework early in your graduate studies. Such a fast-track MS to PhD sequence is described on our Departmental website." Does that appear on every letter they send?
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1 minute ago, clairedare said:
The Michigan part is very true. They assure transfer to the PHD program, but I personally know people with stellar records in their MS who couldn’t transfer.
Hi, do you know the application process for their MS student transfering to phd? Do they require any recommendation letter? I have an unique situation where as I could possibly finish a bio paper with my current bio professor, and if that I could probably get a better LoR in the future if needed, but I am just worried about the statistical method the professor prefers.
With that being said, would an nonstellar paper reduce my chance getting in phd program in the future?
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6 hours ago, jmillar said:
You would also likely have a decent chance at UMich for the Bioinformatics MS. Many people use that to transfer over into PhD when they've found a lab. The Bioinformatics program is flexible with allowing mentors from other departments if their work is related to computational biology. That's how I got a Mathematics professor for my advisor. Quite a few Biostats people collaborate with UMich Bioinformatics.
Thanks, I will look at it!
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I have altered my list as follows:
BIOSTATS PhD: UMich UMinn BU Medical College of Wisconsin
BIOSTATS master: Harvard JHU UNC Columbia UCLA UPenn Yale Duke Vanderbilt
STATS PhD: GW UMass Amherst
STATS master: UW-Madison Cornell UC Davis RiceI will apply UMich and UMinn for PhD because both of them will automatically consider me in master admission if I got rejected. All other PhD programs are what I am very interested. I will definitly apply more master programs instead. Is my school listing too ambitious now?
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1 hour ago, bayessays said:
The difference between having this profile from an Ivy and having it from an unknown school is the difference between night and day.
That is a damn good metaphor XD
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3 hours ago, bayessays said:
"encouraged" not required. Also, you just sort of pasted two separate sentences from the admissions webpage together, when really they aren't related. Stanford's PhD program doesn't require numerical analysis - Harvard biostatistics, one of the more applied biostat programs, certainly does not. You may be misunderstanding their page if English is not your first language, please take my advice. You do not need numerical analysis to apply to any biostatistics program.
Gotcha, thanks for your clarification.
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8 hours ago, bayessays said:
This is not true. Also, no school requires a math major and whoever provided you this information is very, very wrong. Your major is irrelevant.
"All candidates for admission to Master’s programs are encouraged to have: Completed courses in: probability, statistics, advanced calculus or real analysis, and numerical analysis. On rare occasions the Department will admit students to our programs without this level of preparation with the understanding that the student will promptly make up any deficiencies, usually by taking additional courses prior to entering the program." Since my school is not guaranteed to have numerical analysis, I probably could not meet their requirements...
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7 minutes ago, AnnieM said:
Hi there, you're welcome, happy to help... yeah I think the average GPAs are a bit scary to look at - there will be some people with 3.9-4.0 GPAs, but that brings the average way up, so there are likely many below that. Plus, they do look at the overall application. UCB MPH is maybe less competitive, but when I was there, it seemed they didn't take a lot of classes with us. There was some overlap, but that program was much less math-heavy. Also, the benefit of the Biostatistics program is the close relationship with Berkeley's Statistics department. It's easy to get teaching jobs in the Stats department, which gives you funding, and they are very nice. I loved that aspect of Berkeley Biostats. That is just my experience and preference - it really depends on how quantitative you want your classes and research to be. Not sure what your situation is, but if you could take a year to finish some of those prerequisites and apply next year, I would do that. It's just another year, goes by quickly, then you've opened up so many options. I don't know how online courses are viewed, so you'd have to ask the admissions people in each department, but I took a course in C programming online so I could satisfy a prerequisite. Either way, I really think taking a long shot and applying to some top-notch places even if you think the chances are slim, is a really good idea. You never know.
I am actually considering to graduate a semester earlier. The thing is math department in my school is small, so there are not many stats faculty and most of them are taking a sabbatical next semester/year. Thus, the stats class in spring is not promised to be there, and mostly they offer more pure math and cs courses. In my situation, I am not willing to take more intro class in some other departments since I already took a bunch of them.... Also, it is a huge waste of money for my parents. Anyway, I am more than excited to apply UCB's MS just because I am more willing to deal with quantitative staff and willing to get in PhD program in the future! I think I will apply this year and see if I can get in some program!
Again, thank you so much for the help. I really appreciate it！
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1 hour ago, AnnieM said:
Hi there, I graduated from UC Berkeley's masters program in Biostatistics in 2012. From what you have posted, you seem to me to be more than fine to apply. I had a very similar GPA - my overall GPA was 3.51, and I think it was 3.7 or 3.75 in my math classes. I don't think it's a problem at all that you had a low GPA your first semester in college. I got a C in a prerequisite math class, that I retook and still only ended up with a B+, and I got in. I know that Berkeley looks a lot at the GRE score (told to me by a student when I applied) - they said it's a good indicator of success. I had a 780/800 in the quant section in the old version of the test. Looking at a conversion scale, I guess that's a 163 in the current version, though I know they decided to make it harder because a ton of people were getting 800's on the quantitative section in the old version. They have an info session for applicants in the fall, and I went to it, and was told later it helped my application. It seemed that they want to accept people who want to go there. I had the same experience with UCLA - I wouldn't have stuck out from the pile of applicants, but I emailed someone there and asked if I could visit to find out about the program, they said sure, and it went very well and I got in there, too. Tactfully showing interest goes a long way in my experience. That said, I did the same thing with Harvard (asked to visit, they said sure, I went and met with a few folks), and the admissions clerk flat-out told me I wouldn't be considered because I didn't have an undergrad Math major. My GRE scores, though higher than their average for accepted applicants, did not matter one bit. She was very polite about it, I was not offended. I still applied but I did not get into Harvard Biostatistics.
The fact that you have an undergraduate degree in Math will really help you with admissions committees (see comments on Harvard above - have you considered applying there? They have a great program). From the stats you posted, I think you have more than cleared the baseline to be a strong applicant. The process is very arbitrary and very good candidates like you still do not get in due to that, but there is no reason not to apply based on your background. One other thing a student mentioned is to make sure you get letters of rec from people who will write you a strong letter (you can even ask "do you feel you would be able to write me a strong letter of recommendation?"), and make sure not to get someone who just says "this person got an A in my class". It seems like everyone has something on their application they think isn't perfect and will prevent them from getting into a program. I think they are more flexible than we think. I also think that a "perfect" resume will not guarantee admission anywhere. I wish you best of luck!!!
Thank you so much for your response. I have look at some forums and I have checked the UCB's website, they said the average GPA of students admitted was around 3.75, so I was shocked. I am still considering whether should I apply UCB's mph because it is somehow less competitive. And for Harvard, I think I could not meet the prerequisite and so does Brown and Emory. Harvard requires a class of numerical analysis, which will only be offered at spring in my school. Emroy wants at least b+ at linear algebra, and a 3.5 or higher overall gpa. Brown wants a class of probability, which will only be offered at spring too. Do you think I should take some online courses to meet the prerequisite, or would that be weak to admissions?
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51 minutes ago, MrSergazinov said:
Hi all!
I have found the following link from Carnegie Mellon professor to be very sueful when evaluating myeslf: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf.
The basic advise is that you should not apply to PhD unless you have a solid track of research experience. Unfortunately, I have not been able to engage in any serious research, besides my own forays into machine learning. However, I am still very interested in doing research at the PhD level (I pretty much know the topic I want to study: gradient boosting methods). So, I am still going to apply to see if I can get in.
Thank you so much for providing the link. I am reading it and really enjoy it.
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Also, I am really interested in bioinformatics... but I probably could not get in to any phd program in bioinfomatics
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Hello everyone,
I am a rising senior and planning to apply for PhD and/or master programs in Biostatistics/Bioinformatics. I am a bit lost in school selection.....
My GPA is low overall, but my major GPA is not bad. I have a 2.62 GPA in the first semester due to one econ class and one first-year seminar class. My GPA was better year by year. My schedule from last year was pretty nasty(lots of math and science class), but successful in grades. I like bio courses, but not good in grades. I have one class withdrawn and retook and only get a B.
The following listed are my information.
Undergraduate Institution: Rank 40 Liberal And Arts School
Majors: Mathematics (pure math)
Minor: None
GPA: 3.45/4.0
Major GPA: 3.71/4.0
Type of Student: International (Asian male)
Courses taken:
- Math: Intro of Proof(Math reasoning) (A), Linear Algebra (B)--(7 kids in class, second highest), Calculus III (A-), Intro to Analysis (A), Differential Equations(A), Modern Geometry (A-), Math Modeling (A), Pure Math Seminar (A), History of Math (A), Abstract Algebra taken in summer school (B)
- CS: Programming I (B+)
- Stats: Statistical Methods (B+)
- Science: Principles of Chemistry (A), Physics 1(A-), Physics 2 (A), Mol Cell Foundations of Life (B), Organismal Biology (withdraw and retake to get a B
Courses will take this fall: Genetics Graph Theory Dynamical Systems Sports Analytics
GRE General Test: Have not taken it yet. Must crack 325 in the future.
GRE Subject Math: will take this September and /or October
Research Experience:
one pure-math presentation at a math conference
1-year data analyzing research(continuing) in astrophysics-----one poster at academic festival
a 5-week summer research project about statistical analysis in circadian rhythm with a biology professor will continue in the fall----one presentation at the end of the summer
Working Experience:
1st year summer: TA of two social science class in a summer school; Lecturer of Tofel Vocabulary in an organization (both in China)
2ed year summer: a 3-month test internship in a start-up biomedical company in China
2ed year: one semester of chem lab assistant
Letters of Recommendation: One from a math professor. One from a physics professor that I worked with. One from a biology professor that I worked with.
Currently considering schools:
master: JHU, UNC, UCB, Duke, Northwestern, Brown, Rice, Yale, Upenn
PhD: UT-MD Anderson, Medical Collge of Wisconsin, UMich, Umass-Amherst, UCLA, UCSD
Thank you in advance for your time and advice!
Fall 2020 Statistics Applicant Thread
in Mathematics and Statistics
Posted
Yes, I got an official offer from Boston MA Biostatistics last week.