Hi all,
I am a senior applying to PhD programs in biostatistics for the Fall 2020 cycle. I am interested in working on neuroimaging data or other complex data structures coming from biology/medicine, but I know that that will probably change later on!
Do you have any thoughts or feedback about the list below?
Undergrad Institution: Top 5 public (USNWR)
Major(s): Statistics & Math
GPA: 3.5
Type of student: Domestic White Male
GRE General Test:
Q: 169 (95%)
V: 163 (93%)
W: TBD
Programs Applying: Biostatistics PhD
Research Experience:
- 5 semesters + full-time summer in biology lab doing machine learning and statistical analysis on imaging data
o Got a few thousand in grants from university and NSF to support summer project.
o Hopefully submitting a paper in the next couple of months, but may not be in time for apps.
- Honors thesis in statistics department, very applied.
Letters of Recommendation:
- Biology PI: can speak to research experience, knows me well.
- Two stats professors from upper level classes I did well in.
Grades:
A:
Machine Learning
Differential Equations
Simulation
Combinatorics
Spatial analytics special topics (Grad level)
Object-Oriented Java
Data Science
A-:
Econometrics
Probability
B+:
Stochastic Models (Grad level)
Real Analysis
Multivariate Calculus
B:
Linear Algebra
Discrete Math
Optimization
For what it’s worth, GPA has improved from a 3.2 the first three semesters (most of the B's were in the beginning) to a 3.8 the last three. Currently taking Measure Theoretic.
Schools I'm thinking about (all Biostatistics PhDs):
Michigan
Washington
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Ohio State
Penn
Brown
UC Davis
UCLA
Columbia or Berkeley?