Undergrad Institution: Top LAC Major(s): Mathematics Minor(s): GPA: 3.88 (major GPA like 3.92 ish)
Type of Student: Domestic Asian Woman GRE General Test:
Q: 167 (90%) V: 170 (99%) W: 6.0 (99%) GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: N?A TOEFL Score: N/A Grad Institution: N/A
Programs Applying: (Statistics/Operation Research/Biostatistics/Financial Math/etc.)
Research Experience: REU in CS/ML (no publications), senior thesis with honors in applied stats/ML/probability theory Awards/Honors/Recognitions: School GPA awards, mathematics department awards Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for linear algebra, real analysis, took 1 year after college to work in consulting
Letters of Recommendation: 3 from undergrad math professors. All 3 I took multiple classes with, TA'd for, and/or did research with
Math/Statistics Grades: Calculus sequence, linear algebra, real analysis 1, abstract algebra, advanced linear algebra, a smattering of other mid-level courses (diffeq, number theory, combinatorics, etc.), probability theory, stats theory, computational stats, intro CS, fundamentals of CS, data structures, intermediate macro+micro, econometrics. All A or A+, except abstract alg (B+), fundamentals of CS (B+), data structures (A-), diffeq (A-), linear alg (A-) Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help:
Applying to Where: (all stats PhD unless otherwise mentioned, in rough order of notification) University of Minnesota - Accepted (Declined)
Duke - Accepted (Declined)
Harvard - Rejected
University of Michigan - Accepted (Declined)
UCLA - Accepted (Declined)
Carnegie Mellon (Joint Stats & Public Policy) - Accepted
MIT (Social Systems & Engineering)- Accepted
UW - Ghosted :(( i.e. prob rejected at this point
Because I was interested in social networks, policy, and economics applications, I also applied to some demography programs with close ties to ML/stats, but that's probably a bit far afield.
Notes:
It was a definite gamble to essentially apply only within the top 30, but my reasoning was that I had a job already, there were no such thing as guaranteed safety schools for PhD apps, and I didn't want to apply to any place that didn't have a relatively strong investment in doing interdisciplinary social science & stats/ML research (and that happened to be departments that were more highly ranked and more established). Also, looking at previous results, it does seem like domestic students have a small boost in admission outcomes, which I took into account when I was applying.
I think doing a CS REU was helpful to offset my relatively lower grades in CS.
I didn't plan for this entirely, but it turned out that I took a bunch of classes with the same 3 professors in undergrad, and got to know them quite well both in class and in other capacities (as a TA, academic advisee, research advisee, etc.) and I think this definitely helped my app a lot. So get to know your professors well! and if you're applying after graduating, make sure to stay in contact and let them know before you graduate that you may be applying to grad schools if you can
A lot of people warn not to read gradcafe too much, and I remember it was definitely painful to watch admissions results roll in and be refreshing an empty inbox (there was like a span of 5 days when my top 3 favorite schools Harvard, UW, and CMU all came out and I had gotten none of them at that point) but it was also comforting to read yall's commiserations in the main forum thread. So thanks for keeping me company these past few months haha