cl27

Undergrad Institution: University of Pittsburgh Major(s): Microbiology Minor(s): Chemistry, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Economics GPA: 3.73 Type of Student: Domestic Asian Female GRE General Test: Q: 170 (96) V: 163 (93) W: 5.5 (98) Programs Applying: Biostatistics Research Experience: Summer internship at NCBI, ~8 months computational biology undergrad research, some research at current position (3 years) Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, attended on a full scholarship Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 3 years clinical lab and research experience Letters of Recommendation: Calculus professor, economics professor, director of institute at NIH Math/Statistics Grades: Calc I (high school), II, III, Linear Algebra, AP Stat (high school) (all A's, didn't take math classes in college so had to take some after) Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Really big lack of stats experience but I made sure to have at least the minimum prerequisites and I think I've shown through grades/test scores that I'm capable of succeeding in higher level math classes. I figured out about a year out of undergrad that I wanted to pursue biostats, then spent 2 years catching up on math classes at community college. I also have a decent amount of research experience even though it's not it statistics and I don't have any papers. I also think having a computer science minor was helpful because even though I don't have stats experience I think I can pick up the stats programming pretty fast. I applied to all PhD programs since many consider you for a Master's anyway, so why not try to get paid! I probably shouldn't have bothered applying to UW, Hopkins, and Harvard, but it doesn't hurt (except for a few hundred dollars). Applying to Where: University of Washington - Biostatistics - Rejected Harvard - Biostatistics - Rejected Johns Hopkins - Biostatistics - Rejected New York University - Biostatistics - Rejected University of Pittsburgh - Biostatistics - Rejected (PhD) Accepted (MS) no funding Boston University - Biostatistics - Rejected (PhD) Accepted (MS) no funding Emory University - Biostatistics - Rejected (PhD) Accepted (MS) possible work study Duke University - Biostatistics - Rejected (PhD) Accepted (MS) 20k/yr University of Colorado - Biostatistics - Rejected (PhD) Accepted (MS) likely funded after 1-2 semesters University of Minnesota - Biostatistics - Rejected (PhD) Accepted (MS) possible funding (never heard more) Vanderbilt University - Biostatistics - Accepted (PhD) - fully funded 32k/yr stipend - woohoo!! They only accept 4 per year so this was a big surprise University of Florida - Still haven't heard - UF you should make your decisions earlier in the season... Honestly, coming in I didn't know anything about these programs and didn't realize that most people come from statistics backgrounds, and many applying for PhDs already have a master's in biostats or stats. If you're coming from a science background, it is possible!! I definitely got lucky...thanks to all who declined Vanderbilt!

I'm not going to address your question specifically because I'm new to the field, but if you just want a PhD for the purposes of being able to climb higher in industry, you don't need to attend one of those very top programs. You should definitely consider applying to a wide range of schools so that you don't waste a whole application season.

bstat6 same here. although it sounds like no funding will be offered to MA students and their program is insanely expensive so I probably won’t be attending anyway.

That sounds like an awful situation Since you haven't heard back from the prof even after a follow up email, is there a program coordinator or other person at the university that you could try to contact? I would definitely start by trying to find someone else to email, saying that you want to know if a decision has been made on your application yet.

@Jasmine Ng yes I will be attending, just bought my flights a couple hours ago! message me if you’d like to chat!

thanks I appreciate the input!

I also asked Denver about moving from the MS to the PhD program. This is a direct quote from the program administrator: "If you are highly committed to getting a PhD, and do well academically and in your qualifying exams, you will likely have no problem joining the PhD program." I found this to be quite encouraging and might also choose that path!

I was offered admission to the masters program! I applied to the PhD program, but when I asked them they said they very rarely admit to the PhD program without a masters degree

nothing is finalized at this point, this is just what I see as a likely hypothetical and I appreciate your input! I am just a bit worried about UC because 27 sounds okay until you realize the list only has 35 schools. I just wanted to make sure it doesn’t have a “bad” reputation or would put me at a big disadvantage later. that said, I’m not entirely sure what the end goal is. Industry is very likely but I certainly haven’t ruled out the academia route

@Geococcyx @Stat PhD Now Postdoc @bayessays Don't mean to completely hijack this thread, but I posted in a different forum earlier asking about biostats rankings and you all seem pretty well informed I'm deciding between a few schools and having a hard time. I know that the thesis adviser/mentor can be more important for future success than the US news ranking, but I would not know ahead of time which faculty I would be working with at each school so I'm not sure how I would factor that in. What are you all's thoughts on being fully funded + stipend from UC Denver (27 on US news I think) vs having to pay out of pocket at Minnesota (top 10)? btw talking about master's here but am more wondering about your thoughts on the quality and reputation of the PhD programs at said schools as I would ideally like to continue to PhD at whichever school I choose (and not have to uproot my life and make my boyfriend find another job after two years). PS - to OP - your resume sounds quite well suited for biostats and I think you should shoot for PhD! even if you don't get in they will often offer you admission to their MS program, so there's really no point in applying to MS directly

I haven't done it myself but I'm learning a new language on rosetta stone right now and planning to start a grad program this fall. I hope by that point I'll have the basics down better and I can move on to listening to some language learning podcasts while commuting or during down time

I agree that work can be a tricky situation and having other people still waiting might make them jealous, but I would think at least your recommenders would be happy for you! They helped you to get in and should be rooting for you! I hope that you're at least proud of your accomplishment, congrats!

I'm struggling with some decisions here - I think what it boils down to is how important or even accurate the program rankings from US news are. Part of this is still hypothetical because not all funding decisions have been made yet, but would you rather go to a school with full funding and stipend ranked 27 or have to pay out of pocket >50k (2 year total) for a school ranked 7? Whenever I look this up, it seems that they say the ranking doesn't matter as much as who your thesis adviser/mentor is and how good their research and reputation is. The problem is I don't know who my thesis adviser would be at either school and both schools have professors doing research that sounds interesting to me. I haven't narrowed down my research interest very much and am open to a lot of possibilities. As a side note, this would be for a MS program but I am hoping to end up doing the PhD at the same school. I also am not necessarily planning on becoming a professor - I know that they usually say you can only teach at a school ranked below where you got your PhD from. I'm not really worried about that, I would like to know if it would affect employment opportunities or just general quality of the education and the program. Any thoughts you have about US news rankings would be appreciated!!

If you care about your score on the writing section, my best tip is to come up with maybe 5-8 good "GRE words" that you really understand and can use well in a sentence. Memorize them and work them into your essay no matter what the topic (there are plenty of words than can be used when discussing a variety of topics - assuage, precipitate, laudable, engender, venerate, etc). I'm not good at using big words in my everyday writing, so this really helped me. It was the only meaningful change I made and went from a 4.5 to 5.5 on writing. Good luck!

I have heard that it depends on the size of the program. Large programs will over admit but smaller programs that can only afford to have a very specific number of students may offer admission to only the number of openings they have, then extend more invites as declined offers come back. You might not be officially waitlisted, but just not be accepted nor rejected and then hear from them sometime in March. Sometimes if a lot of shifting occurs late in the season and they have less than expected, people will get offers as late as April! Speaking from a STEM perspective but I'd imagine most programs work in similar ways.