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I have considered that. Unfortunately the cs department here recently lost their main ML person, and there really aren't any machine learning people left at the cs department. In fact there is only one faculty that is working on anything AI related.

I'm currently in a stat PhD program and I just received my MS last spring from a top 20 ranked statistics program. I know that graduate students switching programs is relatively rare so I was hoping to get some feedback from experts on this forum on feasibility. If I were to switch over I would mainly interested in a PhD in CS focused on machine learning and data mining. Machine learning is studied in both computer science and statistics. Statistics takes more of a modelling approach to data while computer science takes a more algorithmic approach (for more details, see Leo Breimans paper: Statistical modelling a tale of two cultures). My main desire to switch is due to the cultural differences in how CS versus statistics treats machine learning. Many statistics departments have a very conservative culture. As an example, Andrew Gelman's blog mentions that many statistics departments have a measure theory requirement that is perhaps outdated. While it's useful for theorists he argues that for applied statisticians in a modern environment computing requirements would be much more useful. Additionally when it comes to machine learning, the statistics departments will generally be much more theory oriented. I'm not sure about how easy it would be to get into a CS program with my background. I come from mainly a math/econ background with a handful of CS courses. Here's a quick summary of my math, stat, CS courswork: Undergrad math coursework: calculus sequence, linear algebra, discrete math, ODE, numerical analysis sequence, advanced calculus (analysis), abstract algebra, probability, math stats. [(3.9 GPA for math courses)] Graduate Statistics coursework: theory sequence (casella and berger level), methods sequence (anova, GLM, boostrap, mcmc etc), design of experiments, stat computing, data mining, machine learning and multivariate statistics. [(3.8 GPA for stat coursework)] Computer Science coursework (mix of undergrad/grad courses): data structures, algorithms, pattern recognition (graduate), software engineering, algorithms (graduate - in progress), Artificial Intelligence (graduate - in progress). [(A's in all courses so far)]. In terms of research experience, I did have a research project for undergrad with a professor in the econ department on theoretical game theory (the project was funded by external grant if that matters). I've had a presentation at a conference and I also did a data mining internship this past summer. Unfortunately no publications (not unusual for stat as most students don't really start research until 3rd or 4th year). I think I have a fairly strong applied math/statistics background (with decent GRE scores, 90+ percentile in math/verbal) but I'm missing some traditional CS courses in programming languages, computer architecture, networking etc. From the research that I have done computer science programs seem to vary quite a bit in terms of admission requirements and PhD coursework requirement. What do you think are my chances of getting into a decent machine learning CS program?

Has anyone who received an offer from UCLA visited the department?

Look at the job placements for both: http://www.stat.ucdavis.edu/people/alumni-info and https://www.stat.osu.edu/people/alumni I think from the looks of it OSU has better academic placements.

Hi Everyone, I finally found out that I am waitlisted from UCLA. I know this is a lot to ask because people like to consider as many options as possible but if you guys have other offers and don't think you'll be going to UCLA please decline. I'm really worried as I don't have any offers yet. Thanks

What has happened with the program in the last 10-20 years that makes it overranked now?

Is that Ohio State or Oregon State? If it's Ohio State, I've visited their department and I think it's pretty solid in bayes and computing. Unlike a lot of other departments, I think they also offer promising students university fellowships so you might not have to TA/RA the first year. Also the Columbus area has a fairly low cost of living.

Thanks for the update. I guess my chances of getting into any programs now is pretty small

Anyone know what's going on with UC Davis? Will they send out more offers?

UC Davis has sent out acceptances. For those accepted, care to share your profiles? I haven't received anything and I'm starting to worry!

Is that UCLA stat or biostat? I don't remember UCLA stat giving interviews.

Anyone know what's going on with UCLA and Davis stat?

dasgut, I read one of your earlier posts and I think I remember you posting sometime in 2011 when I was also applying. Where did you apply the first time around? Your record looks better than mine when I applied.

I think as long as your lower GPA is in non-math classes it's fine. I was in the same boat as you except I had a much worse record coming out of undergrad. I was undergrad 3.3 GPA in economics from a liberal arts school. I worked at a bank for awhile, went back as a non-degree student and had close to a 4.0 in all math courses including many upper division and proof based courses and also worked as an RA in the economics department. I applied to a lot of schools and even with my abysmal undergrad record I was actually only rejected from a few schools (got into a lot and was waitlisted at even more). You can probably look at my post history and find out more details about where applied and where I got in.

A note about the UW-madison program. I got accepted to their program when I applied two years ago. I believe UW's biostat program doesn't accept students directly. You must apply and be accepted to the stat program. As a result if you're considering UW be warned that it will probably be more theoretical than a regular biostat program.