iwantadog

Thank you so much for your reply. I think I should clarify that I did my undergraduate in the US if that changes anything. I also didn't know that stat programs require that much math. I've read their undergraduate requirements and only saw Multivariate Calculus and Linear Algebra as the requirements. I also know people in my school who have gotten into top programs who mostly focused on statistics in their undergraduate. I was also wondering if coming from a top school, getting the top grades are the main areas graduate schools look for. I know that my grades are not perfect nor did I graduate from an Ivy League, but wouldn't the research I did/my recommendation matters more than where I graduated from?

Hi everyone, I applied to a few PhD programs in Statistics last fall after much consideration but I'm having doubts about whether I'd get into any of these programs. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on my chances for these programs and if it's looking pretty bleak, what I should do to better prepare for Fall 2021, i.e. apply for a job/research assistant position, apply to a master instead, etc. Undergrad institution: Top 40 National Universities Major: Statistics and Finance. I also did my MS in Finance, focusing on Big Data Analytics simultaneously GPA: 3.75/4.0 (for all the degrees above) Background: International Asian Female Relevant courses: Math: Calc I/II/III: A/B/A Diff Eq: Pending Discrete Math: A Linear Algebra: A Statistics: Mathematical Stat I and II: A and A Theoretical Stat I and II: A and B (both double listed as Grad) Data Analysis and Linear Models: C (I had the worst professor I've ever met in my entire life, please let me know how this could have affected my application and what I can do to compensate for this) (also listed as grad course) Multivariate Analysis and Data Mining: Pending Stat for Engineering and Science using R: A Actuarial Science I and II : A and A Senior Research Project: A Computer science: Elementary Computer Programming: A GRE general: Quant: 162 (79%) - Something happened so I was short on money for a while and didn't have enough time to retake the GRE :( Verbal: 164 (94%) Writing: 4.5 (81%) GRE math: I didn't take it Research experience: Did research for a professor in the med school on survival analysis for brain cancer, submitted to journal pending review. I was told the chances of getting it was high but I haven't heard back. I had hopes that this would redeem my sad grade in Data Analysis and Linear Model. Professor has also done a lot research with good reputation, and is editor of some journal. LOR: My PI, whom I had a great relationship with, wrote me a letter which I had no doubt is great given her success with recommending people to anything from biostatistics to med school and what she told me she was going to say in my letter. My stat prof for Theoretical Stat told me that she would make sure to include that we did Casella and Berger for both classes in the sequence and was fond of me. My finance prof for both my u-grad and master class in Application in Financial Big Data (we did Python, MCMC and Principal Component Analysis in this class) knew me throughout u-grad and remembered me even though I hadn't seen her in a year. Research interest: I said I wanted to do research in stochastic modeling/high-dim statistics/big data analytics. In schools where there's a prof with the same interests, I said quant finance as well. Schools I applied to (All PhDs in Statistics): Harvard/Rejected Duke/Rejected Columbia/Pending Cornell/Pending John Hopkins/Pending New York University/Pending Ohio State/Pending Rice/Pending Rutgers/Pending UCLA/Pending UPenn/Pending Yale/Rejected It would be great if you can tell me what the weaknesses in my profile are and how I can improve on them. I don't know if I should be applying to MS programs/jobs right now if it's really the case that my chances are not that great. I don't know if I should do a master first. Thank you so much for your help. I just want to get into grad school and get a dog :(