statsday

I’m a first year PhD student at A&M and I like it a lot. I go to Houston pretty often and Austin occasionally. I’m very liberal and lived in Boulder before moving to College Station. College Station is conservative but it’s not an issue. If you are interested in a particular professor you can ask Andrea to set up a zoom call with them. Do you mind me asking which professor you’re interested in working with?

I think a macbook is the way to go. They're simple and work for a long time. In terms of computing power it really doesn't matter. I have a five year old macbook pro with a 2.7GHz i5 and 8gb of ram. At home I have a couple of linux boxes with two 1060s and a 2070 and maybe 80 gigs of ram in total. I never have any issues. You'll probably have access to a cluster, so you might as well get used to using one. A laptop is really just for displaying homework, showing results at meetings, emailing on the go, and SSHing into something that actually does work. Also since price is always a consideration consider buying something off govdeals. I once got a thinkpad with a 3.6 GHz i7 and 16gb of ram for around $200. Just had to drive to the city near me. https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.AdvSearchResultsNew&kWord=Macbook&whichForm=vehicle&searchPg=Main

Hi all, The US embassies in most (if not all) countries are not scheduling interviews for incoming graduate students, and as you know one must do an interview to get an F1 visa. What will happen to these students? Do you think it's possible that the students will have to defer and that the cohorts for this coming year will just be really small? I am not international but I would be very sad if my cohort, which was supposed to be around 12-15 people, was less than half of that. Thanks in advance!

I think both will be impacted. A friend of mine is a PhD student at a private institution that told every department to reject everyone on a waitlist (this was back in April) and to plan on smaller cohorts next year.

Thanks for all the input. I chose A&M for the reasons mentioned by statsforyou and anotherday.

@DanielWarlock Kreyszig is pretty heavy without already haven taken a real analysis course.

Thank you @bayessays and @Stat Postdoc Soon Faculty as always you have helpful and thoughtful advice. I will decide later today, and for now I will just look at UMich faculty that I might want to work with.

Hi All, I have been accepted to the PhD in stats at Texas A&M and today I was accepted into the bridge masters at UMich. Does anyone have experience with this bridge masters, and know how likely it is for bridge masters students to transfer to the PhD? Right now I am just deciding between the two and I would love input from anyone. Both are fully funded with stipends/insurance coverage. Thanks in advance!

I did applied math for my masters and I know a lot of applied mathematicians through work. I would choose Courant if the research interests match. If you’re going to apply to applied math PhDs then all the programs you apply to will likely place Courant above Columbia.

Do you mind me asking why you want a PhD? Not trying to talk you out of this just want to understand your goals more clearly.

@bayessays I have also heard that to be true. I don’t know anyone who has actually done that though even after getting a better offer after the deadline. People much more clever than me have said that might hurt my career.

If both schools abide by the CGS’ april 15th deadline you might have to get a release from the first school to attend the second one. Just something to keep in mind.

@bayessays Thanks for the advice. I just emailed them and now I am waiting for a response. @BJA thank you for your input and good luck to your son!

One of my colleagues did his PhD in that sub department and he is a good statistician (I work in a lab) and my undergrad advisor did his PhD there but doing dynamical sysytems and networks stuff. Both of them are good at what they do and they both spoke highly of the applied math department there. I dont know how it is in terms of stats but it is a good applied math program. I imagine you’d have to do an analysis and numerics sequence which would take away from stats classes you would do at another department though. My 2¢

I have been waitlisted by Umich stats and accepted by TAMU stats, both PhD. How often do people get off the waitlist at a program like UMich? I am tempted to just accept the TAMU offer but I think Michigan is a better research fit for me. Any input would be nice. Thanks!

No school I’ve been accepted at said they would be changing anything and that the semester will still happen albeit remotely. My wife is in a program now and has been proctoring exams and holding office hours remotely. She is still getting her same TA assistantships and slaving away for her advisor. I think a lot of people will be applying next year and getting a spot will be much harder. In the thread about going straight to PhD from undergrad vs getting a masters there are some links that support this idea.

I think Sigaba is giving solid advice. I thought about reapplying next year but it’s likely to just be more competitive and I have an offer from a program I think I would like. For bayesian and spatial stats (not applied to ecology) TAMU has some faculty. Matthias Katfuss comes to mind, so maybe after getting your masters you can go to college station. I will likely be there once this virus finally stops and I can say they do have quite a few people doing spatial stats and bayesian stats. Sigaba what did you mean when you said, “No matter which path you choose, you will be wasting time if you work as hard as you can to do your best”?

Are you planning on attending with the intention of dropping out, or are you in a program now and you are thinking of dropping out?

I know nothing about UPenn’s program that you mentioned so I’ll only talk about Columbia. It depends on what you want I imagine. I applied for Columbia’s PhD and was rejected but accepted by their MA program. I didn’t give it a second thought because I’ve heard that it wouldn’t improve my resume were I to apply for a PhD again in the future. Additionally, some of the people I know that went there said they paid a lot and learned very little so you’re just paying for the brand. If you want a job with a fancy bank it might be worth it though. There is a man who posts here often that says many people at banks he interviewed with had done a masters in stats at Columbia. Keep in mind this was a random person on the internet so take it with a grain of salt. Do what will make you happy and will advance your career in the way you want. It sounds like you want to go to Columbia so you should do that if you can afford it and it helps you reach your end goal. Good luck!

I've been waitlisted by Michigan and it is last chance not to have to move to College Station, so please choose NCSU lol. In all seriousness congrats on your admissions and I hope you choose the program that matches you best. Good luck!

All the people I know that had success applying to those masters level programs finished the standard calc / lin. alg courses and most had at least one real analysis course. Additionally, most of the international students I know that got into those programs were math or stats majors with solid credentials. I think you have to either take those courses at the local university or apply to a different type of program. Maybe business analytics if the course route isn’t an option. Keep trying and don’t give up. It’s never too late to do what you’ve been dreaming about!

same

sorry UMich stats PhD^^^

I was waitlisted for UMich stats in feb. does anyone have any idea of my chances of getting off the wait list?