justarandomguy

Also I wanted to note that even though most epi people don't specialize in statistics, you could if you wanted to, though it might be a little more difficult. I'm not sure if the lack of statistics oriented epidemiologists is due to lack of demand or supply. Some great statisticians, e.g. Sander Greenland, are in epi departments.

If you decide on biostatistics, do note that some PhD programs automatically consider you for the masters program if you get rejected from the PhD. So it's like a 2-for-1 deal. The ones that did last cycle were Minnesota, Columbia, and UCLA (although you'll want to be sure that these programs will still do this). There are probably other programs as well. You also have a ton of time left to improve your apps. Plenty of time to study and re-take the GRE and improve that quant score. I would focus on this early so you can get it off your back. You can also take real analysis online in the fall. Harvard Extension School, for instance, offers it (they haven't released the courses yet but they always do in the fall, check back here in a month or so https://www.extension.harvard.edu/course-catalog/courses). You won't have the grades back at the time of application but that's ok. Write that you're enrolled in the course in your SOP and let them know that you took it once you decided to pursue a biostat PhD. Then, immediately when grades are released see if you can update your application with the new transcripts. And if you can afford it right now, paying to take this course is well-worth it if it means you can go straight to a Phd rather than Masters then Phd. The cost of a masters + the opportunity cost is several orders magnitude higher than the cost of this one course.

FWIW I also did my undergrad in stats at Cal a couple years ago and had a similar (but slightly worse) gpa. I applied to Stat PhDs this cycle and ended up getting into a couple of top 40 programs, with the caveat that they were big state schools so were easier to get into. Our LoR are obviously going to be different, as well as the rest of our resumes, so I don't know how seriously you should take this data point but this is just to say that the gpa you have now is definitely not terrible. One potentially important point though is which classes you're taking. I'm not sure about masters but PhD programs really care about real analysis (or similar advanced math class). I have no idea how admissions committees will compare someone who did P/NP for real analysis during the crisis vs. someone who got an A or A-. The cynical part of me thinks that there must be at least a couple of top programs that will overtly prefer the latter over the former, but I'm obviously just speculating. But if masters programs don't value real analysis that much (or you're not taking it) then this is a moot point.