StatMasterCat

@bayessays Thank you for the advice and sharing your experience!

Hi all, I'm a master's student in statistics and I have a bachelor's degree in statistics as well. I graduated from my undergraduate about 6 years ago and by the time I will be applying for PhD programs it will be 7 years ago. I took Analysis I at my undergraduate and got A+ (we used "baby Rudin"). Since 7 years is a long time, I thought I might have to re-take Real Analysis to show that I can still do well on this. However, unfortunately, I might be able to take Real Analysis in the 4th semester which means I won't have Real Analysis on my graduate transcript by the time I apply for the schools. So, my question is, do I really need to retake this course? or do you guys think it would be still okay to have a grade from 7 years ago. Another question is, on my transcript, the name of class is "Analysis" instead of "Real Analysis" but we used baby Rudin so I assume those are equivalent. Do you think it would matter that the name of class is not "Real Analysis" in terms of admission? Thank you.

I'm an international applicant who also applied for Master's programs this year. What I can say is, if you are self-funded and not aiming top 20, it might not be too competitive. I also applied for some programs with a thesis option but thing is, even if the program's website says they have a thesis option, the chance might be pretty limited. For example, UPitts has a thesis option so I applied but then they emailed me that they rarely accept thesis option students so it was just a waste of admission fee. My recommendation is, go to their websites and see if they a thesis option and contact the coordinator to make sure they actually offer the option.

@shuggie Thank you! I will definitely reach out to one of the professors. I also got an offer from FSU but it was without any financial aid ? they both seemed like great programs. I hope you make the best decision for you and I don't think you could go wrong with both of the options! congrats again!

@bayessays Thank you so much! that's really helpful information

@bayessays Thank you for the input! As an international student, I really didn't have much information about this school. There are not many people who know about Wake Forest University in my country even though it is a great school and a lot of people know about UMN. It's probably because there are less than 10 people(from what I heard) who are attending this school from my home country but there have been a lot of people who have attended UMN. May I ask you one more thing? you don't think ranking or name does matter that much for MS programs unless it's not programs like Stanford, Harvard and etc?. it's better to choose the option that will save me money? @shuggie That's good to hear that you had a good communication with the department and it seemed they care about the students! and I agree that terminal MS program should benefit me in many ways. May I ask you where you decided to go? and congrats on your admission

Hi all, I'm an international applicant and luckily I got admitted to several master's programs. I finally narrowed it down to two options and want to ask for some advice before I make a huge decision! I'm planning to apply to Ph.D. Programs after getting a master's degree but also don't want to rule out the possibility of getting a job with just an MS degree. The reason why I didn't apply to Ph.D. program this year is that I did not take enough math courses and my GPA was just mediocre. Since the admission is more competitive for international students, I wanted to do a master's first to make my profile look better. Plus, I only took Linear Algebra, Probability, Analysis, Mathematical Statistics, and some other stat courses from my undergraduate. I wonder taking proof-based math courses at a graduate school would significantly improve my future profile. Any comments will be appreciated. Thanks! University of Minnesota Pros: 1. Not a huge MS program: about 25 master's students (cause I saw some programs with 50+ master students) 2. Location (city and more job opportunities if I just decide to get a job after my MS) 3. Higher ranking and faculty (not sure if it does mean anything for MS though) 4. Tuition is reasonable for international students. (about $30k per year) Cons: 1. Cost of attendance (I received a partial scholarship from Wake Forest, and my rough estimation is that I would need to spend extra $15-20k per year including health insurance if I choose MN over WFU) 2. I'm a bit worried about what if I won't be able to obtain research experience at this program because it's a big department with a lot of Ph.D. students. Wake Forest University (They don't have a Ph.D. program, only offer MA) Pros: 1. Partial scholarship: I would still need to pay $10k in tuition per year though 2. Small program with 10-15 math/stat students. 3. Research experience: I saw some professors there have published papers with their MA students. Cons: 1. Location: correct me if i'm wrong! but it seems a bit like the middle of nowhere to me ? 2. Un-ranked program: does this affect anything if I just go the job market with the MA degree from a lower ranking program? 3. Not MS but MA (does it matter? not sure)