ihatemoney

Thanks a lot both, this is really helpful/reassuring. For some reason I'm simultaneously not surprised to read about the 35-year-old Cal PhD and can't imagine it being me. I think I'm guilty of comparing myself to my super focused peers who had a good idea of what they wanted to do a lot earlier than me (to the extent that I even do now). Better to wrestle with this now rather than several years deep into a doctorate, I suppose

About me: White male US citizen, underrepresented minority affiliation Undergrad: Top 3 uni, BS Math, ~3.9. One summer of statistical computing research and another in an industry research lab. Linear algebra (Axler), calculus/ODEs, honors algebra+analysis, optimization, number theory, graph theory, full CS core + a good amount of CS theory. A-somethings everywhere but a B in analysis :'^( Masters: Top 3 program, MS Stats, ~3.95 Regression theory, data mining, sampling, PhD probability, statistical learning, stochastics, RL, bit of biostats. GRE, Recs: N/A (yet) Interests: ML theory, graph mining, p >> n, manifolds I've been working as a data scientist/applied scientist at a big famous Silicon Valley tech company since my MS (not being laid off lol), and after a couple years on the hamster wheel I'm wondering if I blew my chances at a great academic career. I wasn't aiming squarely at academia during undergrad/masters and didn't develop strong relationships with profs, do any great research or publish. I suppose I could ask stats PhD colleagues for letters of recommendation, but I'm not too confident I could get glowing letters from working academics considering both my unfocused past and that I've been out of the game for a while. With that said, my questions: Should I try to hype up my industry experience or downplay it? Any general guidance on the value of an industry recommendation vs. an academic one? Am I likely to be perceived as a flight risk? (Is that even a concern in grad admissions?) Does it make any sense to spend some time working on my research portfolio before applying for a PhD? How best to go about this if so? Any pointers on which programs are realistic? Thanks everyone.