Euler17

OP should ask Michigan directly about the quals, rumor has it they may be changing. I think the idea that Michigan stat genetics is facing a steep decline is a bit misguided. They have some strong junior faculty working in diverse areas. Also, they have some nice recent hires, like Veera Baladandayuthapani, who doesn't strictly focus on genomics, but has done some really innovative work.

I agree where you want to live afterwards should factor in somehow. Though if you're interested in computational topology, it's hard to beat working with Edelsbrunner at IST Austria.

In relation to you not being proud of your recent papers, remember that you probably know the shortcomings/holes in your work better than anyone else. I have struggled with being completely unsatisfied with 2 of the papers I wrote this year because I felt like there were so many ways that they could be improved, but I trusted my professors that they were ideas worth writing about. And maybe I don't get around to improving upon them in later papers the way I envision, but once they are out there others have the opportunity to build on them if they'd like. I def agree with most of the issues you bring up, just wanted to give my two cents on that point.

This doesn't address everything in your post, but something to maybe keep in mind: I've found men to be much less forthcoming about their struggles in school, especially in a competitive grad school environment. Additionally, men, like myself, have been systematically "affirmed" by society of their ability to perform in STEM programs, which gives many a confidence that is often misplaced. This is just to say that when you are taking the "temperature" of your classmates, the observed states of men are probably less informative of the hidden states than they are for other students(excuse the hidden markov model terminology). Edit: As an aside, covid-19 is definitely exacerbating inequity in academia. I have also found, like most others, I struggle much more in online math and statistics classes than in in-person ones. I hope you can stick it out until things return to a more "normal" situation.

I agree with Stat Assistant Prof, though your relationship with your math professor does not need to remain anonymous. Regularly attending office hours and asking good questions about the course material or about the professor's research can definitely help build a more meaningful relationship. It would also help if their office hours are not video calls with multiple people being able to attend at a time. Anyway, the physics prof is probably the way to go, especially if you have other letter writers or components of your application that attest to your mathematical ability.

If you are applying to TAMU because it is in Texas, I would also look at UT MD Anderson's biostatistics program. They have a solid reputation and most of the talks I have heard from faculty from their have been interesting.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I really appreciate it!

Hello all, I am currently using "Introduction to Linear Regression Analysis" by Montgomery, Peck, and Vining and find myself dissatisfied with the presentation of the material. I am more accustomed to traditional mathematics textbooks and I think this text, because it has a broad audience, does not flesh out the mathematical details in a way that I would prefer. I think if I was given a more complete picture of derivations and such I would have a better intuition for the material. Does anyone have any suggestions for intro linear regression textbooks with a more mathematical slant? Thanks in advance!

I would hesitate to call UCSD a safety school. Although it isn't a well known program, they only matriculate 4 students per year. Here are some recent admissions stats: Fall 2019: 92 applicants, 9 admits Fall 2018: 107 applicants, 5 admits Fall 2017: 104 applicants, 7 admits Granted, we do not know the quality of their applicant pool, but the admit rate is very low.

Could you share the web page for the Michigan grad -> Stat prof?