StatB

I apologize but I would actually reiterate the same saying already mentioned by @Stat Assistant Professor that it becomes somewhat difficult for me to directly gauge your chances at math departments. You should follow his advice of digging more in mathematics forum or mathematicsgre website. The main hindrance in giving feedback on the math departments is that I am not that much knowledgeable about how the admission and selection process goes on these departments. I know some of our seniors who received both their undergraduate and master's degree at ISI (in Statistics) and went to do probability research in math departments (like Columbia). But that number is small and many from the Kolkata center normally prefer joining Statistics departments (though they have solid mathematics training at undergraduate level, the course curriculum is more skewed to Statistics. Hence they might feel more comfortable at Stat departments) In fact as I have already mentioned, many of my batchmates who did BMath and MMath from ISI Bangalore, and were very much keen to do stuffs related to probability, have chosen Statistics departments for doing their PhDs rather than mathematics departments. Thus, I am pretty sure that you will have good to decent chances in the Stat departments already mentioned in the earlier answers. Regarding Chicago Stats program, it considered as one of the top programs often selecting mostly among the top students from MStat (This time they have selected one from MMath too). So if you do extremely well in your three semesters of MStat, get strong letters then you might try applying there and have a shot. Somehow I feel that, your undergraduate degree from CMI would be a plus point if you want to apply to math departments. I know that many top students from CMI are able to get PhD position in pure mathematics (too in universities like Chicago) right after their BSc. So, you might have good chances in math departments, but I will not be able to make a detailed statement on it. There are many good European universities where you can apply. As an alumni from CMI (plus that your are presently at ISI) you have very good chance in ending up in École normale supérieure (Paris). They have some connection with CMI and prefer CMI students in their lab. In that case, you would require someone from CMI who can write a strong letter on behalf of you. Some other universities which you can look are :- université Paris-Dauphine, PSL, Paris Saclay, Paris-Sud and so on. (You might look mathematicsgre.com or reddit to know more about them). There are couple of good universities in UK where predominantly probability research is carried out. Apart from oxbridge, Bath and Warwick comes to my mind. You can have a look at http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/tanner/Prospects2010/JNorrisTalk.pdf to know more about probability dominated departments (But I guess the document is old, so you might search whether the peoples mentioned in the documents are still supervising students or not.) Another destination in Europe which comes to mind when talked about probability and random graphs is Netherlands. I have already mentioned about NETWORKS program which have selected a couple of ISI students recently. Apart from that we know some of our seniors who graduated from universities like Eindhoven, Leiden etc., and have done groundbreaking works in applied probability.

Hi @aldoraine. Apologies for late reply. It will be also better if you can express the name of your undergraduate institution. If you have completed BMath from ISI Bangalore or BSc Mathematics & Physics at CMI, then your profile seems to be a solid one. I guess a BS from IIT Kanpur or Bombay would also have more or less similar pedigree, but I would rank them low as compared to ISI and CMI as far as undergraduate mathematics is concerned. (My answers will be based on the assumption that your undergrad was from one of these institutes.) You have good percentage in your first semester of MStat. I would ask you to keep the same progress. You definitely have a good chance of ending up in the schools already mentioned by @Stat Assistant Professor. One of our seniors who had similar profile like you and was keen on doing work in probability (undergrad from ISI, slightly more percentage in MStat than you.) ended up getting offers from Brown university for PhD Mathematics. He has ultimately joined NETWORKS program at Netherlands (You can also look at this as I have recently heard that NETWORKS is getting more popular. Prof. Rajat Subhra Hazra is also at Leiden on sabbatical.) Some of our batchmates who did undergrad and masters both in ISI Bangalore and were wanting to do Statistics/Probability has received offers from Cornel, Chicago, UT Austin, ETH Zurich (Master's ), UNC Chapel Hill etc. (All are Statistics programs). The students getting offers from Cornel, Chicago, Chapel Hill were ranked very high in their classes, had a extra projects and also a very good connection with professors which resulted in strong recommendations. So, it will be also good if you can try interacting with some of your professors who will be ultimately writing recommendation for you. Under the assumption that you had undergrad from CMI/ISI, your profile will be similar to the students mentioned above. Particularly, if you wish to do probability, you will encounter more probability courses in MStat than any other course at ISI (provided you take the combinations in that way and also provided the intended courses are being offered. Caution:- Not all the courses in probability specialization are offered every year). So these schools may be your "reach". Apart from that you can apply to any other universities at the level mentioned in the earlier answers. I can see them as very positive for you. Regarding extra projects, I guess it will not be a big problem. Try working on your project (assuming that you will take "Project" as one semester course in the final semester) from third semester itself so that you can mention about it in your SoP as well as CV. But note one thing:- most of the advanced courses in probability specialization (like weak-convergence and empirical processes, martingale theory, brownian motions, large deviations, percolation) will be given in last year. SO, you may not be able to show evidence of these courses (or grades) while applying. But you can definitely write in your SoP. Some universities, though, ask grade-sheets of third semester around January.

Congratulations to both of You. My friend has also finally got the offer. Just yesterday she was sent an letter from director of graduate studies mentioning about her employment and stipend amount and many other related things.

They have waitlisted one of my batchmates and 2 are waiting till now. Yes, this time I have seen more Stat PhD acceptances than biostat PhD's (at least this has happened with my batchmates ). So, Stat departments seem to have less problems with funding this year. But again exception exists, say Iowa State. ?

Okay. I hope that you get admitted soon. Regarding funding I guess you will get full funding if you are accepted.

Oh. This seemed really odd to me. Anyway, let us know how it goes after the interview. My friend ultimately replied to them very positively and asked about funding. She was told that she will be given full funding and they will send her the offer letter sometime in next week.

Okay, I see. Yes, this would really be weird if nothing happens after expecting something from them. Thank you very much for your insight. I will tell her to reply positively to the mail (as she has not received any confirmed offer yet) and we have to see what happens. Was your weird experience related with UIowa or some other university?

By the by, I want to ask you all one thing. Did anyone applying to University of Iowa hear anything from them ? One of my friend, who applied there received the following mail :- "Hello X. Thank you for sending a strong application. The committee is very impressed with your academic performance and will make decisions on offers soon. If you wish you can take a look at our faculty expertise to know more about our department :- (link for faculty research interests). In case you already have offers from other programs that you think you fit better than ours, kindly let us know if we still have a chance to recruit you. Look forward to hear from you." What kind of indication the mail gives? Should I assume that my friend is really a top applicant in their department and she is definitely going to receive a formal offer soon ?

AFAIK, he told me something like that. One thing is sure that he was not able to join their program in last Fall. In fact I know that one senior who was accepted by Ohio, was told that there is no fund for the first year. On the other hand, I could see some of my other seniors joining many other PhD programs in last Fall (of course virtually; i.e. they had to take online classes and, also were doing TA job remotely. They were also getting their stipends without any problem). But as Iowa did not ask him to join so it might be the case that they were lacking funds to host someone virtually, and hence perhaps was waiting till the next Fall so that he can come to campus physically. I do not know if I should use the term "defer" or not as I do not know what conversations went on between him and Iowa. But, he told me that he is expecting to join next year.

Oh. If that is true, it is not a good indication as many of my batchmates are mainly waiting for it. But I know that last time they accepted one of my seniors but later he was asked to defer. So, the funding problem may persists

Anyone applying to Europe for master's in data science or Mathematics+Machine Learning ?

Has anyone received any decision(approval /rejection) regarding the pre-application made to Statistics PhD program of Iowa State University?

Okay, I see. Thank you very much @moormath for the information.

@BL4CKxP3NGU1N Do you have any idea if Colorado State has started giving offers to International Students? None of my batchmates (well, only one applied there) have received anything till now. I suppose the visit day could have invited the international students too who received offers. But again, I am not sure if the department normally takes international students or not.

Thanks @BL4CKxP3NGU1N for sharing the information.