Undergrad Institution: Top 10 in the US
Major: Mathematics and Economics GPA: 3.71/4.00
Type of Student: Domestic Asian male GRE General Test: Have not taken
GRE Math Subject Test: Have not taken
Programs Applying: Statistics PhD
Research Experience: Mathematics summer REU at my undergrad institution in my first two years, writing expository papers on the math that I learned over the summer with the help of a grad student mentor.
Letters of Recommendation: I have none currently and graduated in 2017.
For one letter I am thinking of asking a Stats professor with whom I took a core class and a time series class and received A's.
I might ask my professor from abstract algebra for another letter (2 classes in which I did well)
I am more uncertain about the third one. I was a decent but not stellar math student who was lucky enough to take classes from well-known profs. I don't necessarily compare well to the better math students who took grad level courses. I may ask my applied econometrics prof whose class I enjoyed, despite my otherwise poor grades/disinterest in honors econ classes. Otherwise I may try to work in a lab and work to get a good LOR from my PI.
Programming Skills: R
Relevant Courses: all undergrad level except 1. Some courses cross-listed.
Math: honors real analysis (B+, A, B), honors abstract algebra (A-, A), complex analysis (A), Markov Chains/Brownian Motion (A), ODE (A), PDE (A-), Point Set Topology (A-)
Stats: Core classes (A-, A), Time Series (A), Pattern Recognition (A-), Stochastic Calculus (grad level, B+)
Econ: Honors econ (B+/B), Applied Microeconometrics (A), Econometrics (A), Game Theory for Econ (A)
Schools: Looking at schools in tech hub cities for personal reasons... Berkeley, Stanford, UWashington, Harvard, MIT, Columbia. I realize that these are all reaches.
Main concerns:
I don't think I would have particularly strong LOR since I never developed a close working relationship with any faculty members. I might take a year to work in a research lab to build connections and develop more skills. Is this a good idea?
I am also concerned about my lack of graduate level courses and my mixed grades in real analysis and economics. I think I could get a good score on the Math GRE however.
Lack of research experience in undergrad (not counting math REU).