Apples

Hey everyone... this is possibly a silly question, but would it be bad to not fully write out the school's name every time in your SOP (especially if you're referencing it several times)? As in, say I'm applying to the University of Illinois... do I always need to write out University of Illinois every time or is it ok to refer to the school as U. Illinois or just Illinois. I've been abbreviating the names as above and now that I'm close to finishing I'm a little worried that that's not a good idea (or maybe it just doesn't matter). I'm applying to statistics programs, if that makes a difference. Thanks for any input!

Thanks for the advice!!! Very informative and very helpful. It's good to hear that you like stats grad school. Hopefully I will get in somewhere and enjoy it too!

Hey everyone, new here! Finally created an account since I'm looking for some advice. Right now I'm between my junior and senior years of undergrad and one of my huge goals for this summer is to come up with a plan of what I should do after graduation. I've thought a LOT about looking for jobs after college, grad school, and other random gap year opportunities. I have come to the conclusion that I would very much like to go to grad school in statistics next fall. I see advantages to taking a year or so off, but I enjoy school and even if initially I'm a little burned out I am always very very ready to return in the fall. Basically, I want someone to let me know which level of grad schools I could realistically get into. I am not sure exactly how my credentials stack up against other applicants. It's intimidating when one reads that a school accepts something like 5 of 150 applicants. I go to a pretty well respected undergraduate institution (one of those "new ivy" ones) and am double majoring in math and econ. The reason I've decided on grad school in statistics is because my favorite courses have included classes such as probability, stochastic processes, and econometrics. I also have to take a fair amount of pure math courses but do not like them as much and don't do quite as well in them (more of a B+ to A- student). I feel that in the pure math subjects I am just below the level of the very top students, whereas in applied math and stats courses I feel I am one of the strongest students and also enjoy the material more. I have TAed for probability at my school and loved that job. Also, I am more intereted in applied statistics than theoretical statistics. I have a 3.76 overall gpa with about a 3.74 in technical courses. I also defnitely feel that I can improve my gpa senior year as I will be taking more applied courses since I am pretty much done with the pure ones. I have also participated in 2 REUs. One was more focused on math/programming and the other was more about data analysis/econ experiments. My computer skills include C, C++, Matlab, Stata, and Excel. I am also taking a course on SAS and R this upcoming fall. Last, I am very involved with sports on my campus (where I have held leadership positions) as an extra curricular. I will be taking the GREs in August and have done very well on math standardized testing in the past so I am confident I could get at least a 750 on the analytical section, even if I have to retake it once. (I am studying for it as well.) One thing that I have not done is taking grad courses as an undergrad. Is that very important? It's possible I could squeeze one in senior year, but it is such a busy time already. Overall, I figure I may apply to a couple jobs for after college, since work experience couldn't hurt if I get one. But I will definitely be applying to grad school in stats and this would be my first choice of what to do. From what I can gather a PhD leads to jobs with more advancement opportunities with better pay than a masters. Therefore, I figure I would go for the PhD as opposed to a masters. However, I would like to be out of grad school in 4 years. Is that the norm for statistics PhDs, or does it often take longer? Last, grad school is only feasible for me if I can get financial support. From what I can tell support for PhDs is pretty common (but correct me if I'm wrong.) I am not necessarily looking to get into a top 10 school, but of course that would be great. I would be happy at a mid or lower level school if I liked the department/research and could be supported. Right now my goal would be to get a job in government or industry after my degree. (But I am still open minded to careers in academia.) This is getting pretty long, but thanks for reading if you've made it this far! Any advice about statistics grad school and about what level school is feasible for me to get into with funding would be great. And now that I think about it, it would be awesome to hear about anyone's experiences in statistics grad school and how they like it. Or if there's anyone who's done with grad school and in the job world.. it'd be great to hear about your experiences with that too!