rockrs

Given you have a good recommendation and from your sop one can see that you know where are you going, say, high dimensional multivariate statistics or nonstationary time series or machine learning, and most importantly, fits to your background and coursework experience , not that strict. Don't bother for the proof requirement. I mean in the US there is generally such a course, in my country for instance, we don't have calculus but straight go to analysis and thus the proofs. Furthermore, most programs will ask you to take the real real analysis, no matter if you have or not have the baby one . Good luck.

Well, I think you know that PhD in the US is 5 years, as it also includes the Master degree - the first 2 years. It will be good to take some stats classes, so that you could be able to demonstrate interest in statistics. Real analysis will really be important as almost everything in stochastic processes depends on measure theory and the like. However, do not underestimate optimisation, if you have a course which covers Kuhn_Tucker and so on, be sure to take it, as statistics is really about optimisation...Do not prolong your graduation if you are going to go to US - you will be studying statistics there! If you want however, to study in Europe, say, UK, you need to have a master before a PhD

In my opinion, you should think also of the fact that Duke is heavily Bayesian department, so is that suiting you? Secondly, the most important thing for a PhD is your adviser and his (sub)field of research..Consider the situation after 5 years - you need some recommendations for any academic position and they need to be good. However, given you suddenly decide to be in industry, NC State would have given you some internship for the time of your PhD. Florida is a theoretical department. I think Mich falls in-between theory and practice...

Well, in my opinion, GRE quant score has a multifold purpose: i) to be used as a cutoff for uncompetitive applicants (say, less than 730-50...) ii) to give a little jump for the ones scoring 800 and help distinguish for different international applicants/universities; also, if you have some bad grades in core courses, it is really compulsory to score near 800 Obviously, there is no fixed cutoff value, but there are some programs which post their average accepted applicants' score...so aim at that at least...

Well, without any stats/maths recommendations, given that you did not have many math classes, it would be almost impossible. Just try to do a Master's first, which then you could use for a jump.. Moreover, it would really show you whether or not you like statistics

Well, just go for the stat. It would give you more options after graduation (we do not know how the economic climate will be). Think about NCSU, University of Minnesota... Further, if you care about finance this would mean forecasting etc..I personally do not think that econ grad program, except the very top (duke, chicago, berkeley, ...), would give you that simply because it is based on stochastic processes and/or real analysis...On the other hand, if you care more for the politics side - policy evaluation, effect of government measures on bla bla... again, there are world bank employees in high positions who still publish articles doing linear regression, but I think this would rather change drastically in near future. With the huge data availability nowadays, we go onto the multivariate, even high-dimensional scale, so a PhD in applied stat with multivariate statistics focus would be best.. The usual things for economics - strategies, policies, currents - you are going to be educated enough to read them yourself, say, if you work in the area...Good luck.

Wow. That's sharply on the topic!

Dear biostat_prof, thanks for the useful opinion. I think everyone on the forum will be grateful for the above post. In relation to it, I would like to ask you a few questions, if you would have the time... 1) Given the mindset you mentioned for the innate math ability. How do adcoms treat bad grades in first university year in core math and then good ones in next years as well as an excellent MS? (I am international student) 2) What exactly the GRE general quant score is used for. Could the good score help if I have some bad grades or something? I have heard that the GRE quant is not relevant unless you score under 750 and this may lead to doubts in one's abilities. Thanks in advance.

Hello, I would like to ask for a little advice on my profile: My BSc is CS and Master's is Probability and Statistics in math faculty, both international institutions. My issues is that I have bad grades in algebra(both linear and abstract) and analysis in my first year. From there on my math gpa is high - next 4 undergrad courses, then in MSc - grad courses - I selfeducated on the way.... I want to apply to a top 20 stat/biostat PhD. Is that reasonable/realistic if I wait another year and get the gre subject test and supposedly score 80 percentile or whatever advice to me you may have? Do I get credit for proffesional statistician experience for 2.5 years and TA in applied and MV stat for 2 years as for the bad core math grades? Thanks, Rockrs