trwhite2000

Undergrad Institution: Large state school (Big 10)
Major(s): Statistical Science, Economics
Minor(s): Mathematics
GPA: 4.00 Type of Student: Domestic white male

GRE General Test:
Q: 169 (94%)
V: 165 (96%)
W: 5 (91%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
Did not take
  Programs Applied To: Statistics PhD   Research Experience: - First author of an applied statistics paper that I wrote with an assistant professor in the statistics department at my university. Submitted for publication in a non-statistical journal.  - Helped an applied economics professor clean data for a paper (publication pending, I am mentioned in the acknowledgements) - Honors thesis in computational statistics and resampling
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: - University honors program, four-year national merit scholarship, one-year economics scholarship, dean's list - ASA student paper award - Joint Program in Survey Methodology junior fellow (but the program got canceled)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: - 3.5 years as a research assistant at a demographic research center (coding and data cleaning stuff) - 6 month research internship with an intergovernmental agency   Letters of Recommendation: - One from an assistant professor in the statistics department who I wrote a paper with. Also took one of their courses. - One from my honors thesis advisor, who is a full professor in the statistics department. - One from my supervisor at my data cleaning job.   Math/Statistics Courses: Math: Calc 1/2/3, two courses in linear algebra, two semesters of advanced calculus (which is basically real analysis at my school) Stats: Two semesters of applied, two semesters of theory, one semester of computing, one semester of regression, electives in nonparametric and design of experiments
Application Results:
Carnegie Mellon - Rejected (Feb 18)
Duke - Waitlisted (Mar 24) -> Withdrew
Michigan - Accepted (Feb 22) NC State - Accepted (Jan 14) Minnesota - Accepted (Feb 9) Penn State - Accepted (Feb 1) Illinois - Invited to interview (Feb 2) -> Withdrew Ohio State - Accepted (Jan 13) Rice - Invited to interview (Feb 16) -> Withdrew Colorado State - Accepted (Jan 15)   Comments Very happy and relieved with how everything turned out! I really feel like I nailed it with the range of schools I applied to, so thank you to everyone on here who helped me out with that. I was fortunate to have excellent letter writers who wrote excellent letters, and I think that helped a lot. If I could go back and give myself advice, I would say: (1) Start writing the SoP early, and start filling out the actual applications in September/October (not November/December). Some of them take forever. (2) Major in stats and math, not stats and econ. (3) Take more math courses and take some grad-level stats courses.