TheMeanGene

I am not terribly familiar with how CS PhDs operate aside from the focus being more on the research output as you mentioned. My understanding is that they expect you to produce research from the get-go and learn as necessary to solve whatever problems or topics that come up in your research. I'm not sure how much opportunities you may have to pursue the type of coursework you may be interested in learning (especially if you have to take some more "irrelevant" cs courses to fulfill requirements). Since your UIUC masters would be funded and only a 1-2 year commitment, it might not actually be all that bad of an option to give yourself an opportunity to explore a more theoretic side of things while also setting yourself up to be a more rigorous candidate for theoretically driven research. Both options clearly have their pros and cons, but I'd think that UIUC is a more "safe" option. Cornell CS definitely is prestigious, and this opportunity won't be easy to come by again perhaps (should you turn it down), but it seems like your experience primarily weighs on whether you will be able to do the more theoretic type research you desire. This to me seems like a bit more of a gamble. Also note that I'm not taking in any external factors that you may also wish to consider such as location, stipend, SO, etc. These are definitely something you have to consider for yourself and determine what you value and are willing to give up. Obviously keep in mind that this choice is ultimately up to you and others definitely may have differing opinions as opposed to mine (especially as someone who is in the statistics field and not CS).

Hi, since this is quite the unique situation you are considering, could you provide some more information about what is perhaps drawing you to make a switch? You mention that going to UIUC would require reapplying to PhDs in 2 years, so it seems apparent that you want a PhD, but what for precisely? Are you intending to go to academia? Aside from the "theorem and proof"-based research style, is there a more concrete area of statistics you may be interested in exploring, e.g. ML, networks, etc.? The same goes for CS, what type of research from the theory side are you intending to pursue? Overall, there is quite the contrast between the two decisions so it could help to be a little more specific.

As you've said, a stat PhD is much more flexible and does not pigeonhole your future opportunities as much. However, if you've found some professors you feel are a perfect fit for the type of research you'd like to do at Emory, then perhaps this is the better choice. I am not as familiar with Emory's biostat program, but I can speak more about UIUC's stat program. UIUC's program is definitely on the rise due to an amalgamation of changes: admin changes (Shao becoming PhD Director, Bo becoming dept chair), expansion of faculty (quite a few new hires each year), and the reconstruction of the old stat building. As @Nothalfgood mentioned, if you choose to do a stat phd, there will be a heavier theoretical requirement as opposed to a biostat phd; do keep this in mind. Of course there are always other things to consider as well such as stipend, location, hobbies, etc. Sorry I can't answer as much about Emory, but I am free to answer any questions you may have about UIUC as I was there for my master's.

You can see some data as to where graduates go here https://www.cmu.edu/career/about-us/salaries-and-destinations/post-grad-dashboard-updated.html A lot of what I am about to say is quite opinionated as I have no experience with CMU's PhD program, but I did go there for undergrad. This is a generality, and may not be true for every department, but the school has pretty poor work life balance and a general toxic working culture in my opinion. Lots of students get turned off by academia after their general experience with the school. There are also a lot of other factors that I think would steer most students at CMU to industry, e.g. strong cs reputation. Lots of tech companies heavily recruit CMU students and I'm sure it doesn't help to see your peers all leave academia for high paying "cushy" jobs (if your goal is to remain in academia).

No.

I heard from UIUC today, so I imagine some more people will hear from this school in the coming days.

Have you or anyone heard anything from michigan since they sent this out to people?