the_variational_guy

Undergrad Institution: Top Public U Major(s): Statistics & CS Minor(s): GPA: 3.97 Type of Student: International Male GRE General Test: Honestly didn't submit to many schools and don't think it matters that much for me. Around 94% and 85% for Q/V. TOEFL Score: Not relevant Grad Institution: Top 10 Private School Concentration: Statistics GPA: 3.97 Programs Applying: Statistics & Data Science Research Experience: A few (listed by importance) (1) External research with Ivy professor in an empirical science on AI4Science. (2) In-school thesis research with stat/applied math professor on MCMC. (3) Various undergrad reading programs in approximate Bayesian inference (variational inference, prob ML, etc.) Awards/Honors/Recognitions: a bunch of normal titles. The only notable one is the department citation (speaker at commencement) for undergrad. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: a few during undergrad and none during master. Also served as a course instructor for a seminar course. Letters of Recommendation: 3-4 letters depending on the school. One letter from each of the (1)/(2) research mentioned above. One letter from an undergrad big-name professor who knows me decently well but interestingly not through academics (more like running clubs & administrative stuff). One letter from a prof I've taken a course with and got good grades (didn't submit for schools with no connection to him). Math/Statistics Grades: a bunch of standard stat courses + concentrations on Bayesian stat & statistical learning courses. Math courses involve 2 semesters of analysis and Ph.D.-level stochastic calculus. Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I have a decent publication history on conferences/workshops and the topics are pretty trendy. Don't think it helps a lot. Applying to Where: Only mention the accepted: TL;DR I got into the 2 dream programs (TOP 5 in Stat as well), and got rejected by some "safety schools" lol School - UChicago Data Science Ph.D. (New program) - Committed School - Columbia Statistics Ph.D. - Declined School - UC Davis Statistics Ph.D. - Declined School - UCSB Statistics Ph.D. - Declined A note on UChicago DSI: IMO it's a super attractive program for Statistics applicants. Designed as 50% stat + 50% cs, the bottom line is that you can find mentorship from any faculty in the stat department and do it similar to a normal stat Ph.D. (maybe in terms of entering academia there's a slight difference due to title). The funding structure and first-year requirement are much more flexible (no QE, encouraged to "rotate" across mentors/labs, etc.). (If you read through my post until here, lots of thanks for your attention! As I feel super indebted to many people who helped me through my application process, I'm trying to give others a hand as well. I'm specifically thinking about hosting 30-minute online Q & A sessions if you are a Stat/DS applicant in Fall 2025. You can try to follow the link here)

One data point I'm having is a classmate of mine has already gotten off the waitlist of Stanford Stat Ph.D. a couple of weeks earlier (about a week after the first wave of offer/waitlist notifications). In that case I don't know whether you are simply a bit behind in the list, but there might still be some chances for you to get accepted eventually.

Hi all, I am fortunate to receive an interview invitation from Columbia's Stat PhD program (my dream school!). Does anyone want to share about the interview format, especially whether there would be technical questions? Based on what I heard, some say the 20 to 30-minute interview is all about research experience/follow-ups, while some told me that some linear algebra/statistical concepts are involved. (p.s. Another interesting observation: Columbia interviewed the whole shortlist back in 2022, and held no interview last year, then gave out many interviews this season. It's so unpredictable :).