squid1231

Hey, the reason is probably two fold. So prior to doing part III, I did have an offer from the US master's which I deferred and did part III. I did not apply for PhDs during Part III (as can be seen, I had very little in the way of summer research projects or research experience in general at that time). As a result, I also did not have a strong set of recommenders to support my application (really just lecturers and supervisors). I will also be honest in that I didn't want to go to a "lower ranked" PhD if it came to that. This was kind of the case after part III as well, and I should also mention, I had mainly had industry experience and wasn't fixed on doing a PhD or research. I just thought it would be fun to go the US and do the masters, my technical skills for a job in the ML space likely weren't there (Part III was very technical and I hadn't supplemented that). Perhaps, a little independent work on my part would have got me there. But going to the US to study appeared the more exciting prospect, I had already contacted some professors and was interested in working with them. Having had more research experience since then, my application is now stronger and I'm excited to do a PhD in a way that wasn't the case before.

Yes, thank you for this - I did end up going with the person who knew me longer and am happy with this decision. Am also applying to some mid-range schools which I think makes sense, didn't realise how much of a gap there was between safeties and everything else.

That makes sense, and definitely makes sense for my applications to reflect a more even set of programs. My main issue that I feel might hold me back is my lack of statistical research, the main things I have is: 1) A master's thesis, this was strong and required advanced statistical techniques to prove some lemmas (though will not materialise into a publication the extension of an algorithm and results that I proved wouldn't be significant in and of themselves) 2) A project I did in my M.S. course that led to a presentation in a couple conferences (neither of them super well-known, though sounds impressive) 3) My work in industry as a Data Scientist under the professor(very well known) I mentioned, I think he can vouch for my abilities, though naturally the research is more applied statistical research, i.e. applying methods to specific use cases than developing myself. 4) I did a literature review of sorts at Cambridge which led to a college prize there, though there was no new contributions as such, more just a nice overview of a particular field Secondary question does 4) even count as research that I should include at all? Given this, is it worth even applying to the top programs I listed or is my research background particularly weak (no real publications/dedicated summer research project, something which I deeply regret, I was busy doing SWE internships at the time with no research interest). Looking at alumni, many of them had publications, and a much stronger research background than myself, and the people I personally know at these programs also had academic backgrounds a fair bit stronger than mine.

Undergrad Institution: Oxbridge Math Undergrad + Part III Cambridge Math + Master's in Top 15 US Stats Major(s): Mathematics GPA: Undergrad: (Low) First Class in Final Year (very high upper second in first year), Part III: Strong distinction (distinction = above first, equivalent would I guess be top half of people who get 4.0s), Master's: 4.0/4.0 (top grade in all courses) Type of Student: International (Asian) Male GRE: 162V 170Q 4.5AW Research Experience: No publications, strong master's thesis focused on extending algorithm and proving statistical results Applied Statistical Project where I presented project at conference Working in industry with very well known Professor Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Some academic honors for exam results Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Data Science internship & job, SWE internships Letters of Recommendation: Professor I'm working under and took course with, should be very strong hopefully Professor at US uni I took courses with and did project that led to conference presentation Academic Supervisor at Cambridge and did a small project under though more independent Cambridge Master's thesis advisor - told me letter would be brief, he did not closely supervise during master's though graded it quite highly compared to the cohort. Unsure whether to use thesis advisor or my academic supervisor, thesis was more technical than work I did for my supervisor, but supervisor knows me a lot better and can talk about me more personally. Courses: Very theoretical statistical courses at Cambridge, Linear algebra, analysis, More Applied ones in masters Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: - Weakest area is lack of publications - Also, other than the top letter of rec, the others might not be super outstanding (not bad necessarily but not to that level) Programs Interest: Statistics, Applied Math (open to Financial Math/Operation Research but not sure if my profile is relevant) Schools: Strong Reach: Stanford, UC Berkeley, Harvard Reach: UChicago, CMU, Princeton (ORFE), MIT Neutral: Columbia, Duke, UMich, Yale Safeties: Rutgers, UPitt, GWU No idea my chances in any of them or if I should revise selections.