sisyphus1

Same. Yet to hear anything. What are people's profiles like?

From looking at the results page as of now it seems like quite a few schools interview? http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=computer+science I see Columbia, Princeton, Berkeley, UIUC, UCLA

No, you definitely deserve at least one easy semester

164 Q is fine (they don't care about V, unless it's something ridiculous like 140). This may be different from other schools but one CS professor I talked to at a top department said he pretty much ignores GRE scores and only looks at (in the following order) Research, Letters of Recs, and GPA. Your 3.9 GPA in Math/CS will assuage any doubts they have about your true quantitative abilities. With two second author publications (venue will be important), I think you will have a good shot at all schools, including the top 4. Best of luck!

Any reason for this? My undergrad is very highly ranked for machine learning and I would imagine it would be a reach for me.

Highly depends on: - your undergrad university - quality of journals in which you published (do you mean you published in Proc. IEEE?)

I don't think you have a chance at the top 10, but you may have a good shot at 10-20, if your advisor is supportive of your decision (and write good recs). Here's another thought--why don't you try to find a research group/advisor in machine learning in CS at your current university? If it's a top 20 program, I am sure that the CS department will have at least a couple of ML faculty, and from what I've seen it's not that rare for Stats PhDs to be co-advised by faculty from other departments (e.g. look at student profiles from UCLA/stanford).

Quick Background GRE (Q/V/W): 166/167/5.5 Undergrad: Physics/Econ double major from a top 10 school (GPA=3.8) Grad: MS in computer science from Columbia (GPA=4.0) Publications: 1 first-author at a top conference, 1 first-author at a workshop Research experience: Nothing other than class projects (the two publications above were as a result of classroom projects). I think this is my biggest weakness LoR: should be decent, and from people who are well-known. But definitely not "best-student-ever" type LoRs. My research interest is in Machine Learning. I'll be applying to 10~12 schools, including the top 4. I think I have a good list of reach/match schools, but I am having a hard time choosing the "safety" schools. With the caveat that there are no true "safety" schools when it comes to PhD admissions, can people recommend some safety schools that are also good at ML? Thanks!

I think there is a gap, but not a huge one. I have a master's in stats, and the questions are not too different from questions on some of the final exams of the more difficult classes.

Well, the adcoms might be aware of the grading scheme at the top 3 UK universities or so, but they may not necessarily think that other UK universities have the same grade 'deflation', unless explicitly told by a professor. Really surprised that you didn't get into any schools--your list was no doubt top heavy, but would have expected a more favorable outcome. Maybe bad luck too.

I've heard that grades at UK/Australian universities are typically very deflated (e.g. an 80% equates to an A or something). Adcoms might not have appreciated the fact that your ostensibly low grades are actually quite respectable. That's the only red flag I see. Best of luck next season!

thanks everyone. Cyberwulf, even for stat departments, isn't it true that funding for international students requires more money? I remember talking to an department head (for stats) about this and he said that was the case.

Hi all, I've decided to re-apply for admission next year (Fall 2014) However, if I wait one more year (and apply for Fall 2015), I can apply as a permanent resident. Will this give me a significant advantage at the top stats/biostatistics programs? From looking at school websites it seems like that most students at the top programs are international students (in fact for some programs it seems like a 100% of them are international students). Are there a substantial number of candidates who are rejected but would have been accepted had they not been international students? How are these factors discussed in the admission process? Do the faculty openly discuss it? (e.g. when faculty are discussing an applicant, do they say: "oh candidate X may not have had as many advanced math classes or stellar recommendations as candidate Y, but he is a green card holder (or a US citizen), so let's take him over candidate Y.") Or is it more subtle? Thank you!

did you get an email saying you were waitlisted? or did you have to ask?

haven't heard anything from them....

You can do ML without a CS background. MATLAB should be a minimum though. And a class on algorithms (so you can get familiar with complexity analysis) would be also useful. Having said that, the best ML departments have a lot of CS/EE faculty (Stanford, CMU etc.)

I would say UMich. Given your desire to go into industry, school brand name should be given weight. Yes 80K is a lot of debt, but starting salary for a Biostatistician is nearing 6 figures, so you should be able to pay it off relatively quickly. Biostatistics is a (obviously) less flexible than statistics if you are interested in non-biomedial positions (finance, tech etc.), but it's not impossible to work at a non-biomedical company. I work in quantitative finance and in my team of statisticians there are a couple of biostatisticians.

what did brown say?

Thanks cyberwulf--does this include international students? I think you mentioned before that international students are typically on a different schedule.

Health quant, do you know if offers are made only (or mostly) to those invited for recruitment day?

So for those who submitted before the deadline, were all the decisions made? I saw some rejections for Brown today (but no acceptances)..

got rejected by CMU, waitlisted by Yale today.

What is the process for getting off the waitlist? Is there a "ranking" for waitlisted applicants and they are given offers as spots open up? How can one improve one's chances to be moved off the waitlist?

boo are you sure? there goes Yale then...

For what it's worth, we've applied to almost the same programs (I did CMU, UCB, Yale, Duke, Wharton for Stats, and a few Biostats programs) but your profile is stronger than mine--you have more math classes, better recs, and research experience. But, I would say that given the results page, you are most likely out of running for CMU, UW Seattle, and Duke (Duke sent out a bunch of interviews earlier in the month). I haven't heard back from CMU/Duke so I guess I am out of the running too. Keep your chin up and best of luck!