All, I am very interested in pursuing a phD in statistics and I had a few questions. To give a little background, I was an undergrad Math/Econ major at a decent school (top 10) and my GPA was > 3.9, but this was mostly because I took the easiest classes in order to graduate (i.e. no ‘honors’ level classes, just the bare minimums like real analysis, number theory etc.). I believe I am mathematically apt, but definitely no where near what my GPA would suggest. Upon graduating in 2009, I got a job in quantitative finance, but while I found the applied aspect of the job fascinating, I felt that I didn’t have the necessary mathematical tools. To enhance my quant skills, I decided to do a part-time Masters in statistics, and I will be graduating from the said program May of next year. While I’ve learned a lot from the program, I felt that there was not enough depth (e.g. we learned to use GLM, but didn’t show why it worked), and this led me to look into phD programs in Stats. Now, my questions (sorry for the lengthy background!):
While I am fascinated by Statistics, I don’t see myself in academia – I see myself working jobs either in the public/private sector (not necessarily in finance though) that utilize high level statistics. Will this be a problem in my statement of purpose if I state that I do not want to be in academia? It seems like a lot of Math phD’s explicitly state that the goal of the program is to prepare their students for a career in research/academics. For many phDs (especially the sciences), undergrad research is paramount – how true is this for Stat phDs? I have 0 research experience (at least in an academic setting). Related to above, I feel like my recommendations (from my Master’s program), while good, will not be stellar – I did well in classes (my MS gpa is ~3.9) but didn’t really do anything beyond what was required (part of it was because I was/am working full time). My classes were also quite big and I feel that my recommendations will be impersonal. How important are recommendations? Will my work experience be given any (positive) consideration? Does the GRE matter for the verbal section? I didn’t have time to study for the GREs so my verbal score is on the low side (580), but my quant is 800. Which universities have a focus in applied statistics? Finally, given the above stats, do I have a realistic shot at the really top programs (Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard etc.). If not (which I fear will be the case), what is my realistic reach?
Thank you!