ANDS!

Look into MetroPCS. They have International Calling Plans.

Yowza. Well considering you're an international student I suppose it is ok that you haven't had a chance to visit, but - China's Firewall notwithstanding - surely there were multiple opportunities to research this school before applying. At this point you're better off contacting faculty directly, though they might be curious why you didn't ask these questions earlier. You might want to ask to be put in touch with current students or email them directly.

Colorado is hardly a new department. You could do a lot worse. I wouldn't hold my breath for Columbia; perhaps Florida is on the table.

It is UDubbs PHD program minus a thesis and 3rd year courses. . .academically I wouldn't worry about the quality of the instruction.

At this point you are prestige chasing; never a good thing when you ALREADY have a good thing. If it is REALLY that important to you to say to your friends and family "Oh I went to an Ivy League", by all means pass on incredible offers from two incredible schools - but I wouldn't imagine many on this forum (least of all CS majors still waiting to hear from Top 50 schools) will be supporting your particular plan - pay for a masters at the lowest ranked of your options in the hopes it will make you competitive for Harvard or Princeton (or whomever it is youre lusting after).

Ouch. Well then I would recommend getting in contact with ex-professors now (sending a CV wont hurt), especially those whom you had more than one class with. You just need someone who is able to write you a STRONG letter. Make sure you indicate this. If you have a professional relationship with one of your ex-employers - use that. It can't hurt, especially if you are only applying to Masters programs (which will be easier to get into).

I understand the OP's dream, but the only good thing they said about Columbia is that they wanted to attend an Ivy as a kid. I wanted to be Professional Wrestler in the WWF, but I sure as heck am not going to let such whimsical thoughts motivate my current goals (though I'd totally do it if they paid me for weekend work). The OP has two schools ranked higher than Columbia that are willing to pay him to live near the beach and California culture for the next 5 or so years, versus MAYBE getting a better deal after dropping several Benjamins in NY after a year or so. As the saying goes. . .a bird in the hand -

This seems to be the case if you Google "MS in Mathematics. . ."; most are clearly applied math tracks (Math Finance, etc.)

What have you been doing in those three years?

Your options are, full funding in Sunny California (where you will be expected to do research anyway) or paying for your education in expensive Manhattan all so you can say you got a masters from an Ivy League. Tough call indeed. . .

MS will have you taking classes in other disciplines; MA will be more focused on Statistics. This isn't always the case, but generally is if there are both offered in the department.

LMAO. Davis is 20 minutes from Sacramento. It is where a more well off set will choose to live (including university, college faculty). That and the fact that it contains UC Davis is why you are paying through the nose. Try and look for a house near Light Rail or UCD Med Center in Sacramento. There is a free shuttle for UC Davis students that is a straight shot to campus. Other alternative is to take Yolo Bus which operates an express bus that will take you into Davis (and from there you can just take campus shuttle). This assumes you do not want to live in Davis.

You likely have an "account" for your application; you need to log into this and officially accept - an email saying "Hey I accept" doesn't really do much. Do this so you do not need to worry about a Professor, during the wrap up to the end of the semester and application season, not seeing your acceptance.

Absolutely. Usually procedural though; i.e. you included wrong transcripts, or forgot to send in GRE scores, etc. . . I doubt it is "rare", since human error isn't rare. What I doubt is rare that a grad department would not want to work with a person.

2 weeks isn't that much time; I would absolutely email that program and let them know that you have decided to go elsewhere - they may submit your name for a fellowship and you'd much rather have that go to someone who might attend. The other, it'll probably be a rejection at this point.

Why are people applying to schools they have no interest in? I get that it was a "safety" school (from the tone of the OP), but even your safeties should be schools you wouldn't mind attending. The fact that this is your second go around, it seems unlikely that a graduate committee is going to change its mind on the third time; I highly doubt "lack of research experience" is what is holding back your application. As the saying goes "A bird in the hand is worth two in the trashcan. . ."

Here you go. We have one in our department. I've rarely taxed the thing, but it is as fast as people are saying; for the cost, you really can not beat it.

Will you just be printing black on white, or do you need it to do anything else?

Two different departmental focuses; what do you want to actually want to do?

Confounders. . .o_0

Ahh. Well yes that is a concern. Then a degree from Ohio or UNC Bio would, I think, be "worth" more than one from UFL when it comes time to look for academic positions.

Hopefully you get into UC Davis; I interned there with Dr. Beckett and everyone was beyond awesome.

Be a pretty shallow program I'd think. Take a look at where their alumni goes. But as has been mentioned, for your "career goals" you can limit that to "career research goals", so as not to pigeon hole or handicap yourself. I mentioned my lack of interest in academics, and that didn't hurt any of my admissions.

I would take the funded offer, and spend your summer in Poland doing some sort of work. However I would still do this AFTER consulting with UNC; you never know - knowing that you are a fellow they might be willing to work with you more.

My question would be, is there any reason you JUST want to look at a Top 10 university for an academic position? Harvard looks like they only pull from Harvard or Stanford, and I doubt Stanford is any better. Regardless of where you go, getting into either school has got to be a challenge. I should say ones chances are much better at the Top 50 range, as it should be, and should be where the focus is. So short answer. No. BioStats might be different as there aren't many independent BioStat programs out there, and the majority aren't ranked. Here is a good source for NRC rankings on Public Health/BioStat programs.