Igotnothin

Agree with iphi!

If you are planning to get a terminal MS, it seems to me that the most important factor is whether you will be able to get a good job after graduation. So I would suggest finding out from each program information on placement rate, average starting salary, companies graduates tend to end up working for, etc. Who cares if the program isn't ranked if its location is right for you and it will put you in a position to get the job that you want. Good luck!

Don't let a slightly uncomfortable e-mail affect such an important decision. You have to do what's best for you.

Congrats on getting into Hopkins! I strongly recommend focusing on research and trying to publish. If you have knowledge and experience in data analysis, you might look into working on an applied statistics project either in biostatistics or in a department like epidemiology or environmental health. For the purposes of publishing, steer clear of research projects that are still in the early stages of data collection, or projects that primarily involve data entry or data cleaning. Consulting and publishing can go together nicely. If you can find work in a consulting center, there may be an opportunity to get on some papers. Personally I don't think networking or TAing are that important. Everybody TA's these days so it won't help to distinguish you from your peers. Networking can't hurt, but I don't think it should too big of a priority for you right now. Better to focus on coursework and research. Volunteering is always a good thing, but I would not expect it to help your job prospects very much after graduating. Good luck!

Tough situation. Definitely easiest to ignore it, but I think the right thing might be to report it. I don't understand what the grad student's motivation is - just eager to please his or her students? Or is there some kind of incentive if your students do well?

I get more annoyed by people saying things like "I love grad school, why would you even go to grad school if you don't absolutely love every single second of it, if you don't like a class maybe you shouldn't be in grad school," blah blah blah blah. Almost as annoyed as when people say things like "Obviously we're not in it for the money." Why is that obvious, when PhD's make more money than BS's and MS"s? Doesn't make any sense.

I strongly recommend taking action against this professor as soon as you secure your next job. There is no place for this behavior in academia. It's dishonest, selfish, and damaging to young researchers. If you are polite and do not take any action, the next person who works with the PI will have the same problems you are currently having. Good luck!

Hi there, Sorry to hear you're facing this tough decision. At least it sounds like you have some reasonably good options. If you can leave with an MS and get a job that you like that pays well, that's not a bad route. Would have essentially gotten a fully funded MS, which is a good thing. Of course it depends a lot on whether the MS level jobs involve work that you find interesting. If you feel like operations research might be a better fit, wouldn't hurt to gather more information about that field, maybe visit some departments near you, and try to find out if transferring is a good idea. I don't think it would be hard to get letters of recommendation from your current school if you just decide that stats isn't right for you. I'm sure the faculty would be a little disappointed, because naturally they want all of their doctoral students to make it all the way through. But I can't see them being upset with you for changing career paths. On the other hand if you want to study stats at a higher ranked program it might be harder to get letters from your current professors. If I was in your shoes I think I'd at least try starting your research, maybe with the prof that you like but whose research interests are a little different from yours. At this stage I feel like you could easily become interested in a new topic that you might not have prior exposure to. Plus you've gotten past the exams, which is a great accomplishment. You might as well start some research and see where it goes, particularly since you couldn't start apply to other programs until October/November 2014 anyway. Good luck!

I was with you until the "You only have 60 posts" comment. I've actually been a member for over 2 years - signed up in April 2012, not April 2014. But anyway, trying to gauge someone's credibility based on the number of posts/length of membership doesn't make a whole lot of sense. That's something I used to do on video game message boards as a 12-year old. Two stars, this guy must be good!

The question is not whether the PI is on the paper, it's whether the PI should be first even though the OP did all the work. Read this quote and tell me it's reasonable: "The rationale is that reviewers are more likely to take it seriously if it's a PhD in front..." That is a PI using leverage and pressure to take credit for somebody else's work. Simple as that. The responses here look like a typical case of grad cafe people trying so hard not be biased in favor of students that they are biased in favor of professors.

Doesn't matter if it's "his" data, you did the work, you deserve the credit. Don't settle for anything less than first authorship. Too many grad students get taken advantage of by professors that know they won't stand up for themselves.

You might consider the NIH Oxford Cambridge Scholars Program (http://oxcam.gpp.nih.gov/). It's generally aimed at biomedical sciences but I don't think biostats is necessarily excluded... It's pretty unstructured (no required coursework) so it would definitely take some planning to get your coursework in. Probably not the most direct route but it's something to consider.

Great idea to start saving what you can as soon as possible. I am not aware of any American universities that offer retirement plans for graduate students, but there are other good options. An easy solution is to open a Roth IRA and contribute weekly or monthly towards an annual maximum of $5,500. You might consider the basic S&P 500 index fund from Vanguard (ticker VFINX). You can open an account through Vanguard and set up automatic investment through a checking account. One catch is that you typically need $1,000 or $3,000 initial investment for Vanguard's funds. It's $3,000 for VFINX, but $1,000 for other funds like the target 2050 retirement fund, VFIFX. You'll want to read up on Roth IRA's a bit first, but they seem to be a natural choice for grad students like us. Another reason why applicants SHOULD consider the stipend when you choosing a grad school... $25k vs. $20k may be the difference between 0 investments and maximizing your Roth IRA

All right I think I misinterpreted your meaning. I thought you were saying that the strength of GRFP applications in general is sharply increasing from year to year. I agree that from one year to the next you are being evaluated at a higher level due to your progression through the program.

That's a good point. I wonder if reviewers of second- or third-year applicants actually have all of the previous applications available? Given their time constraints I would expect only the most attentive reviewer would look at previous years' materials and gauge improvements. Also the reviews posted here from multi-year applicants do not suggest that the issues raised from reviewers were related to insufficient progress from previous years, at least not the ones that I have seen.

I would disagree. Every year about 1 in 6 or 1 in 7 applicants get the award. I don't know of any evidence that grad students as a whole (or GRFP applicants) are on some sort of sharp ascent in terms of publications or other credentials. Reviewer variability is the more plausible explanation for somebody submitting a very similar application two years in a row and going from "Excellent" to "Fair."

I agree with the other posters here. I would add that ranking and reputation tend to be hard to change over a short time period. You should expect that by the time you graduate at either of those programs, chances are their reputations will be similar to what they are now. And that is when it might matter in terms of getting hired. Then again I am a strong believer that if you prove yourself via strong publications, it won't hurt you much that you went to one of these schools rather than a top-5 program. I certainly hope that if a faculty search committee is comparing two applicants, and one has stronger publications but the other came from a higher-ranked department, they would pick the applicant with better publications. That applicant has proven that he or she can make real contributions to the field of statistics.

I am not in this field but my opinion is to take UIUC. I do not think it is worth $100,000 to slightly increase your probability of acceptance to a PhD program. Good luck and congrats on securing funding!

Yeah it looks like Wisconsin has almost exclusively Asian PhD students. Maybe 90%

lol yuuup

You have to add the two numbers and then divide by two.

Yeah I think it wouldn't hurt to mention it. Best of luck!

A PI forcing domestic grad students out of the program with an MS and taking in exclusively Chinese students to complete their PhD? Sounds unethical to me. And if not illegal, I would hope it is against school policy. Just as it should be for a domestic PI to take this approach.

I think you'll be in good shape in general, and have a very good chance at getting into at least one top-tier school. You've got A's in the required courses, multiple publications, and at least one strong letter. The publications in particular will help you. Very few MS applicants (even PhD) have publications. That's a great way to distinguish yourself among other applicants who may have gone to better schools. Wouldn't hurt to work on your R programming a bit. Probably too late to take a course in R, but maybe you could attend a workshop, or use R for the paper you are currently working on? My first experience in R was just replicating analyses I had done in SPSS and Stata in R. In fact that would be a great way to improve on your R programming and also "prove" that you know R. Good luck!

All right cool didn't notice that.