belligerent_hamster

I see that the importance of SIBS to admissions isn't so clear-cut. However, I will still learn/gain experience and hopefully get to know a few professors. Thank you both Igotnothin for raising my expectations and cyberwulf for tempering them.

Hi everyone. This is my first post after scouring this forum and others for anything and everything so please bear with me. I thank you ahead of time for any advice. It is greatly appreciated. Here is my current situation: I went to a well-regarded state school as an Electrical Engineering undergrad before dropping out/failing due to bad grades. I was stupid, didn't think about my future, and squandered the good opportunity I was given. I then went to community college and then a local, smaller university (stature, not size) and am finally graduating this semester with a 4.0 in Mathematics. I took the GRE not long ago and received a 164 (94%) in Verbal, 165 (93%) in Quantitative, and 4.0 in Analytical Writing (48%). I have good grades, but have not cultivated any meaningful out-of-classroom relationship with any of my professors. I expect that my letters of recommendation will most likely be good, but I am not sure whether they will be outstanding to an admissions committee. I have no research experience, but will be attending an NIH-sponsored Biostatistics Summer Program at NCSU (http://www.stat.ncsu.../programs/sibs/). This is NOT an REU. I made my decision to pursue Statistics late and past the admissions deadline, so I decided to work for one year. I will be in the IT industry maintaining a Linux computer cluster. Given all this, I'd like to ask: What my chances are for being accepted to a good master's program? If I do have a chance, is there any possibility of getting into a top 5? 10? 15? 20? university in Statistics or Biostatistics?