TheDaezy

Thank you guys! I appreciate the responses as I wasn't sure where I stood or who to ask for LOR. I did my REUs at CSU and Rice. I will apply to Rice, but not CSU.

Hey All, I've stalked this site anonymously for some time to get a feel of graduate life and the admissions process, but never reflected on my own ability to get into graduate school because 1) I didn't have a subject I was particularly passionate about and 2) I honestly just couldn't imagine myself doing graduate work. But I recently had a summer research experience that changed my mind about that so I want to see if I have what it takes to get into a competitive PHD Statistics program. Here's the run down: Major: Mathematics and Anthropology GPA: 3.65 (first semester freshman year I was dealing with depression and it affected my grades, which have been fine since then) Major GPA: 3.95 (4.0 in anthropology) Demographic: African-American (Female) Awards: President's List, George W. Jenkins Scholar Courses: Intro to Abstract Math (A-), A's in Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra, Intro to Probability & Statistics. Will be taking Real Analysis, Probability Theory, Statistical Analysis, & Mathematical Statistics this coming year. Involvements: Policy Debate Director of Public Debates, Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG) Vice Chair & Mentor, Math Club, Russian student in the Directed Independent Language Study (DILS) program, Ethics Bowl participant, Active Minds Secretary Work Experience: Intern at County Public Defender's Office~ Juvenile Division, Intern with City Manager (Spring 2013) Research Experience: REU in Mind, Brain, Behavior, REU in Statistics Research Interests: Statistical applications to social sciences, public policy and environmental issues Skills: Have experience with C++ and Matlab. Spent past summer learning R. I plan on taking the GRE in September and the Math Subject Test in October. I plan on getting one letter of recommendation from my Abstract Algebra professor who knows me fairly well since I went to his office at least 2X/week and who I will have all next year as a professor. I'm not sure who to get the other letters from and since I'm not terribly outgoing I'm expecting average letters at best. I could possibly ask my Intro to Abstract Math professor who commended me on my work ethic as I was always in his office and wrote my letter for the REU in Statistics I did. I know I can get a great one from my SWSG professional mentor, but she has no knowledge of my academic work so I don't know if that'd be appropriate. My summer research director really liked me and encouraged me to apply to Rice, but I honestly didn't interact with him that often (he taught a statistics class for 3 weeks & then met with me 3X/week for 6 weeks for 30min to discuss my research) so I'm not sure how good that letter would be. My Russian instructor through DILS would write me a good one I believe, but I'm not sure if that'd be a wise choice. What's the verdict on getting letters from professors in other departments such as my anthropology professors? Would it be bad to get a letter from a professor I'll meet in the fall? My dream school is UW where I would do the PHD with the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences track! I will probably apply to Rice (since my director suggested it) and UF (since it's instate & strong), but I'm having trouble choosing other schools because I don't want to aim too high and don't know much about how to find graduate programs. My game plan is to apply to 6-8 PHD programs and 4 MS programs and see where I end up. Feedback please!