econ_to_stats

I'll be attending NCSU in their Stats PhD Program! I couldn't be more excited.

I got the same email today.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I guess I'll have to wait for admissions decisions to come out before I'll know for sure.

Background: I applied two years ago (Profile here: ) but decided to take a job offer working as an economist at a Fortune 500 company instead. With this experience I decided that I strongly prefer academia to the private sector and am planning on reapplying this year. Will this work experience help my chances for admission? Work Experience: I've spent the last year and a half working for a Fortune 500 company building statistical/econometric models to forecast demand for their products. Mostly multivariate time series and panel data modeling. I don't plan on telling my employer until after I've accepted an offer somewhere, so there won't be any LORs from this job. Will this experience improve my competitiveness for PhD programs in Stats and Biostats??

Undergraduate Institution: Mid-sized, low-ranking State University in the Midwest Major: Math, Economics, BA GPA: 3.54 Cumulative, 3.87 Major GRE: Verbal 167, Quant 167, AW 4.5 Graduate Institution: Large, mid-ranking State University in the South Grad Major: Economics (PhD program, dropped out after 2nd year and received an MS) Grad GPA: 3.3 Important Classes: (Undergrad) Mathematical Statistics, Computational Statistics, Real Analysis, Elem. Point Set Topology, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Matrix Theory, Econometrics, (Grad) Survival Analysis, Panel Data, Limited Dependent Variables, Econometrics, Time Series Research Experience: 1 year working for an Econ professor Publications: One empirical paper in a decent peer-reviewed economic journal, another empirical paper published by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Grants: None Teaching experience: Principles of Microeconomics at my Graduate School, Econometrics at my Alma Mater. LORs: 1 Econometrics Prof (Grad), 1 Stats Prog (UGrad), 1 Econometrics Prof (UGrad). I don't think any are particularly well known. Applied: Ohio State (PhD), UC-Davis (PhD), Bowling Green (PhD), UCLA (Masters), Stanford (Masters), University of Washington (Masters), Chicago (Masters), UNC-Chapel Hill (Masters), Johns Hopkins (Masters), Columbia (Masters), Carnegie Mellon (Masters). All Statistics Accepted: Bowling Green, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, Rejected: Ohio State, UC-Davis, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon Waitlisted: Chicago, Washington (implied), UNC-Chapel Hill (implied), Columbia (Implied) Attending: UCLA Comments: I've been working as an economist for the past 4 years. Also, I had a number of classes in grad school that show up as "expired incomplete" and then again with course grades (interestingly enough, all incomplete courses eventually became As.)

I know we discussed this through PMs, but I'll answer anyway. I heard back from the Department about a month ago and received my official email from the Graduate Division about a week and a half ago. I've since accepted the offer and I'll be heading to California this summer.

I'll do doing a masters in statistics at UCLA.

I emailed UofW last week. They said they are still evaluating applicants and that I should hear back in mid to late April.

Wow, more great info. Thanks again. With respect to cost, tuition at UCLA for 2 years is about $45k (assuming out-of-state first year, in-state second year), while tuition at JHU for two years is about $90k ($45K a year for 2 years), so UCLA seems dramatically cheaper. I don't know if cost of living is that much higher in LA than Baltimore, but maybe it is, That's actually one of the reasons I was leaning towards UCLA. I told Chicago to keep me on the waitlist, but JHU wants a decision by April 15th and I doubt I'll hear from Chicago before then. Tuition Sources: http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gss/library/1213gradfees.pdf http://www.grad.jhu.edu/admissions/cost-financial-aid/index.php

Thanks for the info statsmasters. I'm also leaning towards UCLA right now, but my other options are Johns Hopkins (masters) or Bowling Green (PhD). Knowing that your cousin is having a hard time finding a job is giving me second thoughts, since I'm going back to school specifically trying to improve my job prospects. Do you know how common it is for UCLA students in the masters program to go on to get a PhD?

The email said "The screening of applications for admission to the Master’s program is now complete." so I expect you should hear back very soon.

Rejected.

Still no word. I guess when they said "by late March" they really meant it.

I was looking at the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and I also looked up salaries for statistics professors at various State Universities. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/statisticians.htm#tab-5 The ASA surveys show higher salaries for more prestigious positions, but it's unlikely I will be hired for those positions. I assume any PhD program will give you a masters after your second year, but I did that for economics at a low ranked program and it hasn't worked in my favor, so I'm reluctant to do it again.

While I'm still waiting to hear back from some programs, I've been admitted to a PhD program and a Masters program (both in statistics.) The masters program is not funded while the PhD program has a tuition waiver and modest stipend. I'm weighing my choices right now, and trying to decide if paying for a masters is worth it. In terms of goals, I'd ultimately like to get a PhD from a highly ranked University, but if I can find a job with only a masters, I would be open to it. After years of struggling in the job market with a masters in economics from a low ranking university, my primary concern now is employability. So my question is, is it worth taking on maybe $100k in debt for a masters degree? Are they marketable by themselves? Would it help me get into a better phd program? Looking at salaries, a phd from a lower ranked program might yield a salary of about $60k a year. If a higher ranked degree can yield a job with a salary of $100k, the difference in salary more than pays for the degree. But how realistic are those numbers? I appreciate any insight anyone has to offer.

I'm in a similar boat. Interested in Machine/Statistical Learning but don't have much of a programming background. I know R very well and have some statistical computing experience but not much beyond that. I'm hoping I can just pick up what I need as I need it.

JZappa, thanks for the info. I'm concerned about fit and prestige. When I did this the first time for economics I picked a school that have me money but was not well known in economics and didn't have faculty doing what I was interested in. After my second year I left the PhD program with a masters, but have had a terrible time finding work. I don't want to repeat that. BG has good Bayesian faculty, which I'm interested in, but are weak in my other areas of interest (computational statistics and statistical/machine learning). Looking at their placements, not many go into industry. I'd be happy to go there, but it would be hard to choose it over a masters from say Stanford.

I still have yet to hear from any of the 8 masters programs I applied too. I'm not sure what to make of it, but the wait is driving me crazy.

I applied to the PhD program in Statistics and it still says "In Review."

No phone interview, but on Monday I received an email from them telling me that my application is complete and they hope to let me know sometime in February or March.

I applied to a bunch of Masters programs for Statistics (and a couple PhD programs). I still haven't heard anything from anyone yet....

Here's what I'm thinking. Any and all advice appreciated. Masters Programs CMU Columbia Johns Hopkins University of Chicago UCLA Univ of Washington Stanford UNC- CH PhD Programs Bowling Green Ohio State Case Western UVA UC-Davis Colorado State Do these schools seem reasonable given my profile?

I'm also interesting in machine learning. Thanks for the info.

Based on this post I'm starting to wonder if I would be better off applying to Masters programs first, then moving into PhD programs once I prove myself. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the responses. I know it's going to be difficult to overcome my grad school grades. FWIW, my LORs seem to be strangely optimistic about my chances. At least, they seem to believe I can adequately explain that I went into an economics PhD program largely due to inertia, expecting to be intellectually stimulated, but that ultimately my heart wasn't in it. I don't know if it will make a difference, but my LORs believe, as I do, that my poor performance was a matter of attitude not aptitude. I'm pessimistic about my ability to convince an admissions committee of the same. james8787, you certainly seem to have a much greater breadth of statistical experience. I'm hoping that since I don't have research interests in operations research or queuing, my lack of exposure to those concepts won't handicap me too much. (Although, who knows. Maybe if I were to take those courses, I would get really into it. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Survival Analysis.) So, I guess now I have four main questions. 1) What are decent programs I might have a shot at? 2) Is there any chance of excelling in a lower ranked program and transferring to a higher one? 3) What if I want to go into the private sector, not academia? 4) Is it worth it to take the GRE Math Subject test? (It seems only programs out of my league require it.) I had assumed that, for instance, Columbia has a top 5 program, but based on james8787's comment, they are only in the 15-35 range. I would love to go there. Andrew Gelman is the man. Is there any aggregated information about programs beyond USNWR and PhDs.org that I can use to help me with my decision? I'm not opposed to doing grunt work but if something already exists I would really appreciate being able to use it.