DC-area Stats programs

[KatieM]

I am trying to compare Stats PhD programs in the DC area, specifically GW and Maryland. I don't see anyone in GradCafe who has applied to GW's program and very few to Maryland's (in signatures and on the results page). What's the deal? Are these programs legit?

[kowtown]

KatieM,

I applied to GWU and considered Maryland (College Park) and UMBC. GWU had a respectable ranking at #32 (with 2.91) in the 1993 NRC rankings for Statistics programs, while Maryland came in at #18 (with 3.97) and UMBC at 115 (with 1.69) in the Mathematics rankings. A professor I consulted had good things to say about Baltimore County for statistics but didn't know much about College Park's program. I get the impression that the latter is up-and-coming. It certainly has a top-notch mathematics program, and the department shares resources. (After putting that in writing I wish I had applied.) Outside of the top ten it's definitely hard to get anything beyond anecdotes. Did you try "Maryland" or "College Park" in the search feature? I thought I saw it in someone's profile or a post.

Have you heard anything from GWU? I'm going to be on the East Coast next week for spring break and they're open, so I thought I might stop by, but I haven't gotten a decision yet myself. (It'd be nice to do it on their dime rather than my own!)

[BongRips69]

UMD College Park also has the AMSC program.

http://www.amsc.umd.edu/

[kowtown]

Indeed. You can even transfer between the Math Stat and AMSC programs and keep your funding as they're both run by the same department.

[kman3201]

Hey kowtown, you mind sharing the link or the list itself of the 1993 NRC stats rankings?

[kowtown]

No problem.

The 1993 NRC rankings

Note that I believe the NRC actually didn't actually rank departments, but this TAMU statistics professor compiled the list based on their ratings. You will observe also that it includes Biostat programs. For some schools which have both, it's not immediately clear which they might be referring to.

A post listing the 2006 US News rankings

The 2008 US News rankings

[kman3201]

Thanks!

[msstatdc]

Hi all, glad to see someone started a post about this (since I'm from the area)! Granted, I only applied to Masters programs. I've only read reviews on phds.org and it's hard to find anything about rankings in statistics outside of what's already been said.

How is the process for everyone else coming along? I'm having a REALLY hard time deciding on where to go... here are my results (I may post a completely new thread for this):

-Accepted: Johns Hopkins (AMS), George Washington, University of Virginia, George Mason

-Rejected: University of Maryland (Mathematical Stats)

-Waiting: Georgetown (Math & Stat)

As you can see, they're all concentrated in this one area

Any thoughts?