2018 USNWRRankings (Statistics/Biostatistics)

[GoPackGo89]

17 minutes ago, Gauss2017 said:

And yes I do believe if the people of the US are paying for a large portion of Stanfords budget then  most of the benefits should go to domestic applicants

I totally understand where you are coming from with wanting US dollars to go to US students but let me offer you a different angle: When it comes to funding universities, I want my tax dollars to be spent on the best possible science. If that means bringing in top talent from around the world then so be it. It's only one opinion but the US might be better of in the end if we are investing in best science possible. If it's any consolation, many training grants that come from the federal government (see NIH) do have limitations on foreign students.

Edited March 21, 2018 by GoPackGo89

[DJ3Sigma]

Please everyone remember Goosfraba! And do not forget the song that goes with it: I Feel Pretty by Julie Andrews

I feel pretty
Oh, so pretty
I feel pretty and witty and bright!
And I pity
Any girl who isn't me tonight

I feel charming
Oh, so charming
It's alarming how charming I feel!
And so pretty
That I hardly can believe I'm real

See the pretty girl in that mirror there
Who can that attractive girl be?
Such a pretty face
Such a pretty dress
Such a pretty smile
Such a pretty me!

I feel stunning
And entrancing
Feel like running and dancing for joy
For I'm loved
By a pretty wonderful boy!

Have you met my good friend Maria
The craziest girl on the block?
You'll know her the minute you see her
She's the one who is in an advanced state of shock

She thinks she's in love
She thinks she's in Spain
She isn't in love
She's merely insane

It must be the heat
Or some rare disease
Or too much to eat
Or maybe it's fleas

Keep away from her
Send for Chino!
This is not the
Maria we know!

Modest and pure
Polite and refined
Well-bred and mature
And out of her mind!

I feel pretty
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That the city should give me its key
A committee
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I feel dizzy
I feel sunny
I feel fizzy and funny and fine
And so pretty
Miss America can just resign!

La la la la

See the pretty girl in that mirror there

What mirror where?

Who can that attractive girl be?

Which? What? Where? Whom?

Such a pretty face
Such a pretty dress
Such a pretty smile
Such a pretty me!

Such a pretty me!

I feel stunning
And entrancing
Feel like running and dancing for joy
For I'm loved
By a pretty wonderful boy!

[Laoceberg]

1 hour ago, Gauss2017 said:

@moxis  I am not a nationalist. Sorry to disappoint you.  I am about as Blue as you can get.  Sorry to burst your sexist bubble. It is called the #metoo movement.  And yes I do believe if the people of the US are paying for a large portion of Stanfords budget then  most of the benefits should go to domestic applicants.  Your bullying and name calling tactics will not scare or deter me if that was your goal.  You were wondering how nationality can be determined.  It is called websites and linkedin.  You may want to look into those concepts.  Best of luck to you.

Taxpayers are not only the American citizen but also internationals who work or live in the US.

Yes, Stanford got the money from the government, but a larger portion of government income was paid by the internationals who work or live in the US. The fact is anyone works or lives in the US, regardless their nationality or country origin, has to pay taxes to US government. Based on that, internationals should have the same amount of education opportunities just like when they paying their taxes.

Being an international student myself, I worked in NYC for a year and I paid the exact same amount of taxes as my American citizen coworkers. In fact, when I did my BS and MS in the US, my tuition is about doubled than a domestic student. I think I should get the same opportunity as an American citizen to get accepted into a statistics Ph.D. program. However, the reality is the admission standards for internationals are higher than domestic. I was not able to get into the Ph.D. programs where my domestics classmates get accepted easily.

[Bayesian1701]

This conversation is not productive anymore and if off topic. If someone wants to start a are domestic female students discriminated against thread go ahead, but this conversation no longer has anything to do with the rankings.  

[cakepietart]

What happened to Pitt Biostat?

Completely dropped off the list. Not even on the unranked list now.

Errornous omission from the survey? Some huge scandal we aren't aware of? Pitt's non cooperation with US News?

Edited March 22, 2018 by cakepietart

[fuzzylogician]

22 hours ago, Bayesian1701 said:

This conversation is not productive anymore and if off topic. If someone wants to start a are domestic female students discriminated against thread go ahead, but this conversation no longer has anything to do with the rankings.  

Seconding this. Please keep the conversation civil. 

[cyberwulf]

2 hours ago, cakepietart said:

What happened to Pitt Biostat?

Completely dropped off the list. Not even on the unranked list now.

Errornous omission from the survey? Some huge scandal we aren't aware of? Pitt's non cooperation with US News?

It's awfully strange. I note that Pitt *stat* is ranked (fairly decently) all of a sudden, whereas it wasn't even listed in 2014. My best guess is that they screwed up and ascribed scores for Pitt biostat to Pitt stat.

[bayessays]

8 minutes ago, cyberwulf said:

It's awfully strange. I note that Pitt *stat* is ranked (fairly decently) all of a sudden, whereas it wasn't even listed in 2014. My best guess is that they screwed up and ascribed scores for Pitt biostat to Pitt stat.

Pitt statistics has been in the top 50 since at least 2012. 

[cyberwulf]

7 hours ago, bayessays said:

Pitt statistics has been in the top 50 since at least 2012. 

Well, so much for my theory!

[GoPackGo89]

*Oh nvm I found pitt ranked 45 last rankings

Edited March 23, 2018 by GoPackGo89

[SkywalkerJ]

On 3/22/2018 at 7:21 PM, cyberwulf said:

It's awfully strange. I note that Pitt *stat* is ranked (fairly decently) all of a sudden, whereas it wasn't even listed in 2014. My best guess is that they screwed up and ascribed scores for Pitt biostat to Pitt stat.

Pitt stat and biostat were both ranked in the 2014 US News Rankings. And Pitt biostat was 0.1 point above the stat department. It's strange that Pitt biostat is not even listed in the new US Rankings. Maybe the recent change of department head is the reason.

[Biostat_Assistant_Prof]

Just for all prospective students who may find this thread and read my comment... Rankings are not everything. Your mentor is far more important than your department's ranking and you ultimately determine most of your own success. I'd be remiss not to mention that at large, high tier departments the selection of quality mentors is larger than lesser departments, but these departments can also be a lot more competitive in terms of getting to work with a specific person. Great researchers can come from mediocre programs, and mediocre researchers can come from great programs, and you can find a great mentor/adviser at places other than Harvard, Hopkins, and UW. 

I've been on these forums since 2012. I started grad school in Biostatistics in 2013 at a department that isn't in the top 10 of these rankings.  To inspire a little hope for most  people that do not have the privilege to attend a top-tier program, you can still be successful and pursue a career in academia! To be transparent, my goals have never been to have a career as a full-time methodologist. I'm pursuing an academic career as more of a collaborative biostatistician that works on methodology, but not exclusively. I have over 5-10 publications from grad school, most in clinical journals but a couple in stats journals at the level of Biometrics, JRSS-C, and Statistics in Medicine. I have won student paper/travel awards for multiple conferences, including a first place student-paper award at JSM. I've been an invited speaker at several internationally attended meetings in my area of research, having traveled throughout North America and Europe. I'm finishing my PhD this semester and I received multiple offers at the assistant professor level to various academic institutions. Now keep in mind, I'm not pursuing a career primarily as a theoretical/methodological statistician, but the offers that were made to me were from Biostat departments at several institutions ranked in the top 30 for  research universities and have highly regarded research hospitals affiliated with them. 

Look, what I've trying to say to everyone who is considering/attending a program outside of the top 10, is that you are ultimately responsible for your own success. You can still win awards, publish in good journals, and get good job offers in academia. Do not believe that unless you attend Harvard or Washington, you can't get a job in academia, because you absolutely can. And I am not an anomaly from my institution either, several other students that have graduated from my department are at top 30 research universities, and a few in top 10 biostat departments. So, good luck to everyone and just know that rankings are not everything and do not decide your fate. I encourage prospective grad students to PM me for advice if you want - I'm always happy to help. I received a lot of great advice from here ~5-6 years ago when I was applying to school and deciding where to go, so now having been through it, I'd love to pay it forward. 

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Biostat_student_22

[StatsG0d]

On 3/27/2018 at 10:10 AM, Biostat_student_22 said:

Just for all prospective students who may find this thread and read my comment... Rankings are not everything. Your mentor is far more important than your department's ranking and you ultimately determine most of your own success. I'd be remiss not to mention that at large, high tier departments the selection of quality mentors is larger than lesser departments, but these departments can also be a lot more competitive in terms of getting to work with a specific person. Great researchers can come from mediocre programs, and mediocre researchers can come from great programs, and you can find a great mentor/adviser at places other than Harvard, Hopkins, and UW. 

While it is important not to overstate the value of rankings, we should not understate them either. I think it's well established that advisor's reputation matters more than program reputation, but as you point out, the higher tier programs have more professors that have a good reputation. Coming from one such program, in my experience there is almost no competition for any specific mentor. I would hypothesize that it is the opposite way--if you are coming from a small department, perhaps only 1 or 2 professors are considered "elite". At my department, I would be extremely surprised if you did not get to work with at least your second choice professor.

If you somehow have a guarantee to work with an "elite" professor from a mid-tier institution, I agree there might not be a significant difference than working with an "elite" professor from an elite institution. But an average quality professor from a mid-tier institution will likely be lower than the average quality professor from a higher tier institution. So the minimax rule would be to choose the higher ranked institution.

EDIT:

I should add to paragraph 1 that the assumption here is that the department has a diverse array of research interests. If most people are working on mostly one thing (e.g., genomics), then competition is probably very high to work with the most well known genomics professors in the department.

Edited March 28, 2018 by footballman2399

[Alexg]

On 3/19/2018 at 7:43 PM, GoPackGo89 said:

I am so confused,how about BU mathematics and  statistics department? how we can see the ranking?

[Epi5tat]

Oh, hope someday there will be a global ranking for stat & biostat.(QS one is for Econ stat) There are still some great schools (European and Asian)  which have a high reputation in this filed.