Fall 2019 PhD Statistics Profile Evaluation

[bubbagump17]

I'm considering applying to Ph.D. programs for fall 2019 cycle. I'm looking for feedback on the schools I'm looking at given my profile as well as any suggestions concerning other schools to consider. 

Undergrad Institution: Ivy
Major(s): Math and Statistics
GPA: 3.9

 

Type of Student: American Male
GRE General Test: 

V: 165

Q: 167

W: 5

 

Programs Applying: PhD in Statistics

 

Research Experience: None

Current Position: Excel monkey at a large investment bank

Letters of Recommendation: One from professor I TA'd for, other two TBD

 

Relevant Courser Work: 
Math and Stat Courses: Calc 3: A, Linear Algebra: A, ODE: A,  Number Theory: A-, Analysis: A-, Probability: A-, Stochastic Processes A-, Statistical Inference: A-, Linear Regression Models: A, Categorical Data Analysis: A, Applied Linear Regression/Statistical Computing: A+, Bayesian Statistics: A-, Nonparametric Statistics: A-, Stochastic Processes: A-

 

Computing Skills: R, Java, VBA 

Applying to: 

• Maryland
• Minnesota 
• Ohio State
• Wisconsin
• Michigan
• Yale
• NYU

Any and all advice/comments/etc. are much appreciated! 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

You have a 3.9 GPA, excellent GRE scores, and majors in math and stat from an Ivy League school. Assuming you can secure decent to strong rec letters, you will probably get admitted to most of the schools you listed. Any reason you would not want to try applying to Stanford, UChicago, Berkeley, Harvard, Duke, UPenn Wharton, etc.? You can probably get into a few of those too. 

Edited April 24, 2018 by Applied Math to Stat

[StatsG0d]

I agree with @Applied Math to Stat. It's worthwhile to target 2-3 schools in the top-10. Maybe 1 in the top-5 and 2 in 5-10. As far as program recommendations, do you have any research interests or is it open? If you don't really know what you want to do, maybe it's worthwhile to target some of the larger programs like NCSU.

[bayessays]

I think the above are a little too optimistic about your chances for top 5, but I could see you getting into some top 10 programs and most of the schools you listed.

[bubbagump17]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I'm not too set on any research areas yet, but based on what I enjoyed during undergrad I would like to look into nonparametric statistics or model selection. 

I would consider some programs in the 6-10 range but am somewhat hesitant because I think the letters of rec could be a bit of a wild card (I did well in classes but didn't have many strong relationships with professors) and because of my lack of research experience. I still have more research to do about the programs I listed (as well as potential additions), so hopefully working on that will help me refine the list as well. 

[Bayesian1701]

I am going to chime in here even though I am not as experienced as the three people who applied above.  I would drop NYU and Maryland unless you have a special reason to since they are in joint departments and are small.   I would apply to 8 to 10 places and maybe do like 1-2 top 10, 2-3 top 20,  and 1-2 competitive and prestigious but not highly ranked (Yale, Columbia if you like NYC), and the rest being safer choices.   I don’t have many suggestions since I mainly know the southern and Bayesian programs.   Speaking from experience on applying too safe, it is possible to regret not applying to top 10 programs.