2019 stats profile eval

[biobayesbabe]

Hi all,

I am trying to apply for top 50 programs in US but since I did my undergraduate and currently doing my Master at Canada, I don't really know what my chances are. So hope somebody can help.

Undergraduate Institute: Canadian Institution (Top 200 in the world by QS subject ranking)

Undergraduate Degree: Financial Statistics

Master Institute: Same school

Master Degree:  Statistics

Type of student: International

Undergraduate GPA: 3.9 Math & Stats GPA: 4.0

Graduate GPA: 4.0

GRE: 168 Q, 150 V, 3 Writing (Will retake)

Courses: Real Analysis I and II, Advanced Probability and statistical inference, machine learning, spatial statistics, Bayesian statistics, statistical computing, stochastic process, computational neuroscience, biostats and epidemiology.

Research Experience: Undergraduate research assistant for a professor doing option pricing. Two major poster projects for Master degree. Presented at a regional conference. One Master thesis. Also worked in a neuroscience lab for computational neuroscience. One paper submitted in the field of astrostatistics, don't know whether accepted and won't know before the application.

Teaching Experience: Freelance tutoring and working for a tutor company starting from undergrad, TAing an undergrad intro stats course.

Coding:

R, MATLAB, Python

Letter of Rec: 3 letters, one from my main supervisor which I am very close to. Sort of a "big name" in time series. One from my secondary supervisor from astronomy working on astrostatistics, big name in astronomy. Last one from the supervisor in the neuroscience lab, pretty big name in neuroscience as well.

List of Schools hoping for:

CMU,

Michigan,

UNC-Chapill Hill,

Penn State,

Purdue,

Yale,

UIUC,

Rice, 

Boston

Concerns: Fearing that my main supervisor might not be keen to write a strong rec cuz I had a bad professionalism problem with him before. Also I am not quite good on the social-side of things. Also might not be able to get a good GRE verbal because English is not my native.

Are the schools I listed realistic? Are the top programs like CMU and Michigan a reach for me? Thanks a lot! 

Edited July 12, 2018 by biobayesbabe

[statfan]

Your odds depend on the school you attended and the letters. There is a big difference between Toronto/Waterloo and say Western. Sometimes the decision really comes down to one single letter.

[biobayesbabe]

Thanks statfan for your comment. While you say big difference between Toronto/Waterloo and Western, do you mean the top programs like CMU or the top 50 in general?