Biostats at McGill

[biobayesbabe]

Hi all,

I did not realize before that McGill even has a biostatistics department since I just assumed it to be under the stats department, but it turns out it is under their Faculty of Medicine in the department of epidemiology. 

It seems that it is not that much of a well-known biostats program since you don't usually see the name popping everywhere but after looking at their website, I get a feeling that they are highly selective and competitive since McGill is famous for its medical sciences. I also got the news they only admitted 4 masters and 3 Ph.D. last year, but I can't verify that at all since they don't have a student directory on their website.

Does anybody has a more detailed intel on this? How competitive it really is? What kind of a candidate do they select? Does international applicant have a chance?

Edited July 13, 2018 by biobayesbabe

[Goodwillhunting2]

I came across McGill’s biostats website the other day and thought the same thing! I’m not sure why more people don’t mention it. Maybe it’s a newer department?

Unfortunatley, I don’t have any answers to your questions, but I am really interested to see if anyone else has info on this

[cyberwulf]

The best way to get information like this is to contact whoever is in charge of the graduate program there, which appears to be ... searches Google ... Dr. Robert Platt.

[biobayesbabe]

Goodwillhunting2

As far as I know, it is not a new department. In fact, it is one of the oldest biostats department in Canada. I also got some info regarding my own questions from reddit and it seems it may not be that much of a competitive program compared to other Canadian programs such as U of T or UBC but it is certainly reputable. As for the international applicants, it may be very difficult cuz McGill is famous for not letting in international applicants.

[statfan]

2 hours ago, biobayesbabe said:

Goodwillhunting2

As far as I know, it is not a new department. In fact, it is one of the oldest biostats department in Canada. I also got some info regarding my own questions from reddit and it seems it may not be that much of a competitive program compared to other Canadian programs such as U of T or UBC but it is certainly reputable. As for the international applicants, it may be very difficult cuz McGill is famous for not letting in international applicants.

U of T biostat department is pretty much unknown and UBC has a very small department. Mcgill biostat is highly regarded in Canada and so is Waterloo.

[biobayesbabe]

On 7/27/2018 at 2:21 PM, statfan said:

U of T biostat department is pretty much unknown and UBC has a very small department. Mcgill biostat is highly regarded in Canada and so is Waterloo.

Well, I guess we might have a different source of info then. The info I got from reddit came from a person who claimed to be working in the field of admission for Ontario biostats program. From what he/she said, the most competitive biostats programs in Ontario are U of T, Western and Queens. But I guess Waterloo and McGill should also be competitive as well. As for U of T being unheard of, I doubt that is true. U of T has a huge biostats department with people like Radford Neal, although he mainly belongs to the stats department. I guess the reason U of T biostats is not as famous as its stats department is biostats in U of T is heavily applied oriented but that does not mean it is a bad program. In fact, any biostats program in Canada should be pretty good since most Canadian schools have strong orientation towards medical research.