2019 Biostat/Stat Ph.D. Profile Eval

[survivalanalysis]

Hello, everyone! I'm an applicant for 2019 Biostat/Stat Phd programs, and I hope you could give me some advice.

Now I've been working as a chartered actuary in a insurance company, developing health insurance ratings for 3 years.

My job is to classify insureds using claim data and develop predictive models for chronic/severe diseases using cohort data.

For your information, I'll briefly give you additional details.

Institution: KAIST(In Korea)

Major:  Mathematical Science (Same as Mathematics)

GPA: 3.8/4.0

 

Type of Student: International Asian Male

GRE General Test:  V 161 / Q 170 / W 4.0, sitting for subject math in this Sep

TOEFL: 112(Speaking: 26, Writing: 29)

 

Programs Applying: Ph.D. in Biostatistics/Statistics

 

Research Experience: Survival Analysis, Predictive modelling for incidence of stroke, IHD, cancer using National Cohort Data

                                        2 REUs(simple projects), more than 5 insurance product development(if those count)

 

Letters of Recommendation: three of my professors (2 Statistics, 1 Econometrics)

 

Relevant Courser Work:  (P means Pass, some are optional)
Math and Stat Courses:  Calculus1(A) Calculus2(A+) Real Analysis I(A) Real Analysis II(A) Lesbesgue Measure Theory(B+, exchange in NUS)

 Intro to Linear Algebra(A+) Linear Algebra(A, about Duals & Double-duals), Topology(A), Elementary Number Theory(A), Algebra I(A-), 

 Prob&Statistics(A+), Business Stat(A), Mathematical Statistics(A, proof-based), Elementary prob theory(B, proof-based), Econometrics(A),

 Intro to Differential EQ(A-), PDE(A+), PDE(A, phd-level), Discrete math(A+), Intro to programming(A, JAVA), Data Structure(A, JAVA)

 

Computing Skills: SAS (Proficient), JAVA, MATLAB

Now learning R and Python

 

Applying to

   Biostat: Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UW, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Emory

   Stat: Duke, Michigan, NCSU, Waterloo

 

I know I'm not a top-tier material especially because of heated competition among international applicants and my lack of research experience.

However it would be appreciated if you could give me honest answer to my following questions..

 

1) I wonder if the work experience in predictive modelling and classification of insureds count as a decent biostat research experience.

2) Should I focus on Stat rather than Biostat? I have seen some concerning info that most funds in biostat are inaccessible for international students.

3) Which aspect do you think I should focus on my SOP and CV?

 

Thank you for reading this

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by survivalanalysis

[bayessays]

1. I don't think it will help a ton, but most people don't have research experience.

2. This might be true to an extent, but biostat programs are somewhat less competitive, so it might even out - there are plenty of international students in biostat programs so apply to the schools you want to. 

3. SOPs aren't super important, but for biostat schools you might want to talk about your interest in doing biostat research specifically. 

 

All that being said, your list is very top-heavy and I think you run a very serious chance of being rejected from all those schools.