2019 Statistics PhD Applicant Profile

[Statboy]

Undergrad Institution: Top 3 South Korean University 
Major: Mathematics and Statistics
GPA: 3.91/4.0

Major GPA: 3.96/4.0

 

 

Type of Student: (International) Asian male

Relevant Courses: Calculus I,II (A+)(This includes Multivariate Calculus in my country), Differential Equations (A+), Analysis I, II (A+), Linear Algebra I, II (A), Discrete Mathematics (A+), Number Theory (A+), Probability and Statistics (A+), Stochastic Processes (A+), Complex Analysis I (A+), Abstract Algebra I (A+), Differential Geometry (A+), Topology (A+), Real Analysis (B+), Introduction to Probability Theory (A+), Mathematical Statistics (A+), Statistical Computer Software (A+), Regression Analysis (A+), Econometrics I (A+)

Planning to take next semester : Algorithms, Multivariate Statistical Analysis, Non-Parametric Statistics, Sampling Theory

 

 

TOEFL:117; 30/30/30/27

GRE: 169/160/4.5

GRE Subject Mathematics: 880 (91%)

 

 

Programs Applying:  Statistics PhD

 

 

Research Experience: 

- one semester long research experience (scholarship included) with a math department professor (basically reading and analyzing recent interesting papers regarding probability and applied math). Ended with a written report submitted to the department.

Teaching Experience: Tutored several middle/high school students off campus. 

 

 

Recommendation Letters: Three; one from a math professor and two from statistics professors (One of which is very strong)

 

 

Coding Experience: R, SAS

 

 

Research Interests: regression analysis methods; theoretical/mathematical approach to statistics, statistical modeling 

 

Applying to: Statistics PhD 

Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, UWashington, UChicago, UPenn, UWisconsin, UNC, NC State, UMichigan, Columbia, Cornell, Iowa State, Penn State, UMinnesota, Purdue, Yale, UCLA, OSU, UofIllinois

Concerns:

• Not having a specific field of interest within statistics
• Not having enough research experience/published papers etc.
• Being an international student

 

Hello, everyone. I am new to this website and I posted my profile because I honestly had no idea where to start in looking for schools to apply for. I basically listed most of the schools on the US News top 40 list for statistics (minus biostat programs).

I would really appreciate any sort of feedback, especially regarding school range. Also, any recommendations for schools that I failed to mention above would be extremely appreciated as well!

I read from other posts that the standards for international students are much higher than for domestic students, so it was harder for me to get an idea of where I stand.

Thank you in advance!

Edited August 6, 2018 by Statboy

[cyberwulf]

Students from one of the SKY schools in Korea tend to do pretty well in terms of admissions results, particularly if they have strong GPAs and good TOEFL scores like you. The top handful of schools are always going to be hit-or-miss, but I like your chances at places like Wisconsin, UNC, NCSU, Michigan, etc. Definitely worth a shot at some higher-ranked schools as well.

Edited August 7, 2018 by cyberwulf

[Statboy]

16 hours ago, cyberwulf said:

Students from one of the SKY schools in Korea tend to do pretty well in terms of admissions results, particularly if they have strong GPAs and good TOEFL scores like you. The top handful of schools are always going to be hit-or-miss, but I like your chances at places like Wisconsin, UNC, NCSU, Michigan, etc. Definitely worth a shot at some higher-ranked schools as well.

Thank you very much for the generous input! I was wondering if I should even bother applying to the top 5 schools at all because I felt like I might just be throwing away the money. Since it's hit or miss for everyone I guess it's worth a shot! 

[Gauss2017]

It really isn’t hit or miss for everyone.  That being said I would apply to the top ten schools.  I think you have the qualifications that a lot of them

are looking for.

[Statboy]

On 8/9/2018 at 11:11 AM, Gauss2017 said:

It really isn’t hit or miss for everyone.  That being said I would apply to the top ten schools.  I think you have the qualifications that a lot of them

are looking for.

Thank you for your encouraging words! I will definitely consider some of those programs. 

[Statboy]

I would like to update my GRE scores so that it reflects the scores I actually submitted to the schools, just in case anybody stumbles onto this page and wants to take reference.

Q/V/AW 170(96%)/170(99%)/5.0(92%)

I ended up applying to a whopping 17 schools all around the US and will definitely be posting about that later with more news!