Fall 2019 Statistics Ph.D. Profile-Domestic Female

[tma523]

Hi everyone!

I would appreciate any feedback on my profile/school list.

Undergrad: Small, private school

GPA: 3.9/4.0

Majors: Math, Philosophy

Minor: Actuarial Science

Type of Student: Domestic, White Female

Program: Ph.D. in Statistics

GRE: 161(Q), 166(V), 4.5 (AW)

Industry Experience: Interned at the Census Bureau as a mathematical statistician trainee. I worked on a demand modeling project and an internal survey.

Research Experience: Nothing substantial

Awards: Full tuition undergrad scholarship, departmental award for mathematics performance, national honor society scholarship.

Letters of Rec: 3 strong letters from professors who know me well. One taught my intro proofs and abstract algebra class, one who taught several of my prob/stat classes, and third from the department chair who also taught one of my statistics classes.

Courses: Real analysis, complex variables, graduate-level statistical inference, probability and statistics, statistics for engineers, econometrics, linear algebra, multivariable calc, differential equations, financial mathematics, group theory, ring theory. (A's and A-'s in all of these courses).

Schools: UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, NC State, VA Tech, Texas A&M

I'm worried about my lack of research experience and low GRE Q score. My school is small and only has one professor who is focused on probability and statistics. The department is just starting to offer undergraduate research opportunities so I kind of missed out. 

 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

What kind of small private college is it? Is it a nationally ranked SLAC in U.S. News and World Report or is it more of a regional, relatively unknown school? If it's the former, then I think your chances at these schools are decent. If the latter, then Duke and NC State may be reaches for you, but I could see you getting admitted to the others on your list.

[bayessays]

I'm going to be a little more pessimistic and I think you should try to get a higher GRE score if possible.  If your small private school was a top SLAC (which it doesn't sound like from your description), you'd have a good shot at some of the lower schools on your list right now. But if it's an unknown school, the Q score is going to put your grades under further suspicion of how rigorous the classes were.

[Stat Assistant Professor]

54 minutes ago, bayessays said:

I'm going to be a little more pessimistic and I think you should try to get a higher GRE score if possible.  If your small private school was a top SLAC (which it doesn't sound like from your description), you'd have a good shot at some of the lower schools on your list right now. But if it's an unknown school, the Q score is going to put your grades under further suspicion of how rigorous the classes were.

If it is a decently ranked SLAC, then I think the OP would have a definite shot at somewhere like Duke. I have known people with similar profiles as the OP who were alumna of schools like Mt. Holyoke and Bucknell who were admitted to Duke and UNC. Being a domestic female applicant definitely does help in Statistics admissions (provided the grades and LORs are strong, obviously). If the school is regional/not nationally known though, then it's will be much harder to get into somewhere like Duke.

[bayessays]

13 minutes ago, Stat PhD Now Postdoc said:

If it is a decently ranked SLAC, then I think the OP would have a definite shot at somewhere like Duke. I have known people with similar profiles as the OP who were alumna of schools like Mt. Holyoke and Bucknell who were admitted to Duke and UNC. Being a domestic female applicant definitely does help in Statistics admissions (provided the grades and LORs are strong, obviously). If the school is regional/not nationally known though, then it's will be much harder to get into somewhere like Duke.

I'm not saying it will be impossible, but it will be a reach with no research and that GRE score. If the school just started offering research experiences for students, it is probably not a top SLAC.

[tma523]

3 hours ago, Stat PhD Now Postdoc said:

What kind of small private college is it? Is it a nationally ranked SLAC in U.S. News and World Report or is it more of a regional, relatively unknown school? If it's the former, then I think your chances at these schools are decent. If the latter, then Duke and NC State may be reaches for you, but I could see you getting admitted to the others on your list.

It's ranked in the top third of national universities in the U.S News and World Report actually (just looked it up). It's just a pretty small private school with an even smaller math department (dept only has one professor with a degree in statistics). I am very worried about my quant score, but I don't have the money to retake it unfortunately. 

Edited November 5, 2018 by tma523

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Ah. If it's one of the top 100 universities in USNWR, then I definitely don't think your chances are horrible.

I don't think your GRE score is that big of a deal. I looked at some of the past results and saw that there were applicants accepted into TAMU, Penn State, Virginia Tech, and Iowa State with GRE Q scores of 162. If your score were below a 160, I would definitely advise retaking but I think it's okay as it is now. That said, Duke and NCSU will probably both be 'reach' schools (though not impossible -- looking on their website, it appears that there are Duke Statistics PhD students and alumni from places like University of South Florida and Miami University-Oxford... as I said, being a qualified domestic female applicant definitely helps). If money is a concern, I would advise you only apply to one of Duke and NCSU, and add another school like Penn State or Iowa State.

Edited November 5, 2018 by Stat PhD Now Postdoc

[tma523]

Okay I'll definitely look into that. Thanks for the advice!