2019 Biostatistics MS Applicant Profile

[fireuponthedeep]

Undergrad Institution: Top 60 Liberal Arts

Major:   Mathematics

GPA: 3.76

Major GPA: 3.79

Type of Student: Domestic white Male

Relevant Courses: Calc I, II (A-), Linear Algebra (A-), Multivariable Calc (A), Numerical Analysis (A) two lower level calc based stats + probability courses for half credit each (B, A)

GRE:  168/164/5.0 (V/Q/A)

Research Experience: Essentially none, presented a poster for a course grade in a global health course

References: One from Associate professor of biology, one from assistant professor of psychology, then one from a classics professor I was close with and one from college swim coach.

Teaching Experience: Worked as a peer tutor for my college for a year, spent a year as an interventionist for AmeriCorp.

Programs planning to apply/applied for already:  John Hopkins, Wisconsin (Biostats option), UNC, Minnesota, Emory, Colorado, Vanderbilt, IUPUI

Hello all, I just recently discovered the amazingness that is gradcafe sadly I did not find it earlier as it would have helped quite a bit. While it's too late to make any major changes since I've already submitted all my applications except for emory/Vanderbilt/iupui, I just wanted to see whether I was being delusional in my school choices or not. I feel like a fairly uninspiring candidate so I'm not terribly confident in any of these schools except for IUPUI. If I'm way out of line I could apply to several lower ranked schools as backups.

I think I have pretty strong LORs but the bio and psych professors aren't exactly luminaries in their fields my undergrad was not big on research. And obviously my classics professor and coach don't have any research. Is that damaging for my chances? 

I also earned a D my first semester in physics, and didn't really address it in my SOPs, quite frankly I don't really have an excuse beyond "I suck at physics lol" so I'm pretty nervous about that hurting me hard.

I'm also wondering whether I should take any other math courses, I have the opportunity to Complex Analysis and some other courses for super cheap, but not sure if it's worth the opportunity cost since I already have all the calcs + linear. I'd take Real Analysis but it's not offered this semester. 

Anyway, thank you for reading this and I'd greatly appreciate any feedback!