Stat PhD@UNC&PSU&UMN&UFL&Biostat PhD@Upenn

[little white in Stat]

I am considering my potential decision for these statistics&biostatistics PhD program. It is really a hard choice because I don't know these programs in detail, such as reputation, academic placement. I want to engage in statistical research and step into the academic fields in the future.

I am more likely to go to UNC because of its higher reputation (actually, I am not very sure because their ranking shown in USnews is very close.) And they seem to have many professors engaging in machine learning, which is one of the popular topics these days. I am also attracted by its biostatistics department, which ranks Top 5 with many renowned professors in individualized treatment, deep learning and theoretical fields. But in recent years, the rank of statistics department in UNC is not higher than before maybe because of some distinguished professors went to other universities. I am also worried about the correlation between statistics and OR because actually there are two areas in their department.  Actually, I am more interested in UNC because of its connection with its biostat department and stat department at Duke and NCSU and the gold triangle areas.

The statistics departments at UMN and PSU are bigger than UNC. And the research fields are pretty more than UNC. Although they have many distinguished professors, the academic placements may be not better than UNC because I see that more distinguished professors in other Top departments graduated at UNC. The MCMC fields is pretty strong in UFL. And Upenn may be can find potential chance to choose a co-advisor in Wharton. 

 

Really look forward to your sugestions! Thanks!