Duke v Michigan v NC State

[StatNerd100]

Hi everyone! I'm trying to decide between statistics doctoral programs. My top choices at this point are Duke, the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (with a fellowship that exempts me from teaching/service obligations for my first year and two additional semesters of my choice), and NC State (with a fellowship for the first year). Duke and Michigan offered comparable stipends. NC State's stipend was slightly lower, but they suggested that they could try to match other offers. I'm interested in the research at all three schools, even though there are major differences. I am finishing my Bachelor's in math, and I haven't yet delved heavily into any specific area of statistics. However, I have really enjoyed that probability theory classes I've taken as well as the applied statistics and computer science projects/research that I have undertaken. In essence, I could foresee my future research taking a variety of directions, so this is less of a deciding factor (at the moment). In terms of my career goals, I have always wanted to become a professor, so I hope to pursue a tenure-track faculty position eventually after I finish my doctoral studies. 

As of now, I'm leaning towards Michigan, Duke, and NC State in that order (which is very tentative). Michigan's fellowship was very appealing, and they also offered to cover relocation expenses and dental insurance. I might be biased because I am originally from the Midwest, and it's honestly my favorite part of the country (unpopular opinion). The weather is not a problem for me, but the isolation of Ann Arbor is slightly detracting (whereas the proximity of SAMSI to NC State and Duke is very appealing). I just visited Duke and NC State, and they both had beautiful campuses and very friendly faculty and students. However, I was slightly concerned that NC State seems to have a high percentage of domestic students who fail the qualifying exams. 

My questions mainly are:

1) Is there a major difference between Duke, Michigan, and NC State in terms of rigor and/or potential for landing a post-doc at a strong program?

2) I'm also considering offers from lower ranked programs: UNC Chapel Hill, Purdue (with a fellowship), Emory (biostatistics), UC Davis, and Texas A&M. Is there a notable difference in the prestige of these programs compared to Duke, Michigan, and NC State? How accurate/reliable/useful are the US News rankings?

Thank you so much for any input!!

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Congratulations on your acceptances at excellent schools! I would rank University of Michigan, Duke, and NC State as top 10 programs. I wouldn't say that there is any discernible difference in rigor or coursework preparation (although Duke's coursework seems to be more heavily geared towards preparing students for research in Bayesian statistics). It seems as though Ann Arbor is your preferred geographical location of those three, so it's probably best to follow your instinct and go with UMich. You would be in good shape to get a good postdoc with a PhD from any of these schools (of course, that will also depend on your publications as a PhD student and the reputation of your PhD advisor).

The other schools you've gotten offers from are also good, but UM, Duke, and NC State are better IMO. The USNWR rankings are fairly accurate, IMO, though you could make the case for moving a few of the schools up or down (for example, I would probably personally rank Yale and UT-Austin higher than their current positions).

[Cavalerius]

From my impressions so far, comparing NC State and UNC-STOR, the initial sequence is more rigorous at UNC-STOR than at NC State, but NC State seems more flexible, allowing students to take the qualifying exam before starting, so that perhaps for a well-prepared student, there is no real difference in rigor between the two.

@Stat PhD Now Postdoc Do you really see much of a difference between UNC-STOR and NC State when it comes to rankings and prestige? NC State's placement data do not appear readily available, but UNC-STOR seems to have some good placements of late, and the difference in ranking seems minimal, at least as far as the USNWR is concerned, with UNC-STOR moving up in position over the past few iterations as well.

Also, @StatNerd100, if you don't mind sharing, did you apply for a fellowship at NC State, or did they just award you one?

Edited March 4, 2019 by Cavalerius

[StatNerd100]

1 hour ago, Cavalerius said:

Also, @StatNerd100, if you don't mind sharing, did you apply for a fellowship at NC State, or did they just award you one?

Just awarded one. Thank you guys for the replies! 

[galois]

3 hours ago, StatNerd100 said:

However, I was slightly concerned that NC State seems to have a high percentage of domestic students who fail the qualifying exams.

I was at the visit day as well; I thought during the Q&A we learned that basically everyone passes, at least by their second attempt, and the few people that do fail are those who are choosing to exit with an MS (and thus don't intend to pass). Am I mistaken?

[StatNerd100]

31 minutes ago, galois said:

I was at the visit day as well; I thought during the Q&A we learned that basically everyone passes, at least by their second attempt, and the few people that do fail are those who are choosing to exit with an MS (and thus don't intend to pass). Am I mistaken?

You may be right, but I’m skeptical that someone would intentionally fail the qualifying exam to leave with a Master’s degree - unless they were struggling (and/or unhappy for some reason) in their first year. 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

11 hours ago, Cavalerius said:

From my impressions so far, comparing NC State and UNC-STOR, the initial sequence is more rigorous at UNC-STOR than at NC State, but NC State seems more flexible, allowing students to take the qualifying exam before starting, so that perhaps for a well-prepared student, there is no real difference in rigor between the two.

@Stat PhD Now Postdoc Do you really see much of a difference between UNC-STOR and NC State when it comes to rankings and prestige? NC State's placement data do not appear readily available, but UNC-STOR seems to have some good placements of late, and the difference in ranking seems minimal, at least as far as the USNWR is concerned, with UNC-STOR moving up in position over the past few iterations as well.

Also, @StatNerd100, if you don't mind sharing, did you apply for a fellowship at NC State, or did they just award you one?

UNC-STOR is a very solid department as well. I admit I'm somewhat less familiar with the work of their department than NC State (I follow the work of several profs from NC State). The coursework and research at UNC do seem to lean more heavily theoretical (e.g. they require two semesters of measure-theoretic probability, and probabillity theory and stochastic processes seem to be two of the department's main strengths).

I think one would also get very solid training at UNC and be well-positioned for a good postdoc with a degree from there. I'm sure it depends a lot on the PhD advisor too. For example, even if one goes to a mid-ranked school like Rutgers or UIUC (which are lower ranked then UNC), a student who has Cun-Hui Zhang as their advisor (say) and publishes one or two good papers should be in excellent position to get a postdoc at a top 10 department.