Fall 2020 biostats/stats PhD/Master evaluation (Thanks:))

[ycheng20]

Hi all,

I am a rising senior and will apply for PhD and/or master programs in Biostats/Stats soon.

I have asked several people (international and domestic students) who are already in PhD/master biostats/stats program, but they all give very different advice ...

 

Here are my concerns/questions:

1. For PhD program, which schools/ rank should I consider?

2. For Master, does anyone know any good programs that offer some sort of funding? and schools that are easier to transfer from Master to PhD?

(Personally prefer places with warmer weather...but not necessary:)

 

Here is my personal information: 

Undergraduate Institution: Rank 35 Liberal Arts College (in MA), study abroad at University of Oxford, UK  ( during my junior year)

Majors: Mathematics 

Minor: Statistics 

GPA: 3.87

Major GPA: 3.93

Type of Student: International Asian female

Courses taken:

• Math: AP Calc,  Multivariable Calc (A), Algebraic Structure (A-),  Probability Theory(A), Linear Algebra(A), Real Analysis I (A),                                                                                                                      PDE (A-), Modern Algebra I II (A),  Numerical Analysis I II (A), Mathematical Modelling in Biology (A)
• Stats: AP Stats,  Linear Model (A), Categorical Data Analysis (A-),  Mathematical Statistics(A), Probability and Random Process I II(A), senior thesis
• CS: Programming I (A), Data Structure (taking this fall), Algorithm (taking in Spring) 
• Bio and science: none, except an environmental science class

GRE General Test: V 157. Q 170 W 3.5 (took in April and couldn't finish the writing...should I take again?)

GRE Subject Math: didn't take it

Research, work and publication:

Current: 

summer intern at a HIV-focused institute ( by MGH, MIT and Harvard)

--syndromic approach on STIs; a first-author paper before application

--HIV Tuberculosis co-infection (survival analysis); continue working on it after this summer; will publish a paper but not necessarily before application 

Sophomore:

9-week Summer Research with my Stats Professor and a Psychology Professor (explore machine learning algorithms on Schizophrenia patient cohort )

--presentation and poster--will publish a paper but don't think it will be before my application--continue working on it in my senior year

Student grader for multi-calc (one semester)

Letters of Recommendation: One from my Real analysis Professor. One from my Stats Professor. One from my boss (Harvard associative prof). They all know me very well(especially my stats prof) and I know at least the letter from my real analysis prof is strong (that's what my boss told me)

Schools:

I dream to go the UC Berkeley, but apparently no chance in their biostats Phd program (don't know my chance in master program. Could anyone tell me how many students they would accept per year?Appreciated! ) I sent them email but unfortunately they haven't replied yet.

 

I appreciate any advice and help!

Edited August 7, 2019 by ycheng20

[Robatum1030]

Every prospective and current grad student is going to give you a different answer about your "chances" of getting into certain programs, because everyone's background and story is different. I wouldn't bother retaking the GRE, since you got a perfect Quant score, and that's really the only thing stats programs focus on. Competition among international applicants is very high, so I would recommend applying to biostats/stats PhD programs ranked ~20-30 based on your profile. Masters programs are much less competitive, so applying to highly ranked biostats/stats Masters programs seems feasible for you. However, please do apply broadly to any program you want. You never really know unless you try! Give UC Berkeley's Masters program a shot!

[ycheng20]

On 9/4/2019 at 7:39 PM, Robatum1030 said:

Every prospective and current grad student is going to give you a different answer about your "chances" of getting into certain programs, because everyone's background and story is different. I wouldn't bother retaking the GRE, since you got a perfect Quant score, and that's really the only thing stats programs focus on. Competition among international applicants is very high, so I would recommend applying to biostats/stats PhD programs ranked ~20-30 based on your profile. Masters programs are much less competitive, so applying to highly ranked biostats/stats Masters programs seems feasible for you. However, please do apply broadly to any program you want. You never really know unless you try! Give UC Berkeley's Masters program a shot!

Thank you very much for the advice! As you suggested, I am considering more biostats/stats masters programs now. And definitely try for rank 20-30 PhD programs.

The chair from UCB eventually got back to me and agreed to meet  (finger crossed!)