MS Statistics Application Evaluation 2020

[John21]

Dear all,

Sorry to bug you with another profile evaluation post.

I am a South Korean international who graduated from a college in the US a year ago and am now back in my own country serving in the army. I will be discharged from my service in about six months, and have recently decided that I want to get a masters in Statistics after this.

Here goes my profile: 

Undergraduate Institution: USNEWS TOP 30

Majors: Mathematics, Economics

GPA: 3.67

Type of Student: Asian international

Courses taken:

• Math: Calc III(B), Linear Algebra(A), Intro to Proofs(A), Differential Equations(A), Mathematical Programming(A-), Intro to Analysis(A), Intro to Abstract Algebra(B), Mathematical Statistics(A), Stochastic Processes(A-), Advanced Statistics(B+)
• Econ : Statistics(A), Econometrics(A), Advanced Econometrics(A), PhD Micro Theory I (B+)
• Pretty familiar with R and Stata

GRE General Test: 159V /  170Q / 4.0 

GRE Subject Math: N/A

Research, work and publication:

Undergraduate honors thesis in economics: On selection bias and wages, did a lot of coding and data cleaning in Stata, nothing extraordinary

Part-time RA for a quantitative psyc lab: model fitting related research in R, some theory but basically a coding job

Summer RA for an evolutionary economist: data cleaning and coding in Stata

Letters of Recommendation: One from my thesis advisor (good), one from my math professor with whom I took major math classes (strong), one from the lab professor (ok)

Schools(MA):

UBC, U of T, Waterloo, McGill, SFU

 

I've only looked into Canadian programs because I noticed they give out funding to international students. I know there are some US schools that do the same, but I haven't done my research on them yet. 

I'm aware that my profile isn't solid after all; so please feel free to leave any kinds of comments, suggestions, or advices you may have in order to talk some sense into me.

Thank you all. Hope you all have a great and safe day. 

Edited September 22, 2019 by John21

[John21]

Bump. Any input will be greatly appreciated! 

[shuggie]

I'm in similar position looking almost exclusively at Canadian Universities. Have you found any info regarding the competition for the Masters programs?

[omicrontrabb]

Most statistics masters degrees in the US are not funded, even for domestic students. Basically all of the funding is allocated to PhD students. You may be able to find funding at low ranked schools, especially at places that do not award PhDs. However, I'm not really sure that's worth it. What's your goal? Are you trying to build your profile for a PhD in stats or are you looking to go into industry? At this point many statistics masters in the US are professional programs generally meant to prepare people for industry, for example MPS in statistics at Cornell or MS in statistics at NCSU. My understanding is that the Canadian programs are all research focused and require a thesis. There are research focused statistics masters in the US, so if that's important to you, be sure to look for it.

 

[DanielWarlock]

I applied to masters at UofT, Waterloo, and UBC 2 years ago. My profile was comparable to yours except my GPA was higher (that said, my courses were like joke, i.e. engineering, and are much less relevant than yours). I was rejected by UofT but got into Waterloo and UBC with full scholarship. The rumour is that U of T master stats program very rarely admit international students. I heard that a guy, who was international undergrad at UofT at the time, was admitted to Princeton to do phd or something but was still rejected by the said program. No official statement on this and I presume some very outstanding applicants with right courses/connections may actually get in. But certainly it is unheard of as far as my knowledge is concerned. Most of my peers went to waterloo or US. Other funded MSc are similar: a guy almost made it but the prof broke off the arrangement in March due to funding issue! He was not even allowed to do it if he himself pays for his study. Fully funded at UofT being an international student is very hard. But let's assume you have funding. You can apply to the finance masters such as MMF, which almost exclusively admit international students and job prospects are very very good. Almost everybody can find a full-time, high-paying job in finance doing risk or something. But very tough to get in still. Most guys have 3.90+ GPA, or intern experience in RBC, Scotia etc. I didn't even apply because I was not thinking right. Now I regret it deeply. You should at least apply to MMF if you have funding. You can also apply to "MEng" in financial engineering--it is a less selective, self-funded program. From what I heard, GPA at your level is almost sufficient to guarantee admission. But support for landing internship is next to none, unlike MMF. Another good one is the new insurance master at Rotman: it is almost as easy to get in and has very outstanding job placement record. My friend went there 2 years ago and now is doing machine learning at top banks (and is getting married with a house!). His GPA/experience was not nearly as good as yours or mine. So you see, with right program and right efforts, your life will totally take off. There are many programs in Canada that you can apply to such as QMF at Waterloo--it was much cheaper. My old boss went there after dropping out of phd and find job very quickly afterwards and eventually become boss. He was like just 5 years older than me. I actually regret that I did not stick to Canada and went US where I worked a lot to no avail. Now I'm very stuck and broke, and may very soon be forced to go home (to China) to live off of my parents' pension if things go even worse. I had my chance and I blew it because of stupidity. So sticking to Canada is the key. As to other schools, you should not worry too much about your odds. I think you will likely prevail. 

Edited October 20, 2019 by DanielWarlock