Fall 2020 PhD Biostat/Stat Profile Evaluation

[nathan123]

Undergrad Institution: Top 10 Public US University (top 40 USNWR)
Major(s):  Statistics, Math (double)
Minor(s): None
GPA: 3.88

Type of Student: Domestic Asian male

GRE General Test:
Q: 162 (79%)
V: 166(97%)
W: 4.5 (81%)

 

Programs Applying: Biostatistics / Statistics (primarily biostats)

 

Research Experience:

- Summer ML research project with stats professor in biostats. The plan is eventually a published paper, but almost certainly not before applications are due.

- A stats capstone project modeling with medicare data. There were talks about combining it with some other work and submitting it for publication, but it looks unlikely

- Assisting ecological working groups with general statistics/coding for their research projects

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Worked ~20 hours/week on top of being a full time student all through school. Most pertinent is the internship helping out ecological working groups, but others include grading for a stats course and a summer internship at an insurance company doing actuarial-type work

 

Letters of Recommendation: I can use some help with this one. I will for sure use one stats professor who I did summer research with. There's another stats professor (he supervised my capstone project), but he's an adjunct professor (a well-regarded actuary). There's also a well regarded bio professor from a different university who was involved with my summer research project, but I didn't get to interact with him as much as I would like, so the quality wouldn't be as good . And then there are a few other stats/math professors I could go to who just know me from class.

 

Math/Statistics Grades:  

Calc 2 - A

Intro Linear Algebra (lower division) - A-

Vector Calc 1 - A

Vector Calc 2 - A

Intro Differential Equations (lower division)- A

Discrete Math (intro to proofs) - A-

Linear Algebra I (proof based) - A

Linear Algebra II (proof based) - A

Intro Real Analysis - A

Intro Differential Geometry - B-

 

Mathstat 1 - A-

Mathstat 2 - A

Mathstat 3 - A

Regression Analysis - A+

Actuarial Methods 1 - A+

Stochastic processes 1 - A

Stochastic processes 2 - A

Big Data Analytics - A

Research in Actuarial Science (the "capstone" mentioned above)- A

Design of Experiments - A

Data Science 1- A

Data Science 2 - A

 

Statistical Machine Learning (grad class)- A+

Time Series Analysis (grad class)- A

 

Currently Taking: Bayesian Data Analysis, Survival Analysis, Real Analysis I, Numerical Analysis I 

Applying to Where: Definitely need help here.

UMich (biostat)

UCLA (biostat/stat?)

UC Davis (biostat)

Yale (biostat)

UT Austin (stat)

UC Santa Barbara (stat)

 

 

Questions: 

- Is it worth retaking the GRE to bump up my Q score? 

- Even after reading a bunch of other profile evals, I'm still not sure if I'm aiming at the right programs. USNWR lumps Stats and Biostats together, but this forum is giving me the impression that the range of schools I should be looking at for Stats is very different from the range I should be looking at for Biostats. I would appreciate any advice on what my target should be for both Stats and Biostats.

- How much does professor reputation vs letter content matter when it comes to recommendation letters?

 

Thank y'all so much for the help!

 

[bayessays]

As for letters, I usually wouldn't bother getting one from someone who doesn't have a PhD unless the classroom professors don't know you at all.

I think your range of schools would be reasonable if you got your GRE up to at least a 165. 162 is pretty low and will raise some red flags. This is definitely worth retaking. 

Stat vs biostat is a little more complicated than just looking at the combined US News rankings. A student at Chicago or Stanford statistics could just as easily enroll in a math PhD if they had the desire - biostat programs, even at the top, usually don't have quite as extensive math requirements and the  many of students likely will have the desire to get through the hard math classes so they can do the applied research they really enjoy.