Fall 2020 Statistics PhD Profile Evaluation

[davidolohowski]

Going to finish up my Master's degree and plan on continue with PhD. Hopefully get some insights on where I will be able to go. I'm only applying in Canada for personal reasons. So would be helpful if anyone familiar with Canadian Universities could chime in. 

Undergrad and Master's school: Top 150 in QS world stats ranking in Canada

Undergrad Major: Financial mathematics

Master Major: Statistics 

Undergrad GPA: 4.0/4.0

Grad GPA: 4.0/4.0

Student Type: International 

Math courses: Calculus I, II(100); Linear Algebra I (100); Linear Algebra II (100); Advanced Probability (Proof based, 90); Real Analysis I (98); Real Analysis II (95); Statistical Inference (97), ODE, PDE (100)

GRE: NA

Research: one undergrad honors thesis in financial mathematics, not published. 

Master's thesis on building novel statistical model for astronomical data. To be submitted for publication in astronomical journals. First author 

Also worked on a new algorithm for speeding up certain type of MCMC algorithm. To be submitted for publication in statistical computing journals. First author. 

LOR: one very strong letter from my stats supervisor; one strong letter from my astronomy supervisor; one from a previous instructor who always gave me high praises. 

Targets: U of T, Waterloo, UBC, McGill, SFU

Concerns: mainly international status in Canada is highly unflavored and face fierce competition. 

 

Edited October 11, 2019 by davidolohowski

[DanielWarlock]

Hello my friend. I'm also applying this year but towards US. I went to UofT for college. I think you did marvellously! Your profile seems to be stronger than mine in a lot of ways. Your performance on Real Analysis is very incredible. I think you should apply to University of Ottawa too. Professor Aaron Smith there works on MCMC stuff but perhaps his main focus is discrete chain and coupling etc but it's all related.

[davidolohowski]

On 10/19/2019 at 7:35 PM, DanielWarlock said:

Hello my friend. I'm also applying this year but towards US. I went to UofT for college. I think you did marvellously! Your profile seems to be stronger than mine in a lot of ways. Your performance on Real Analysis is very incredible. I think you should apply to University of Ottawa too. Professor Aaron Smith there works on MCMC stuff but perhaps his main focus is discrete chain and coupling etc but it's all related.

Hi thanks for the reply. I saw your own post on applying to PhD and gotta say you're probably way ahead of your game compared to me. Hope you get some good news very soon.

In terms of myself, I just submitted my apps to UofT a week ago. To be honest, I want to work on more computational and applied side of MCMC or other Bayesian inference algorithm. My main interest is in Astrostatistics however and since UofT just hired a new professor in this field, it really makes it my dream school. 

But like I said, being an international student really kind of sucks in Canada. So just wanna know if you're familiar with current status on UofT's take on international students. Any info is appreciated.

Edited October 22, 2019 by davidolohowski

[DanielWarlock]

I actually don't know much either. All I know is rumours. I myself was rejected for a master. That said, you may want to get in touch with your dream prof because I feel the system at UofT is a bit different than US or even waterloo. A lot of guys know their Prof and have worked together long before submitting an application for PhD. It appears that UofT "self-consumes" a lot of its own undergraduate students. It's not an official stance but most people at UofT seem to agree that UofT self-consumes more than other schools and it is helpful (to say the least for some programs) to have your prof to look after your application. Please know this is just opinion and rumours, not proven facts.

[davidolohowski]

5 hours ago, DanielWarlock said:

I actually don't know much either. All I know is rumours. I myself was rejected for a master. That said, you may want to get in touch with your dream prof because I feel the system at UofT is a bit different than US or even waterloo. A lot of guys know their Prof and have worked together long before submitting an application for PhD. It appears that UofT "self-consumes" a lot of its own undergraduate students. It's not an official stance but most people at UofT seem to agree that UofT self-consumes more than other schools and it is helpful (to say the least for some programs) to have your prof to look after your application. Please know this is just opinion and rumours, not proven facts.

Thanks for the reply. Getting accepted for a Master at UofT with international status is impossible, I know that. I heard rumor about their Master program in statistics, there is only at most 1 spot for international student each year. As for self-consumption, I can see that from their PhD rosters. And I don't think it's just a thing with UofT, a lot of other Canadian schools do that too like UBC, UWO, McGill, etc. Waterloo seems a bit different cuz their undergrad usually look for better schools and leave for UofT or US. 

In terms of the prof, I already spoke to her, and she's glad to take me as her student but the issue is she's new and she doesn't have, at least for now, that much of a say in this and she's also not on the committee, so I don't know if there can be any help from her at all. But I did put that in my SOP so don't know if that does anything. 

Thanks for your input anyway. Much appreciated! 

Edited October 23, 2019 by davidolohowski

[DanielWarlock]

I think a disclaimer is due since this a public forum and I don't want to spread rumours about UofT: There is literately no scientific data that suggests it is "impossible" to do a funded masters at UofT as international student or that international students' profiles are discriminated in any way; all I'm saying is that on top of my head I can't think of any such example--but my knowledge only applies to a handful of people I know and should not be taken as a reference for your decision to apply.  I don't want to deter people from applying to UofT just because of rumours or my personal experiences. There is nothing on my rejection letter that states my immigration status was a factor for rejection. As I said, I was not a math or stats major and didn't take the most relevant classes in college. It may be one reason why I was turned down. 

That aside, there are many masters at UofT that discloses immigration status composition of incoming cohort. Some, especially self-funded ones, do have a track record of admitting a lot of international students and they are quite good, selective based on academic merits and professional experiences. Some of them such as MMF do give data on composition of their enrolled students based on immigration status. This is what I would be looking at as reliable information. Please don't take anything I said into serious consideration. 

Edited October 23, 2019 by DanielWarlock

[davidolohowski]

1 hour ago, DanielWarlock said:

I think a disclaimer is due since this a public forum and I don't want to spread rumours about UofT: There is literately no scientific data that suggests it is "impossible" to do a funded masters at UofT as international student or that international students' profiles are discriminated in any way; all I'm saying is that on top of my head I can't think of any such example--but my knowledge only applies to a handful of people I know and should not be taken as a reference for your decision to apply.  I don't want to deter people from applying to UofT just because of rumours or my personal experiences. There is nothing on my rejection letter that states my immigration status was a factor for rejection. As I said, I was not a math or stats major and didn't take the most relevant classes in college. It may be one reason why I was turned down. 

That aside, there are many masters at UofT that discloses immigration status composition of incoming cohort. Some, especially self-funded ones, do have a track record of admitting a lot of international students and they are quite good, selective based on academic merits and professional experiences. Some of them such as MMF do give data on composition of their enrolled students based on immigration status. This is what I would be looking at as reliable information. Please don't take anything I said into serious consideration. 

Thanks for this. I guess I should've made a disclaimer as well. It is true that there are many Masters degrees having large proportion of international students but they are all self funded and hella expensive and almost all of them tend to be professional degree rather than research degree. If we're only talking about the research masters degree, although UofT has no official stance saying not taking international students, it is extremely unlikely for them to take in internationals. I remember two years ago on their website they specifically said:"we have limited spots for international students." It just seems this is a declaration that they almost do not take international students unless you're a superstar that can solve world hunger problem. 

I'm guessing the reasons they don't take international master students is that they generally know that in statistics, it is very unlikely to produce any meaningful research during a master degree. So funding international student for something that doesn't really have a return is not appealing to them and I'm guessing that's why UofT has created various kinds of professional programs for international students and that has become their cash cow (ones like MMF costs 50k~60k a year).

Of course they'll never say that, officially they don't take international students and they cannot say that. But based on what we observe, and since we are in statistics, this does suggest getting into UofT for masters degree with international status is near impossible. However, things may be different for PhD since generally there is significant research produced during PhD and it is worthwhile for them to take on some international talents for that. But just how much more likely it is to be admitted compared to Master's is unknown. 

Edited October 23, 2019 by davidolohowski