Advice for preparing a strong Biostatistics PhD application [Fall 2020]

[rickck]

I am an MS in Computer Science planning on applying to Biostatistics (maybe statistics) PhDs, with interests in statistical machine learning, network science, precision medicine, and genomics. I graduated Math/CS undergraduate with 3.88 GPA. To offer some context on my school, it's honestly a pretty decent school with a strong statistics and biostatistics program, and strong CS program (although maybe now declining a bit in CS).

Coursework:

- Linear Algebra (more theoretical), Intro Probability, Advanced Calculus., Statistical Machine learning, + other maths.

- Took graduate math (Although more CS related math - Combinatorics, Combinatorial Optimization, Mathematical Cryptography) as part of Budapest semesters in math (A+, A+, A)

- Other CS courses

- Will have: Graduate prob seminar, Functional analysis, Mathematical Statistics by the end of the MS among other CS courses.

Research:

- High risk screening tool for clinical outcomes. Decent likelihood that I will have a (I guess, small) publication from this.

- Currently, I am getting involved in other bioinformatics/biostatistics related research, either some more vanilla biostat or others applying Machine learning to biomedical problems - TBD.

Awards:

- ACM ICPC - Top 25 regional

- High GPA related honors

Summer/Work experience:

- Proof of concept model using bayesian networks for clinical prediction - wrote flask apis/code as well.

- Research I stated as first point.

- NLP related Data science internship with some coding/devops

LORs:

- First research advisor who is in school of medicine

- Stat professor i took probability, machine learning, grad prob seminar with.

- TBD

GRE:

(166 Quant, 162 Verbal, 4 (i think) ). Most likely will retake to perfect Quant.

 

My aim is to attend a top school. In my opinion, strengthening my application with research/publications would be the most optimal move. A few questions:

- Do you have any advice for strengthening my application, or input on where I stand applying to biostatistics/statistics phd programs? I feel like I am/will be in an ok place, but wondering if I should apply to an MS in statistics/biostat before applying to phd.

- Related to q1, not sure what biostat schools someone like me should aim for? To be honest, I do not want to go to michigan/minnesota or non 'coastal' school. I was considering: (harvard, uc berkelye, columbia, brown, yale, upenn, udub, unc - ch, jhu, emory) but these definitely seem ambitious. Are (yale, brown, upenn, emory, columbia) considered top biostat schools?

- How much do you think my MS grades matter? I imagine my math/stat grades definitely matter? but what about cs?

- Finally, regarding research, at least without higher level math or not being a phd student, it seems most research will reduce to applying say standard statistical methods (survivial/p value analysis) on a dataset and reporting, or ML via a data science approach. Eg) just grinding out some analysis. Is that typically how research experience works for non/aspiring phds?

- Do you think I should/in a good place to apply to statistics phd as well?

Thanks.

Edited February 1, 2020 by rickck
touchups, add awards/work experience/lor/gre

[bayessays]

Are you domestic or international?

[rickck]

domestic

 

[bayessays]

You'll be in pretty great shape I think.  Absolutely do not apply for MS first.  That would be a waste of lots of money.  You have more math than a lot of applicants already. You could absolutely apply to stats PhDs.

The top 3 schools (JHU, Washington, Harvard) are extremely competitive and lots of 4.0/170GRE people were rejected just this week, but you should definitely apply.  The other schools you listed are more in the 5-15 range and all have solid programs.  If you applied to just the schools you listed, I suspect you would have some options to choose from in the end.  That being said, top schools are competitive and Ivies are even more competitive than their rank suggests, so I might add a safer option (although not wanting to be in midwest limits this - I think Minnesota and Michigan would be good schools to apply to).

Your MS grades will matter.  Most grad programs are graded extremely leniently with almost all students getting As, so lots of low grades will be suspect.  Math/stats will matter most.

Don't worry about research.  Yours is above average.  If people have exposure to statistics, it is usually at a very applied level, either in a research or data analyst environment.  Having legit stats research is rare.