Uchicago or UW stats master？

[Xiangning]

I am still not sure whether to pursue a Phd degree in the future but I want to work in industry as my final career goal. Can anyone give me some advice on those two programs?  

If I would like to work as a data scientist/data analyst /data engineer/machine learning engineer/ after my graduation, which one is better?

If I would like to continue to get a Phd Degree，which is better?

[DanielWarlock]

I don't know anything about UW. But Chicago does take some of its master students towards its PhD program. The rumour is that Chicago is insanely tough. It could potentially be a good thing if you are young and have no family obligation--you just go there and fight for your life, so to speak. But if you are anything like me, you will think twice before committing to Chicago.

Edited February 29, 2020 by DanielWarlock

[bayessays]

Both are rigorous and will prepare you well for whatever you want to do after.  Where do you want to live after graduation?  Chicago is much cheaper, and I see UChicago's grads in data science positions all the time.  If you want to live in Seattle after graduation, I'm sure there are some networking opportunities to the tech industry there.  I'd consider location and cost above all else.  Chicago does have a tough reputation, but so does UW really (at least for its PhD programs, and these are the same first year classes).

[Xiangning]

11 hours ago, bayessays said:

Both are rigorous and will prepare you well for whatever you want to do after.  Where do you want to live after graduation?  Chicago is much cheaper, and I see UChicago's grads in data science positions all the time.  If you want to live in Seattle after graduation, I'm sure there are some networking opportunities to the tech industry there.  I'd consider location and cost above all else.  Chicago does have a tough reputation, but so does UW really (at least for its PhD programs, and these are the same first year classes).

Thanks so much for the reply. I'd like to ask something more: Will Uchicago be a better choice if I want to work in IT companies compared to UW, (like the tech companies on the west coast)? Or will the location of the schools decide in most cases where you work in US :( I am an international student, so I am not very clear about that in US since in my country, no matter where you graduate, most of the students will go to just some specific cities.) Thank you so much

[rfan]

2 hours ago, Xiangning said:

Thanks so much for the reply. I'd like to ask something more: Will Uchicago be a better choice if I want to work in IT companies compared to UW, (like the tech companies on the west coast)? Or will the location of the schools decide in most cases where you work in US :( I am an international student, so I am not very clear about that in US since in my country, no matter where you graduate, most of the students will go to just some specific cities.) Thank you so much

Perhaps you would clarify, as you referring to University of Washington or the University of Wisconsin? I think @bayessays above might've been referring to Washington with the Chicago being cheaper (although please correct me if I am wrong @bayessays!), whereas the reverse might be true of Washington. It also depends how quickly you finish these (Chicago's can be 1-2 years, but the few people I know who've done it have taken 2 years.

I would also add that, in terms of rigor, most of the top MS programs seem relatively similar in terms of the required courses, so how hard you make it is somewhat dependent upon which courses you choose and if you are involved in extensive research. 

[bayessays]

I was assuming Washington, which is in one of the biggest tech hubs, Seattle.  If you want to work in tech, there are going to be a lot more opportunities in Seattle than in Chicago or Madison.  But they are all good schools (although Madison is not quite on the level of the other two) and would all be excellent preparation for a PhD program.  If you want to go into tech, I would go somewhere that lets you learn Python, SQL, do some applied projects for a portfolio/github, and maybe allows you to do an internship in the summer.

[MathStat]

As someone who chose Chicago versus UW (for phd not masters though), I'd also be curious to know whether there would be more tech opportunities for tech at UW (despite this info being useless for me at this point, haha...still, interesting to know).

As far as I know from my masters peers here, there are two options for classes at UChicago:

1. the hard path - take the phd -level sequences of applied stat and math stat (and probability, if you want). Stat 304 = distribution theory which is a core phd class taken during the first quarter is absolutely brutal and I heard many of my phd peers got less than ideal grades in it (I luckily was able to place out of it, by taking a Brownian motion class with the famous Greg Lawler, which was absolutely beautiful). Still, I know several people who chose this option, worked hard, got a very strong background (I personally think most phd classes, except STAT 304, are very reasonable), and were admitted to very good PhD programs. 

2. the less brutal path - take more typical masters level classes, which could include CS and ML classes from the CS dept or from the Toyota Technological Institute (which offers fantastic classes IMO). People who did this perhaps had a less stressful life, got very good grades, and still managed to get into great PhD programs. So it seems to me that this option is not necessarily worse for the purpose of stat grad school admissions. If you count the fact that you have a little bit more flexibility to take more CS/ML classes and prepare more for industry, this seems like the better option to me.

I think most if not all masters students here do pretty good summer internships in the summer between their two years. 

Also, while i think it would be hard to graduate in a single year (due to also having a thesis requirement in addition to the requirement of 9 courses), I think it is very doable and realistic to graduate in 1.5 years. There is a student I know of who did that and got a Data Science position at Microsoft (Seattle!!!). 

Also regarding tech jobs, I heard people can generally get them, but they turn them down for much better paid finance jobs here in Chicago. Again, can't comment if people here get *as many* good tech jobs as people at UW. 

Regarding applied/practical work, in addition to some classes that involve pretty useful class projects during the year (such as a course on "Multiple Testing", or some CS classes), we also have mandatory "consulting" projects, both for masters and phds. These involve working in a group of Phd and masters students to come up with a statistical solution for a client's applied problem (the clients here are generally PhD students from other depts needing further statistical support and analyses for their dissertation research; they usually come with already collected data). SO I think you can get practical experience here, despite the core courses being more theoretical. But perhaps you can get even more practical work done at UW, haha, and I'd again be curious about that. 

Hope this helps, let me know if you have other questions. 

Edited February 29, 2020 by MathStat

[Xiangning]

10 hours ago, rfan said:

Perhaps you would clarify, as you referring to University of Washington or the University of Wisconsin? I think @bayessays above might've been referring to Washington with the Chicago being cheaper (although please correct me if I am wrong @bayessays!), whereas the reverse might be true of Washington. It also depends how quickly you finish these (Chicago's can be 1-2 years, but the few people I know who've done it have taken 2 years.

I would also add that, in terms of rigor, most of the top MS programs seem relatively similar in terms of the required courses, so how hard you make it is somewhat dependent upon which courses you choose and if you are involved in extensive research. 

Thank you so much for your information! And btw, I referred to UW Seattle 

[Xiangning]

5 hours ago, MathStat said:

As someone who chose Chicago versus UW (for phd not masters though), I'd also be curious to know whether there would be more tech opportunities for tech at UW (despite this info being useless for me at this point, haha...still, interesting to know).

As far as I know from my masters peers here, there are two options for classes at UChicago:

1. the hard path - take the phd -level sequences of applied stat and math stat (and probability, if you want). Stat 304 = distribution theory which is a core phd class taken during the first quarter is absolutely brutal and I heard many of my phd peers got less than ideal grades in it (I luckily was able to place out of it, by taking a Brownian motion class with the famous Greg Lawler, which was absolutely beautiful). Still, I know several people who chose this option, worked hard, got a very strong background (I personally think most phd classes, except STAT 304, are very reasonable), and were admitted to very good PhD programs. 

2. the less brutal path - take more typical masters level classes, which could include CS and ML classes from the CS dept or from the Toyota Technological Institute (which offers fantastic classes IMO). People who did this perhaps had a less stressful life, got very good grades, and still managed to get into great PhD programs. So it seems to me that this option is not necessarily worse for the purpose of stat grad school admissions. If you count the fact that you have a little bit more flexibility to take more CS/ML classes and prepare more for industry, this seems like the better option to me.

I think most if not all masters students here do pretty good summer internships in the summer between their two years. 

Also, while i think it would be hard to graduate in a single year (due to also having a thesis requirement in addition to the requirement of 9 courses), I think it is very doable and realistic to graduate in 1.5 years. There is a student I know of who did that and got a Data Science position at Microsoft (Seattle!!!). 

Also regarding tech jobs, I heard people can generally get them, but they turn them down for much better paid finance jobs here in Chicago. Again, can't comment if people here get *as many* good tech jobs as people at UW. 

Regarding applied/practical work, in addition to some classes that involve pretty useful class projects during the year (such as a course on "Multiple Testing", or some CS classes), we also have mandatory "consulting" projects, both for masters and phds. These involve working in a group of Phd and masters students to come up with a statistical solution for a client's applied problem (the clients here are generally PhD students from other depts needing further statistical support and analyses for their dissertation research; they usually come with already collected data). SO I think you can get practical experience here, despite the core courses being more theoretical. But perhaps you can get even more practical work done at UW, haha, and I'd again be curious about that. 

Hope this helps, let me know if you have other questions. 

Thank you so much for your detailed information!!! It's really helpful!

May I ask something about the thesis? Could you please introduce more, like what kind of thesis it is, it may ask the students to solve a research problem or put forward new method/algorithm, or read many classic and cutting edge papers and sum them up...and other information that you think is important? Also I think the thesis would help a lot for those who want to pursue PHD degree, but if I want to work after graduation, will it be helpful?

Also could you please tell me something about the career fair for stats students? 

And finally about the summer internship, did most of the students choose to do the internship just in Chicago?

Thanks again for your time and patience!

 

[MathStat]

Hi, 

For the thesis, I've seen people do cutting edge research and publishing a paper out of their thesis, as well as others that just do a literature review, or some data analysis. So i'd say there's a pretty big variety in the types of theses. You are right, publishing a paper from the masters thesis is ideal for phd admissions (lit rev and data analysis are pretty useless IMO). However, for industry I can't say how useful a thesis is, maybe it is if your thesis work is original and related to your future job. 

"Also could you please tell me something about the career fair for stats students?" - I haven't participated in the fair this year as I'm not doing an internship this summer...all I can say is that unfortunately, the big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc... will *not* be there to recruit. I heard google/maybe other sometimes come to the CS dept to recruit; for tech I would say some profs from TTIC and CS with which you can build relationships by taking classes with are your best bet to help you connect with such big tech firms; yes, our recruitment is not ideal, but I would say you should also talk to more knowledgeable people than me. 

"And finally about the summer internship, did most of the students choose to do the internship just in Chicago?" - hmmm, now that I think about it, I am not sure. it definitely is convenient to do it in Chicago since leases here last 12 months and it's a pain to have to either sublet over the summer while you are away for your internship or double pay both rent here and in your new summer location. However, I do know about phd students who did pretty good internships (including google) in other cities. 

Obviously, the masters students will now much more than what I said above, so it's good to also reach out to them. Also, definitely ask these questions + placement statistics to Mei Wang the masters coordinator - she is a very nice person. 

Hope this helps. 

Edit: one last thing that came to mind is that i know of undergrads here who got full time data science positions at Facebook...so if they could do it, then masters students should be able to, right? 

Edited March 1, 2020 by MathStat

[Xiangning]

Thank you so much!!!

[Xiangning]

 

7 hours ago, MathStat said:

Hi, 

For the thesis, I've seen people do cutting edge research and publishing a paper out of their thesis, as well as others that just do a literature review, or some data analysis. So i'd say there's a pretty big variety in the types of theses. You are right, publishing a paper from the masters thesis is ideal for phd admissions (lit rev and data analysis are pretty useless IMO). However, for industry I can't say how useful a thesis is, maybe it is if your thesis work is original and related to your future job. 

"Also could you please tell me something about the career fair for stats students?" - I haven't participated in the fair this year as I'm not doing an internship this summer...all I can say is that unfortunately, the big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc... will *not* be there to recruit. I heard google/maybe other sometimes come to the CS dept to recruit; for tech I would say some profs from TTIC and CS with which you can build relationships by taking classes with are your best bet to help you connect with such big tech firms; yes, our recruitment is not ideal, but I would say you should also talk to more knowledgeable people than me. 

"And finally about the summer internship, did most of the students choose to do the internship just in Chicago?" - hmmm, now that I think about it, I am not sure. it definitely is convenient to do it in Chicago since leases here last 12 months and it's a pain to have to either sublet over the summer while you are away for your internship or double pay both rent here and in your new summer location. However, I do know about phd students who did pretty good internships (including google) in other cities. 

Obviously, the masters students will now much more than what I said above, so it's good to also reach out to them. Also, definitely ask these questions + placement statistics to Mei Wang the masters coordinator - she is a very nice person. 

Hope this helps. 

Edit: one last thing that came to mind is that i know of undergrads here who got full time data science positions at Facebook...so if they could do it, then masters students should be able to, right? 

Thank you so much!!!

Edited March 2, 2020 by Xiangning
some mistake about the quote

[Unconscious_statistician]

Never been a student at UChicago, but judging by their MS alumni placements on the program website, normally 2-3 students continue their study in their PhD program in statistics, plus a bunch of other PhD programs at other departments (computer science, economics, business school). Students get into prestigious schools such as UPenn, Yale and Princeton as well. 

I know UChicago ms has a larger program size, and some of these students are actually undergrads who completed master-level coursework, but I would say generally UChicago has a better MS placement than UW regarding PhD application, especially if you want to do your PhD in a top-tier program.

[ZhiyuanC]

Can I ask your final decision and why? I am also swinging between Chicago and UW's stat program. 

And maybe we can discuss on Wechat if you have? (No offence but I guess "Xiangning" is a Chinese name) My Wechat number is ZainJulien226 and my email is zainchen@mail.bnu.edu.cn 

Thanks!

😀😀😀