Stats Department at University of Maryland College Park

[J456]

Hi,

I am wondering if anyone has an opinion about the reputation/standing of the Statistics sub-department housed in the Applied Math program at University of Maryland, College Park. The sub-department is definitely as large as conventional departments, but does anyone if there are enough opportunities there to get a good training in stats which would help for jobs etc.

[statsday]

One of my colleagues did his PhD in that sub department and he is a good statistician (I work in a lab) and my undergrad advisor did his PhD there but doing dynamical sysytems and networks stuff. Both of them are good at what they do and they both spoke highly of the applied math department there. I dont know how it is in terms of stats but it is a good applied math program. I imagine you’d have to do an analysis and numerics sequence which would take away from stats classes you would do at another department though. My 2¢

[bayessays]

Like half the department does probability stuff, so it's pretty hard to compare as a lot of statistics departments don't even have probability people anymore.

Among their stats faculty, it looks like there's quite a few strong publications in places like Annals, so more theoretical work, but a lot of the faculty seem like they're on the older end and not as active any more.  Some of the younger faculty went to top schools and worked with good professors, and they have some good publications.  A lot of their webpages are broken or haven't been updated in years so it's kind of hard to tell.  Seems roughly comparable to schools in the 50s or 60s on the US News rankings, except much more focused on theoretical stats.

[J456]

Sounds good. There are many other opportunities to work there in such areas as computational neuroscience etc. which would allow me to do more applied, hands on stuff that builds a lot on machine learning etc. methods. I was just trying to figure out whether the department provides enough opportunities to learn modern statistics (high dimensional statistics etc.) but I think I can make it work if I take a combination of courses from applied math and CS departments. You're right; most of the faculty is on the older side which is a cause for concern (which is why passing UC Davis Applied Math is a big call as they have a great STAT department where I can take lots of courses etc.), but I think the myriad of research opportunities the applied math program offers could help make up for it.

Edited April 5, 2020 by J456