Stat PhD Profile and School List Evaluation

[trynagetby]

Hi all I posted last year about my confusion of where to apply and everyones feed back was super useful! I'll be applying this year  and would really appreciate if people could give feedback on the list of school's I've come up with.

Undergraduate Institution: Columbia University 

Major: Mathematics-Statistics

GPA: 3.90

Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

Relevant Classes:

Statistics Courses: Statistical Inference (A) , Bayesian Statistics (A), Statistical Machine Learning (A-), Stochastic Processes (A), Probability Theory (A), Linear Regression (A+)

Math Courses: Algebra I (B+),  Fourier Analysis (B),  Calc III-IV (A), Linear Algebra (A), Optimization (A),  Analysis I-II (A), Probability Theory (measure theoretic) (A-),Numerical Methods/Analysis (A+), ODE (A)

MISC: Data Structure and Algorithms (A), Analysis of Algorithms (A-), Artificial Intelligence (A),  Databases (A)

Mandatory Pass Fail: Casual Inference, Advanced Linear Algebra

GRE: Q: 168 V: 160 W:4

Research Experience: Got accepted to a biocomputing conference as first author and gave an oral presentation (Bayesian classification). Been Working with a pretty well known statistical neuroscience professor. Should have an e-life paper and maybe a NeurIps pub but as like 5th author.

Recs: One from the professor I published the Biocomputing conference paper with (first author), Second is the statistical neuroscience prof I'm working with. Both should be decently strong. Last is the Advanced Linear Algebra professor where I was likely the top performer (also should show that I did well in the class despite the P)

My school list looks something like this:

Reach:

CMU, University of Michigan, University of Washington, Cornell, Duke

Target:

UNC, University of Wisconsin Madison, NCSU

Safer Target:

UCLA, UIUC

Are any reaches too much of a moonshot and my target schools actually reaches? Thank you all so much for your help!

 

 

[BL250604]

You have a very solid profile, I think your list is fine. If your MGRE score is good (worth taking with your profile imo), you could even aim for the tippy top departments.

[trynagetby]

Thanks for the feedback and the recommendation to take the MGRE. I have all this free time so might as well! What score do you think I should aim for to make it worth it?

[BL250604]

Usually I would say a score that is solidly within the 80's (as a %ile), or above, will always improve your chances. Unfortunately, at the top schools, most folks will have very solid scores, but I think that a score in the mid 80%ile or above will certainly boost your already solid profile!