2021 Fall Statistics phd prof eval

[helpmegetphd]

Hey, I've been browsing this forum trying to get an idea of where I stand. Eventually I realized I should just post my own thread. Thanks in advance for any help.

Undergraduate Institution: large state flagship ranked around 150

Major: Finance, Math

Minor: CS, History

GPA: 4.0

Type of Student: Domestic White Male

 

Graduate Institution: Same university (dual degree program)

Masters in Applied Statistics

GPA: 4.0

 

GRE Score: 
No GRE score yet - based on how I did on the GMAT, I expect to score mid 650 range for the Quantitative section

 

Relevant Classes:

Cal II (A+), Honors Cal III (A+), Intro Linear Algebra (A-), Regression Analysis (Grad - A), Multivariate Analysis (Grad - A), Economic Forecasting and Analysis (Grad - P because of pandemic) All of CS Minor were A's

Relevant Classes Still to take this year:

Real Analysis, Math Stats sequence, various applied statistics electives

 

Research Experience: 

No formal math/statistics research - I have large personal projects related to modelling sports games to bet on for profit - tons of python code for scraping, analyzing, modelling data as well as optimizing certain functions (which I am very proud of) - In the last 10 months, I would say I spent probably 200+ hours on these projects

Currently serving as a research assistant for some history professors writing a book already purchased by a large publishing company - I have done some basic statistical analysis for them with contingency tables, logistic regression, time series analysis

 

Work Experience: 

I served as a TA for the introductory undergraduate statistics course at the university for one semester

 

Letters: 

I have taken many history classes with this one professor who I am also acting as a research assistant for, as mentioned above, so I will get one from this person.

Planning on getting statistics professors who have taught me and like me to write the other two - they aren't big names or anything, but they should write good letters

 

Statistics PHD programs I am thinking about:

Washington, Columbia, Michigan, NCSU, UCLA

 

I just recently started checking into programs that would fit my interests. I haven't really done an exhaustive search of programs yet - I wanted to get feedback on where I stand first. Some questions for you all:

1) Do I have a chance with programs as good as Washington or Columbia?

2) Are there any schools that have more of an applied focus that I should be looking at?

3) Should I take the Math GRE? I think I could study enough to get a decent score if it is worth the effort

 

Thanks for any help in advance!

[bayessays]

First, the GRE is out of 170, and is an important part of the application, so it's hard to give exact recommendations without that.

But your currently thin math background is the bigger concern. I think you'll need some of those real analysis/probability/math stats classes on your transcript to get into a top 40 program.

I don't think these schools are going to be realistic right now. If you get As in real analysis and your math stats sequence and a good GRE, schools like UCLA might be reachable. 

What are your interests? Statistics PhDs are very theoretical, so if you haven't taken any math beyond linear algebra or a mathematical statistics course, it's hard to get a picture of what you would like to do. Have you looked into biostatistics programs? They are generally more applied, especially outside the top 5 or 10.

[helpmegetphd]

Thanks for the reply @bayessays. I meant around 165 for the GRE quant section, but again, just a guess.

I don't think biostatistics is really what I am looking for, but I do see your point about the slim pickings of math courses. I would say I am interested in statistical learning/computational statistics/machine learning kind of things.

I guess I never really considered how applying to a PhD program would work with classes currently in progress. Should I just wait till the Fall 2022 cycle when I will have grades for real analysis and math stats?

[bayessays]

If you are taking the classes in the fall, you can send in your updated grades.  Then I don't think you'd need to wait a year. But since you have such a good GPA, I think you will get much better results having some more math on your transcript.

[helpmegetphd]

I took the GRE since I posted this and got a 164 for verbal and quantitative.

There were also apparently some math classes I didn't include like differential equations and discrete math, but I didn't think those were super relevant. 

 

I definitely shot a little too high before with the schools. What about UC Irvine and Northwestern, for example? Would those be attainable?

[StatsG0d]

A few notes:

Differential equations and discrete math aren't particularly useful for statistics, but they send a signal that you can do math at a higher level than most, which is important

Biostatistics departments are very actively researching the topics you've mentioned. It varies greatly, but for some departments, the only thing that really differs between stats / biostats is that biostats develops methods to be used in medical settings (e.g., clinical trials, electronic health records, genetics). I would argue that computational statistics is just as strong in biostats as stats, due to interesting problems like having the number of covariates being larger than the number of observations. Lots of people in biostats do Machine Learning research, and it kind of has a causal inference flavor to it since the setting is usually clinical trials.

A 164 GRE is on the lower end these days, but I don't think it will automatically reject you from stats departments outside the top-20 and biostats departments outside the top-3

As @bayessays said, your results are going to be heavily determined by how well you do in real analysis and your letters. I do think that if you did a gap year and took analysis II in your second semester this year and maybe one other upper-level math course, your profile would be very strong.

[helpmegetphd]

For Northwestern and Rice specifically, what do you guys think about submitting my GRE score of 164/164? Should I submit or not since it is optional?

[StatsG0d]

On 11/2/2020 at 2:43 PM, helpmegetphd said:

For Northwestern and Rice specifically, what do you guys think about submitting my GRE score of 164/164? Should I submit or not since it is optional?

I guess I would not submit it. You should note that Northwestern is highly competitive relative to its ranking due to school prestige.