Profile Evaluation: MS Biostatistics

[SocialStatHopeful]

Hey everyone, I would appreciate a rundown of my profile and would love some advice/tips. Thanks. I'm entering from a mostly unrelated field.

Undergrad Institution: Large State School
Major(s): Criminal Justice/Criminology
Minor(s): Mathematics (Post-bacc mostly)
GPA: 3.5 (4.0 since start of Junior year)

Type of Student: DWM, LGBT but I probably won't be mentioning that in my application.

GRE General Test: I'm a very bad test-taker and will be retaking.
Q: 157 (62%)
V: 161(88%)
W: 4.5 (80%)
 

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:n/a

TOEFL Score:n/a

Grad Institution: n/a

Concentration: 
GPA:
 

Programs Applying: Statistics/Biostatistics (Master's only).

 

Research Experience: Unpublished firearm policy/casualty trends research conducted through R. My mentor on this project is an epidemiologist at my university and will be writing one of my letters of rec. I've also been listed as a contributor on a submitted-for-publishing epidemiology study. I also have one presentation at a conference under my belt. Nothing too exciting.
 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Nothing outside of president's list.
 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA'd a Calculus course for economic/business majors. Also employed as a math tutor at my university.

 

Letters of Recommendation: Two letters from math professors I know very well (including the one I TA'd for) and the previously mentioned epidemiologist.

 

Math/Statistics Grades:

 

 Calculus 1-3 (A), Discrete Math (A), Linear Algebra (A), Intro to Statistics (A).

I'm also taking Probability, Diff Eq, and a prerequisite course to Real Analysis this upcoming semester.

 

 
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Without being too specific, a lot work I did in undergrad had ties to public-health in minority populations. My main interest is using/developing statistical methods to better study aspects of healthcare, especially those that are more related to SES issues. I don't know how programs would view this since my background isn't strictly in Math/Biology/Statistics.

 

Also, if I fail to increase my GRE Quant to 163+ before the deadline, how badly do you think my chances will be impacted?

Applying to Where: (All Master's) (You're welcome to add suggestions, although I'd prefer to not be on the West Coast.)

 

University of Florida

University of Georgia

University of South Carolina

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

University of Iowa

University of Minnesota

University of Michigan

Duke University

Emory University

 

Thank you!

 

[bayessays]

I think you'll have pretty good results. I've seen some people accepted to PhD programs with sub 160 scores.  Your math grades are all As, you have some relevant research experience - my guess is you'll get into over half these programs if you applied with current stats.  

[SocialStatHopeful]

3 hours ago, bayessays said:

I think you'll have pretty good results. I've seen some people accepted to PhD programs with sub 160 scores.  Your math grades are all As, you have some relevant research experience - my guess is you'll get into over half these programs if you applied with current stats.  

Thank you! I'm honestly surprised by the optimism, as I thought I'd be lucky to get in any of the listed schools. I think I may have been worrying too much about my test scores. Still, there's time for me to improve on that aspect. Again, thank you.