Profile Eval - From BA to biostats PhD, School Recommendation?

[mean_economics]

Hi all,

I am currently considering doing a PhD in biostatistics. I have been doing a lot of research on PhD programs, but I am still having a difficult time knowing what schools are my reach/target.

Target PhD: Wharton, Yale, Cornell (social statistics), UW-Madison, UCLA(social statistics), Brown... Overreaching?

Undergraduate Institution: Top 20 private liberal art college (Think Oberlin, Colgate, Macalester...)

Major: Economics and Statistics

GPA: 3.97

Type of Student: International Asian

Graduate Institution: N/A

GRE Score: 
158 Verbal 168 Q, 5 W    -  first try, might retake it to get 170 on Q

Relevant Classes:

The grades in my intro classes are terrible, but I did better in upper-level math classes. My college does not offer as many stats courses compared to other schools.

Cal II (A), Linear Algebra (A), Number Theory (B+), Real Analysis (A), Abstract Algebra (A), Probability and Statistics 1 (A), Probability and Statistics 2 (A)

Introductory data science (A-), Statistical Modeling (A), Experimental Design (A), Econometrics (A), Causal Inference (A), Machine Learning (A)

Research Experience: 

None.

I have a senior thesis in which I applied causal inference technique.

I also have another independent research project in which I examined different machine learning techniques and applied them to a real problem.

Work Experience: 

At school: I served as TA in many statistics classes.

After graduation, I am working at a consulting firm where I can work with professional statisticians and use a lot of statistical techniques.

Letters: 

Average - Above Average?

I will get two from my school, one being my advisor and the other being my independent research project professor. Both graduated from top PhD programs.

I will likely get another one from my job, who also will have a biostatistics PhD credential from a reputable university.

 

Now that I have written out these, I feel like my schools are even less reachable mainly because I don't have as much research experience, nor do I have a Master degree. I hope I can use my 2 years working experience at my consulting firm to offset that.

Thank you very much everyone!

 

 

 

 

[cyberwulf]

Your list of targets is confusing, since neither Wharton nor Cornell are biostatistics programs and the social stats specialists at UCLA are in the stat department. Are you looking at stat, biostat, or both?

[StatsG0d]

Agree with cyberwulf and also your profile is pretty strong--I think you're aiming way too low. I can see you want to target Ivies, but IMO it's better to apply to schools that are more highly ranked.