Biostats PhD program recommendations + Profile Eval

[aiy1208]

Student Type: Domestic Female

Undergrad: Top 5 LAC (USNWR)

Major: Mathematics

GPA: 3.87

Math & stat classes: Linear Algebra (B+), CALC III (A), Economic Statistics (A), Differential Equations/Modeling (A), Statistical Linear Models (A), Mathematical Modeling (A), Real Analysis I (A), Applied Econometrics (A), Probability (A), Time Series (P), Statistical Theory (this fall), Computational Statistics (this fall).

I took linear algebra in the first semester of my freshman year, so it is definitely not the best looking score. Something also to note here is that I took Empirical Methods of IO and time series last semester and did very well, but my school has adopted a universal grading policy of P/NC. I took AP calc BC (5) and AP stat (5) in high school. There are also two classes in the CS department with one in A- and the other P (the grading policy). 

GRE: 168 Q, 168 V, 5.5 W

Research: Two summers of REU, one in bioinformatics and the other one in computational biology that involved machin learning. There wasn't any publication but I did do poster/slide presentations on a symposium for the first one and on a annual conference for the second one (it is virtual this year). One semester of data science research, and 4-5 research projects in statistics, mathematical modeling, and econometrics. In general, I would say that I have had a lot of experiences with working on computational things.

Letters of Recommendation:  Two from math professors and one from my econometric professor. I think they will be decently strong.

Hi everyone, I have been reading posts on this forum for a while and finding them to be extremely helpful. My plan is to apply to grad schools this fall, and I was initially only interested in statistics and data science, and the possibility of obtaining a phd in biostat has never occured to me until recently. When I was talking to a person at my school's career center, she thought that my SOP focused a little too much on my bio-related research, and I suddenly realized how much I have been involved in doing research in the biological sciences.

When I looked for phds in statistics, I didn't even think about applying to some of the more competitive ones because I feel that my math background is not particularly strong compare to other applicants. And I know that I want to do research on the applied side of statistics. Compare to stat PhDs, biostat PhD programs seem to be relatively less theoretical. I am absolutely fine with studying theoretical stuff, but I guess I just have no interest in focus exclusively on those topics. My biggest concern with applying to biostat programs is that despite having the two summer REUs and one research project that are relevant to bio, I have never taken any bio classes before. Will this significantly affect my admission to biostat PhDs? I have read some previous posts here saying that you don't really need to have taken bio classes for biostat phd programs, is that true?

Looking at my background, would it be worthwhile for me to apply to any of the top biostatistics programs? I have no idea what ranking level my profile would fit and would be happy to listen to any suggestions on the range of programs to apply to

[bayessays]

Bio classes are barely an advantage and mostly irrelevant, so don't worry at all.  Your profile is good enough to apply to any biostatistics program.  The top few won't be guarantees but are achievable.  Don't worry about the Linear Algebra grade.  It's not even that bad and you have a bunch of As after it, so it won't make a difference.

[StatsG0d]

On 8/12/2020 at 11:12 PM, bayessays said:

Bio classes are barely an advantage and mostly irrelevant, so don't worry at all.  Your profile is good enough to apply to any biostatistics program.  The top few won't be guarantees but are achievable.  Don't worry about the Linear Algebra grade.  It's not even that bad and you have a bunch of As after it, so it won't make a difference.

I do think Bio classes matter for people interested in doing genomics work, as they really need to know the biology to be taken seriously. Other than that, I agree with the statement.

 

I agree you could apply to pretty much anywhere, but I think the top-5 might be a bit of a stretch. Not because you're not a strong applicant, but the pool for biostats has been getting a lot more competitive over the last few years, to the point where I'd say it's on par with stats programs.

[cyberwulf]

5 hours ago, StatsG0d said:

I agree you could apply to pretty much anywhere, but I think the top-5 might be a bit of a stretch. Not because you're not a strong applicant, but the pool for biostats has been getting a lot more competitive over the last few years, to the point where I'd say it's on par with stats programs.

Top 5 biostat is not a stretch for this applicant, given the strength of their school, GPA, and test scores. In fact, while there are no guarantees, I wouldn't bet against them getting into all the top programs they applied to.