Profile Evaluation - Stats PhD 2021

[darkreunion]

Undergrad Institution: Texas A&M (large public school)
Major(s): Double: Statistics and Applied Math
Minor(s): Computer Science
GPA: 3.95 overall, 4.0 major

Type of Student: Domestic Hispanic Male

GRE General Test: (Based on ETS Powerprep exams)
Q: 169 (94%)
V: 163 (92%)
W: 4.5 (80%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
NA
 

Programs Applying: (Statistics/Biostatistics)

 

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications or conference talks etc...)

• REU at Texas State University. I took a lead role and performed most of the coding and statistical analysis. It was a bioinformatics project that has been submitted to BMC Cancer and returned for revisions. The manuscript will be resubmitted before I apply. I have worked on it constantly since June 2019.
• Summer Program in Biostatistics at Harvard. This was shortened due to COVID so the research project wasn't as in depth as I would have liked. Again, I took a lead role and did most of the coding and statistical analysis. It resulted in a powerpoint presentation. 
• Worked with a prof at Texas A&M to model compliance with social distancing using cell phone and Census data for the region around campus. We identified factors that correlate with social distancing compliance, as well as the relationship between social distancing compliance and case growth at the local level. This project was definitely more applied and involved a ton of coding. Results have been presented to local and school officials.

 

Relevant Coursework: Intro to Real Analysis, Principals of Analysis 1, Principals of Analysis 2, Real Variables (PhD level in math dept.), Theory of Probability (spring 2021, PhD level), Theory of Inference (grad level), Multivariate Analysis and Statistical Learning, Directed study in machine learning, as well as all the other core stats, math, and CS courses.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

• Top student in Honors Intro to Analysis (cash prize)
• Top student in Honors Principals of Analysis 1 (cash prize)
• a few other small math scholarships
• National Hispanic Scholar (1/3 of tuition)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Peer mentor in stats department

Letters of Recommendation: 

1. REU prof. She knows me very well and seems to really like me.
2. COVID project prof at A&M. I have also taken a graduate course with her. Should be strong.
3. Math prof at A&M. I have taken several courses with him and we have a great relationship. He is now at Princeton.

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help:

None of my letter writers are famous. I am hoping to work with machine learning in grad school.

Applying to Where: Stats unless stated otherwise

• Stanford
• UC - Berkeley
• Harvard (Biostats)
• Harvard
• U Chicago
• CMU
• Washington
• Duke
• Michigan
• U Penn
• Colombia
• NC State
• Cornell
• Texas A&M
• UCLA

I'm fairly confident at getting into A&M. What are my odds at the other schools? Any recommendations are also welcome.

[bayessays]

I would think the last 4 schools will be pretty safe options and you'll get into a good chunk of the rest. Not sure about Stanford and Penn, but I wouldn't be surprised if you got into all the other programs. 

[Ryuk]

@bayessays Just so you know, you were almost exactly right. I got into all of the programs except Stanford and CMU. Thanks for the input!

Edit: I made a new account. This is my profile. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Ryuk

[bayessays]

Great to hear - congrats on the great options!

[csheehan10]

@Ryuk oh have you heard from columbia? I've just had radio silence since applying

[Ryuk]

@csheehan10I actually ended up applying for the CS PhD program at Columbia because they wouldn't let me try for both. However, their CS program also hasn't gotten back to me.