Nontraditional Profile Evaluation - CS 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: (Computer Science)

 

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.

I am also applying to a bunch of statistics PhD programs, so these are more for fun.

Applying to Where:

• CMU
• MIT
• Stanford
• Princeton
• UT
• Columbia
• NYU

Do you think I have a shot at any of these? Thanks in advance!

[Boolakanaka]

Quick Q: all really solid programs and you have a legit opportunity, but why no U of Washington?

[darkreunion]

26 minutes ago, Boolakanaka said:

Quick Q: all really solid programs and you have a legit opportunity, but why no U of Washington?

My list was based on the recommendations of my math prof who works with deep learning. UW actually looks solid for machine learning, so I think I'll add it to my list. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Man_About_Town]

Not sure what is Nontraditional about your profile. You have a traditional, stellar background that makes you competitive everywhere, especially with a soon to be published paper in hand. Only thing "missing" is that many slots at Stanford/MIT/etc are gained by a famous PI from Princeton/CMU/etc making a phone call to his/her colleague saying "You really want this student in your lab". Regardless, you are going to get a bunch of acceptances. Might want to apply a bit more broadly though. There are a lot of great programs other than the ones you listed. How is Berkeley not on your list?

[darkreunion]

On 9/27/2020 at 10:31 AM, Man_About_Town said:

Not sure what is Nontraditional about your profile. You have a traditional, stellar background that makes you competitive everywhere, especially with a soon to be published paper in hand. Only thing "missing" is that many slots at Stanford/MIT/etc are gained by a famous PI from Princeton/CMU/etc making a phone call to his/her colleague saying "You really want this student in your lab". Regardless, you are going to get a bunch of acceptances. Might want to apply a bit more broadly though. There are a lot of great programs other than the ones you listed. How is Berkeley not on your list?

@Man_About_Town I'm sorry I didn't see your reply until now. Thank you for the great information. I labelled myself as nontraditional because I haven't taken many CS courses and I'm FAR from a coding prodigy.

Regarding a famous PI making a call, one of my letter writers is a young but very successful professor at Princeton. I'll ask him if he has any connections that we can exploit.

Berkeley isn't on my list because I am primarily applying to statistics programs, meaning I didn't investigate CS programs as thoroughly. There are 7 schools on this list, but I also have 17 stats programs that I plan to apply to. I'm starting to think that my research interests are more closely aligned with CS programs, so that ratio may change. Thanks for the suggestions. 

[darkreunion]

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[darkreunion]

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