2020 Fall Stat PhD Profile Evaluation

[DYEOUGO]

Undergrad Institution: South Korea Top 3~5 University (Top 50~100 in the QS ranking and THE ranking in mathematics)

Major: Mathematics and Financial Engineering (Double Major)
GPA: 3.65/4.00(Overall), 3.74/4.00(Major)

Masters: South Korea Top 1~2 University

Major: Industrial Engineering
GPA: 3.88/4.00

Type of Student: International male

Research Interest: ML, Statistical Learning, Deep Learning, Time Series Analysis, and Optimization
GRE General Test: 170 in Q, 152 in V, and 3.5 in W

Programs Applying: Statistics PhD

Research Experience: Three conference presentations and one paper may be submitted about Deep Clustering before applying.

Work(Project) Experience: Two major projects in big firms(6M, 4M respectively). Two minor projects in startup(4M, 4M respectively), and one internship in a financial company(6M). Two major projects are related to modeling based on clustering, Bayesian Network, and Outlier Detection

 

Undergrad Math&Stat Courses:

Calculus I(A+), II(B), Linear Algebra(B+), Analysis I(B), II(B), Discrete Mathematics(A+), Probability and Statistics(A+), Mathematical Statistics I(A), Probability(A+), ODE(A), PDE(A), General Topology(A+)

Grad Math&Stat Courses:

Financial Mathematics(A+), Numerical PDE(A+), Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis(A0), Deep learning: Statistical perspective(A-)

Another Key Courses:

(Undergrad) OR I(A+), II(B+), Data Structure(A), Data Mining(A+)

(Grad) Stochastic Processes(A-), Data Mining Technology(A0), Studies in Econometrics(A0), Learning from Data(A0), Topics in Mathematical Financial Economics(A0), Deep Learning(A0), Information Theory(A0), Convex Optimization(currently)

 

Letters of Recommendation: Three professors including my advisor. The second professor will be able to talk about one of my major projects. The third professor will refer to my research performance.(He would be a corresponding author of my paper.)

Programming Skills: Python, JAVA, SQL, R, and MATLAB

Schools

Reach: UNC, NCSU, Wisconsin-Madison, PennState, MinnesotaState TAMU, Purdue

Target: UC-davis, Ohio, UIUC, Rice, ISU, CSU

Safety: MichiganState, UConn, UMD

My main concern

My grades for lower-division coursework such as Calculus II, Linear Algebra, and Analysis are low, but the grades of upper-division coursework are high. I am curious if I can cover it. Also, the downside is that I have not taken Real Analysis.

Since my master’s research and projects are focused on application of ML than theoretical statistics, I wonder about how this would work on applying on Statistics.

I will apply for PhD programs of Statistics to study the ML field more theoretically. I’m not sure if it is the right choice. Also, I’m worried about setting the school level too high.

Thank you.

[StatsG0d]

IMO your target schools are more reaches and your safeties are more targets. As an international student, the bar is much higher for you than or domestic applicants. I think it will depend a lot on letters for you. Perhaps your schools is known for grade deflation (e.g., a B for you is more like an A- in the US or something). If so, you stand a good chance--just make sure your writers mention this and you mention it as well in your SOP.

I think you should reach for programs ranked 30-40; target 40-50; and safety 50 and below.

[DYEOUGO]

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Edited September 20, 2020 by DYEOUGO

[DYEOUGO]

On 9/18/2020 at 10:02 PM, StatsG0d said:

IMO your target schools are more reaches and your safeties are more targets. As an international student, the bar is much higher for you than or domestic applicants. I think it will depend a lot on letters for you. Perhaps your schools is known for grade deflation (e.g., a B for you is more like an A- in the US or something). If so, you stand a good chance--just make sure your writers mention this and you mention it as well in your SOP.

I think you should reach for programs ranked 30-40; target 40-50; and safety 50 and below.

Thank you for your opinion. Should I calculate the target rank without Biostatistics in USNEWS?

[StatsG0d]

3 hours ago, DYEOUGO said:

Thank you for your opinion. Should I calculate the target rank without Biostatistics in USNEWS?

Correct. Exclude biostatistics programs.