2021 STAT/BIOSTAT PhD Profile Evaluation

[liang]

Hey guys! I am currently a masters student in Biostatistics and will be applying to Biostatistics PhD programs for Fall 2021 admission. I was wondering if you could help me choose a range of school or give me any adivice about my current list. I would like to apply to programs within top 30 range in both US and Canada, but I am not sure if that is unrealistic or not.  I would be appreciated if anyone can give me some helpful advice.

Undergrad Institution:  Rank around top 40 University of science and engineering in Asia

GPA: 3.87 

Majors: Math

 

Graduate Institution:  University of Waterloo

GPA:  3.9

Degree: MS in Biostatistics

 

GRE General Test:
Q: 170
V: 152
W: 3.5

TOFEL: Waive

Type of Student:  International student

Programs Applying: PhD in Biostatistics. Mostly focus on survival analysis and genetic association analysis. 

Research Experience: 

1. Attended several projects and submitted two papers last month during co-op program. Our work mainly focus on survival and genetic analyisis collaborating with other clinical researchers, 2020.
2. Attended Statistics Student Conference in Canada this year. Plan to submit a report to competition.
3. Worked as TA in two terms, 2019-2020.
4. Honorable Price in Mathematical Contest In Modeling, 2018.

Letters of Recommendation: one great letter of recommendation from the professor in my research program. One from currect supervisor in colleage. One from assistant professor in class.

 

My current list:

Tier 0: JHU biostat

Tier 1: Umich biostat , Umich stat , UNC biostat, UNC stat

Tier 2: Wisconsin stat, Wisconsin biostat In data science, UMN stat, UMN biostat, UTeXas MD biostat, OSU stat，PSU stat, Emory biostat, UBC stat, Mcgill biostat

Tier 3: UWaterloo biostat, UToronto biostat

 

I think this year will be very competitive applying for PhD in biostatistics. Due to COVID-19, I have confirmed that many schools in my current list do not require GRE for 2021 application. That's why I do not choose to spend much time on getting a higher mark. Thank you in advance for your help! 

[Casorati]

A lot will depend on your undergraduate institution. If you attended a top 5 school in China, with your record, you might have a shot at tier 1 schools you listed and I can see you get into some tier 2 schools. Otherwise, I would cast a wider net. For biostatistics, Waterloo has a better reputation than Toronto. So if you are sure that Waterloo is your safety option, which should be since you did well during your master's, I wouldn't apply to Toronto biostat.

[StatsG0d]

If you're interested in biostat, you should revise your school list. UNC STOR does basically zero biostats. You could apply to nearby NCSU, which has several people in biostatistics. In general, the larger state schools that do not have standalone biostatistics departments (e.g., NCSU, TAMU) tend to have some faculty working in biostatistics.

Now, onto your profile evaluation:

I agree with @Casorati--your success will depend somewhat on your undergrad institution. However, you do have a master's degree from a North American master's program with a great GPA and from a prestigious program. This will help you out a lot compared to other international students. You also have a perfect GREQ which is great.

To me, I think it will mostly depend on your letters. I think you should spend some time with your letter writers who might not be as strong and just speak to them about your interests in your passion. You want them to be able to write that you'll be a very successful students and you can do math very well etc. 

For international students, biostatistics is more difficult to get into than statistics departments because they are more reliant on NIH grant money, which can only be used to train US Citizens / Permanent Residents.

[liang]

On 9/28/2020 at 8:27 PM, Casorati said:

A lot will depend on your undergraduate institution. If you attended a top 5 school in China, with your record, you might have a shot at tier 1 schools you listed and I can see you get into some tier 2 schools. Otherwise, I would cast a wider net. For biostatistics, Waterloo has a better reputation than Toronto. So if you are sure that Waterloo is your safety option, which should be since you did well during your master's, I wouldn't apply to Toronto biostat.

Thanks for help. Yes, Uwaterloo does better than Utoronto in biostatistics, however, my supervisor of co-op program is an associated professor in UToronto. I want to make my list safer so that's reason why I apply Utoronto as well. 

Edited September 30, 2020 by liang

[liang]

On 9/29/2020 at 11:40 AM, StatsG0d said:

If you're interested in biostat, you should revise your school list. UNC STOR does basically zero biostats. You could apply to nearby NCSU, which has several people in biostatistics. In general, the larger state schools that do not have standalone biostatistics departments (e.g., NCSU, TAMU) tend to have some faculty working in biostatistics.

Now, onto your profile evaluation:

I agree with @Casorati--your success will depend somewhat on your undergrad institution. However, you do have a master's degree from a North American master's program with a great GPA and from a prestigious program. This will help you out a lot compared to other international students. You also have a perfect GREQ which is great.

To me, I think it will mostly depend on your letters. I think you should spend some time with your letter writers who might not be as strong and just speak to them about your interests in your passion. You want them to be able to write that you'll be a very successful students and you can do math very well etc. 

For international students, biostatistics is more difficult to get into than statistics departments because they are more reliant on NIH grant money, which can only be used to train US Citizens / Permanent Residents.

Thanks StatsG0d, I get your points. Yes, I should add NCSU in my list instead of UNC STAT. Do you have any other recommendations for biostat PhD program? I tend to become a faculty in college, but getting a job in industry is also an option for me. 

[Casorati]

You could ask your current supervisor at Waterloo if he/she is willing to take you as a PhD student. If your goal is to obtain an academic position then I don't think Toronto biostatistics is a good fit for you. It's a very applied program and the academic placements are pretty bad.

[StatsG0d]

16 hours ago, liang said:

Thanks StatsG0d, I get your points. Yes, I should add NCSU in my list instead of UNC STAT. Do you have any other recommendations for biostat PhD program? I tend to become a faculty in college, but getting a job in industry is also an option for me. 

Others may disagree, but I think you could go almost anywhere. What's going to be important is that your advisor is well connected and can hook you up with a good postdoc afterwards. The postdoc will be the real difference maker when you're applying for faculty positions.

For industry, it really doesn't matter what you do / with whom you work. There might be some positions that require some expert knowledge in some subfield, but the vast majority of jobs in pharma / FDA really only require advanced knowledge of standard statistical methods and a solid understanding of clinical trials and issues that arise with regulatory agencies (e.g., multiplicity). You'll definitely want to know Bayesian statistics, as it's becoming more and more used (for trial design / sample size planning, if not for the analysis of the data). I also recommend you become an excellent programmer, as that will set you apart from other candidates. Any PhD graduate understands GLM, but few could program their own algorithms that are very efficient and accurate.

[liang]

4 hours ago, StatsG0d said:

Others may disagree, but I think you could go almost anywhere. What's going to be important is that your advisor is well connected and can hook you up with a good postdoc afterwards. The postdoc will be the real difference maker when you're applying for faculty positions.

For industry, it really doesn't matter what you do / with whom you work. There might be some positions that require some expert knowledge in some subfield, but the vast majority of jobs in pharma / FDA really only require advanced knowledge of standard statistical methods and a solid understanding of clinical trials and issues that arise with regulatory agencies (e.g., multiplicity). You'll definitely want to know Bayesian statistics, as it's becoming more and more used (for trial design / sample size planning, if not for the analysis of the data). I also recommend you become an excellent programmer, as that will set you apart from other candidates. Any PhD graduate understands GLM, but few could program their own algorithms that are very efficient and accurate.

Yes, I agree with you. I used to code in R but I also heard of SAS and Python which is quite hot these days. When I learned Python, sometimes it makes me feel confused about basic setting. Do you think learning other language will sometimes help for application? Or it just makes sence if you want to find a job in pharma/ FDA.

[liang]

20 hours ago, Casorati said:

You could ask your current supervisor at Waterloo if he/she is willing to take you as a PhD student. If your goal is to obtain an academic position then I don't think Toronto biostatistics is a good fit for you. It's a very applied program and the academic placements are pretty bad.

Thanks a lot. That's really helpful. Yes, I should talk with my supervisor or other possible professor at Uwaterloo for my PhD study. At first, I think it's a bit embarrassing if I ask them for PhD but decide to go to other colleages. But that's a good way to make my application safe and I should just tell them where I will apply at same time.

[Casorati]

2 hours ago, liang said:

Thanks a lot. That's really helpful. Yes, I should talk with my supervisor or other possible professor at Uwaterloo for my PhD study. At first, I think it's a bit embarrassing if I ask them for PhD but decide to go to other colleages. But that's a good way to make my application safe and I should just tell them where I will apply at same time.

Everyone will go to the best possible school he/she can and most professors would be happy if you end up going to a better school and it's not unusual to apply to many schools.

Edited October 1, 2020 by Casorati

[liang]

17 hours ago, Casorati said:

Everyone will go to the best possible school he/she can and most professors would be happy if you end up going to a better school and it's not unusual to apply to many schools.

Yes, I totally agree with you. Thanks for encouraging me. I have sent email to my supervior asking for PhD at UWaterloo. I am not sure whether he will agree with or not because he has many students or maybe there's problem of funding. If not, I can talk with other professors in biostatistics to see if they still have position for new PhD student.