How many schools to apply to?

[totoro1984]

Hi everyone,

What is the "normal" number of schools to apply to for PhD programs in stat/biostat? I feel like I would fit well in about 15 schools I've researched, but this might be too much work for me and my letter writers.

[MathStat]

If you have no promises of acceptances (such as, for instance, at your alma mater; some people are lucky and they know their PI can take them on for PhD), I would apply to as many schools as you can afford.

I applied to 20 which was overkill, but then again, I had no guarantees of acceptances, and was scared by an example of one guy here with a similar profile to mine who applied to 15+ and got into nowhere. 

 

I heard postdocs apply to 60+ positions, so we probably shouldn't complain about sending many Phd applications (besides I have a feeling nobody reads the SOP, they just look at your letters). Would love to hear how many applications it takes to crack a tenure track position. 

Edited October 4, 2020 by MathStat

[Stat Assistant Professor]

In my PhD cohort of 9 students who finished the program, there were two of us that got TT positions (one is doing a postdoc now and the other 6 went into industry). Both of us applied to between 50-60 TT positions. Usually people focus their search on either research universities OR on PUIs. Some apply to both, but it's usually tilted more towards one or the other. In our cases, we only applied to jobs at research universities.

The number of TT faculty positions to apply to also depends on your profile. If you have several JASA/AoS/JRSS/Biometrika/Biometrics papers (including the applied stats journals like JASA-Case Studies & Applications or JRSS: Series C), you can afford to be a bit more selective -- but not *too* selective. But if there's a location that you absolutely cannot see yourself living in, you can probably safely exclude it from your list of job applications if your CV is impressive. This isn't the case with pure math, where even a PhD from MIT or Harvard doesn't preclude you from ending up at in a very remote location.  

[Geococcyx]

The previous posters are all the answer you need, but just to add:  the letters will probably be identical/mostly identical for all of your schools, so I wouldn't be exceptionally worried about the toll on your letter writers provided you give them appropriate lead time and info to actual draft their "master letter".  That's especially true if you're applying to some schools via SOPHAS, since if I recall correctly they would only need to upload their recommendation once regardless of the number of schools (if the letters aren't super targeted towards a particular school, of course).

(As a disclaimer, I feel I should note this is my experience with recommendation letters -- maybe letters are more specifically customized for each school for super elite candidates, or perhaps if you go to a smaller undergraduate-oriented institution wherein having some previous connections between the college and graduate program is helpful;  I am neither elite nor from an undergraduate-oriented institution, so I cannot say)

I was also worried about the work it would take to send out 20+ applications (I got to 14 I think), so I held off applying to some places I was interested in with later applications deadlines so that I could still apply to them on-time if I wanted, but I could avoid working on them if I'd already gotten into somewhere I preferred better.  For instance, it's entirely possible to apply to (say) Ohio State or Illinois and get accepted before you even reach the application deadline for (say) TAMU and UCONN, at least recalling the deadlines in my application year.  Granted this is mildly in conflict with what I'd recommend in terms of giving yourself the option to learn everything you can about each school before you decide to turn them down, but if you need to save time then it can work.  

[MathStat]

oh wow....having your writers customize letters would be a deal breaker for them probably... Mine just sent the same letter everywhere. I sent them the request links all at once, so it only took them like 30 min to finish the whole process. 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Yeah, I can't imagine customizing letters of recommendation for every place. I have written a few letters of recommendation and always just sent the same one everywhere.

Even for faculty positions, my letter writers sent exactly the same letters to every place I applied to. I also did not customize the CV, research statement, or teaching statement. I did customize the cover letters, however (just FYI, for anyone who may be interested: the cover letters are especially important for faculty applications to PUIs because they really don't want to hire someone who will jump ship to a research university the second that opportunity arises). Those cover letters took awhile to write, because I spent at least 45 minutes looking through each department's webpages, faculty profiles, course catalogues, etc. 

[whiterabbit]

I haven't seen anyone mention the financial aspect. When I applied, on average, each PhD application cost about $90. You should really think about if you can/should/want to spend over 1 grand on applications (on top of GRE fees). And be honest with yourself about your application package; my recommenders were maybe a little too nice to me. (Personally, I regret wasting a couple hundred dollars on applying to Top 5 programs.) Maybe you can better allocate that time/money elsewhere, eg. retaking a standardized test, networking, building up your academic/research/work experience.