MS in Stats 6 years after undergrad - recommendations?

[curious-grad]

Hi all!

Would like to get some advice on applying to MS in Stats 6 years after undergrad.

Some context:

GPA: 3.66 cumulative from UC Berkeley

Courses:

• Math: Calc 1/2/3 (A, A, A), Discrete Math (B), Intro to Probability (A-), Linear Algebra (B+), Upper-div Linear Algebra (B+), Upper-div Probability (A-), Real Analysis (B+), Numerical Analysis (A-), Complex Analysis (A-), Abstract Algebra (B)
• Econ: Math-track Micro (A), Econometrics (A-), Mathematical Economics - Two-sided Matching (A), Math-track Micro (A-), Applied Econometrics (B). Less math heavy econ electives (Public: A, Urban: A+, Development: A+).
• Since graduation: Mathematical Stats from Harvard Extension (A), Linear Optimization from Stanford (A-), First-year Masters Stats from Stanford (in progress)

Work Experience:

• 2 years in econ consulting
• 1 year in operations
• 2 years in data science

GRE: 169 V/ 165 Q/ 5.5 AWA

Research: Wrote honors thesis and RA-ed in college, but honestly in retrospect my work wasn't great

References: Kind of struggling here. Thinking about:

• 1 from a PhD economist in industry from my first job
• 1 from a MA in engineering from my current job
• 1 from a PhD statistician from a current class I'm taking (it's going to be shallow)

Based on the above, what's the right range of schools to apply to? Not sure whether work experience is a plus, minus or neutral in this case.

Thanks!

[Casorati]

Master's admissions are not super competitive. Since you are from a top school and have extensive math background, I can see you getting into everywhere for master's. You could even get into some top 30s PhD programs given your profile.

[curious-grad]

Thanks! I'm pretty concerned about my math grades -- I saw that admitted applicants for most top masters programs have really good GPAs, like 3.8+

[curious-grad]

Bumping this to see if I can get some more opinions -- I'm concerned that my school list is too short and top-heavy right now. I'm looking for schools that have two-year programs and don't have reputation as cash cows, and would love recommendations on good programs to apply to given my stats.

My current list is all reaches (my GPA is below the average GPA): Stanford MS&E, Harvard MSDS, UChicago Stats, Duke Stats, UCLA Stats

[StatsG0d]

Just because your average GPA is lower, does not mean you are less qualified than the other applicants for two reasons.

First, assuming that the distribution of GPAs is symmetric about the average, 50% of admitted students have GPAs below the average (in reality, it might be a little less than 50%, but the point is many applicants have to have below the mean GPA).

Secondly, you have to realize that these average GPAs are the average of applicants from all schools across all majors. An applicant who received a 4.0 from the University of Alabama in engineeering will be viewed very differently than an applicant who went to UC Berkeley with a 3.66 and who took very advanced math courses.

The reality is that the vast majority of MS stats students will only have taken the bare minimum math courses for admission, or maybe slightly above. If you wanted to, you could probably apply to some PhD programs, and I can guarantee that you would get accepted to some.