StatCramer Posted October 17, 2020 Posted October 17, 2020 (edited) Hi everyone, I'm an international student currently doing my Master's in Applied Mathematics from a top 15 university. I am looking to apply for a Statistics PhD program but I'm not sure which tier university I have the best chance of getting into. My GPA is not the best (3.54) with Bs for Numerics and Analysis courses. But I have A/A- for all the stat courses I have taken. I am currently working with a well known professor on my Master's thesis but does not have any publications yet. My undergraduate was not from a US university and it was in Statistics and computer science and I have only taken calculus sequence and diffequ as math courses in my undergrad. I was the top of my batch and also received a gold medal for best performance in statistics at the graduation. I struggled with numerical analysis and real analysis graduate courses in my Master's as I have not taken these courses in my undergraduate. Do you all recommend addressing struggling with analysis courses in my personal statement? I know that most Statistics PhD programs looks at pervious math course grades heavily so I don't even know whether I have any chance at getting into a school.. My gre scores were 166,151,4(QR,VR,AW) Please let me know which universities you think I should apply to or you think I don't have any chance of getting into a top 50 school. I don't want any sugar coating because I know I'm not the best student but I love learning and would love to continue doing what I love to do. Really appreciate this forum and thank you all for your comments in advance. This would be really helpful. Edited October 17, 2020 by StatCramer
Stat Assistant Professor Posted October 17, 2020 Posted October 17, 2020 (edited) Your grad school GPA and the fact that you are an international applicant would probably be a hinderance when applying to any top 50 Stat PhD programs (since admissions for international applicants is much more competitive). I would apply to schools ranked 60-100, focusing mainly on schools ranked 70 or lower, as well as maybe some unranked programs like University of Cincinnati Mathematical Sciences (they have a Statistics PhD program) and UC Santa Cruz. These programs are good too and are not less rigorous than higher ranked schools, and they are fine for finding a job after graduation (e.g. some alumni from U. of Cincinnati and UCSC have gotten Assistant Professor jobs at schools like University of Florida Department of Statistics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, etc.). And if you're interested in industry, the ranking doesn't matter that much. But admissions is a bit tougher for higher ranked programs, *especially* for international applicants. Edited October 17, 2020 by Stat Assistant Professor
StatCramer Posted October 19, 2020 Author Posted October 19, 2020 Thank you for the advice. This really helps. I am an international applicant but I am currently studying my Master's from a US institution which is a top applied mathematics program in USA. I don't know whether that would increase my chance. Thank you for your advice!!!
StatsG0d Posted October 19, 2020 Posted October 19, 2020 1 hour ago, StatCramer said: I am an international applicant but I am currently studying my Master's from a US institution which is a top applied mathematics program in USA. I don't know whether that would increase my chance. That definitely changes things. You should post your entire profile using the template that everyone uses so we can give a proper recommendation.
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