Cohort Size due to Covid

[frequentist]

I have been comunicating with some students that are already in the programs I am applying to. Someone told me that out of incoming class of 12 in their school last year, 7 of them deferred their admission for Fall 2021. So, I will be competing for only 5-6 slots this year. This sort of makes sense but I just wanted to verify if this is the case for almost every program this year.  All of you already attending Stat phd programs, would you be able to shed some light into this?

 

On a side note, am I the only one taking things too seriously but graduate school applications is extremely stressful for everyone?

[Casorati]

We would never know how admissions work this year but this shouldn't affect your decision to apply. They might take fewer students but they might also be able to take more than 12 students next year and it totally depends on the available funding. I doubt all programs will take fewer students next year because much funding is unused due to the small incoming class this year. The cost of applying is just around $100 for each school, which is not a big deal and the worst case is that you don't get in.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Casorati

[trynagetby]

Can verify it's the case at Columbia, UNC, and Cornell for those applying there.

Edited December 17, 2020 by trynagetby

[bayessays]

I imagine this will mostly affect international students who were not able to come to the US for classes and will vary a lot by department.  We had two students who had to stay in their home country for the semester and took the classes online, so we didn't have issues with deferments as far as I know. 

[StatB]

As an international student, I can tell you something about what has happened to some of my seniors who last time received offers from many US universities. Amongst those who are attending (as @bayessays has already told) no one of them could have come to US for taking classes. this fall. The trend that I found is that some of the top tier universities do not seem to face any financial difficulties during this year and admitted students were doing all regular duties like TA-ships, etc., by online mode and they did not get any difficulty in getting stipend too. Upon attending some virtual information session recently from some of the universities like Michigan, Washington Duke etc.; it can be also inferred that they would perhaps neither have any problem in accepting a regular cohort with full funding for the incoming year. But as you have correctly figured out, many mid tier universities like Ohio State, Iowa State, Minnesota, etc. asked the admitted students to either defer for one year, or pay money for some time by letting them know that they lack in funding. So, it seems like that these programs might face problems in giving regular amount of offers for the incoming year.  That is my guess. I can't assure that something might happen as there always remains uncertainty in such scenario. 

Also, do not worry. PhD application process is really very heptic. We sometimes use to spend the whole day in day dreaming or thinking whether I would really get or not. So, it is really stressful. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by StatB

[abstract_art]

On 12/16/2020 at 4:52 PM, Casorati said:

We would never know how admissions work this year but this shouldn't affect your decision to apply. They might take fewer students but they might also be able to take more than 12 students next year and it totally depends on the available funding. I doubt all programs will take fewer students next year because much funding is unused due to the small incoming class this year. The cost of applying is just around $100 for each school, which is not a big deal and the worst case is that you don't get in.

Just wanted to come here to say that you might not want to go around saying that spending $100 for each school you apply to isn't a big deal! Individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are not well represented in statistics and biostatistics, and this sort of mentality doesn't help. See e.g. this twitter thread. 

To actually comment on the original question in this post, my department is accepting the same number of people as in previous years.

Edited December 19, 2020 by marmle
spelling

[Casorati]

56 minutes ago, marmle said:

Just wanted to come here to say that you might not want to go around saying that spending $100 for each school you apply to isn't a big deal! Individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are not well represented in statistics and biostatistics, and this sort of mentality doesn't help. See e.g. this twitter thread. 

To actually comment on the original question in this post, my department is accepting the same number of people as in previous years.

Well, the OP is an international student and international students pay substantially higher tuitions than domestic students do. That said, given the amount of tuitions the OP has paid, the $1000-2000 application fee shouldn't be a big deal to him/her.