Profile Evaluation and School Suggestions please.

[movingtostats]

Hi everyone, I want to apply to MS Statistics for Fall 2021 in US and Canada but I would prefer the US. I know that I am late in applying and the deadlines for many schools have closed but I am still hoping to get into some decent/good program(s). Can you please tell me what my safety, match and target schools should be? The things I worry the most about are my low grades in Probability Theory, Time Series Analysis and Econometric Methods - II. Can you also tell me how important a role will the SOP play in my applications?

Gender : Male

Ethnicity : Indian

Undegrad Institution : University of Delhi (tier 2 college)

Major : Economics

GPA : 7.12/10 (3.6 US equivalent)

Releveant Courses : 

Math/Statistics : Math Econ I (7) ,Math Econ II (8) , Statistics (7), Introductory Econometrics (8), Applied Econometrics (10) 

All grades are out of 10, the two math courses covered some linear algebra and the rest was multivariable calculus but did not have vector calculus stuff like green's theorem. The statistics course was calculus based and had random variables, hypo testing, clt and similar stuff. Econometrics was mostly regression stuff.

Graduate Institution : Indian Statistical Institute

Major : Quantitative Economics ( MS in QE)

Grade : 87.6/100 (For three semesters.)

Relevant Courses : Math Methods (95), Statistics (95), Game Theory (91), Probability Theory (66), Econometric Methods - I (90), Game Theory - II(98), The Theory of Mechanism Design(92), Real Analysis(100), Time Series Analysis(76), Econometric Methods - II(75).

All grades are out of 100.Math course had good amount of linear algebra, decent amount of real analysis and a lot of optimization topics like KKT. Statistics was taught from Casella & Berger, had things like cramer-rao bound, cramer woldt device, likelihood ratio test, NP lemma etc, Prob Theory was from the stat department and I couldn't do well in it because Real Analysis was a prerequisite which I had not studied at the time, the course had convergence concepts(almost surely,distribution etc) and markov chains.

 

General GRE : Quant(168), Verbal(158)

GRE Mathematics Subject Test : Not given yet.

Research Experience: None so far.

I have done a personal project in which I used a boosting algorithm for a prediction problem and another in which I used deep learning to create a facial expression recognition system. I have also done the deep learning specialization on coursera. Not sure how helpful this stuff is.

The things that I worry about are that my UG institute wasn't really the best in the country, it wasn't a bad school but just wasn't amongst the top colleges, my GPA in UG is also not fabulous however I think it is still better in the relevant courses.  Will bad grade in probability theory, time series analysis and econometric methods - II be a significant factor?

 

LOR : One will be from my game theory and Mechanism Design professor who is a PhD in industrial engineering, rest all will be from economists. Can't say anything about the quality of the LORs, I hope they will be good.

Edited January 17, 2021 by movingtostats

[bestregards]

I guess you have a good background in math. But I can not see Multivariate Statistics, Bayesian, and GLM(or categorical data analysis) in your coursework. Some computing courses on SAS, R, Python, and Database might help too. If you are worried about the reputation of your school, having extraordinary LORs are really important. Seems like your GRE scores are high enough to not be automatically screened by the top 20 schools. For SOP, you can refer to here. If you write an excellent essay with the fine language control of English and find a perfect fit for your interests, then you can also be one of the top choices for the programs. To sum up, I highly recommend you to take some more statistics courses and contact your alumni who got into the top statistics programs ASAP. They could recommend you some professors you can ask a help for.

Edited January 17, 2021 by bestregards

[movingtostats]

@bestregards The thing is that I cannot take anymore statistics courses as I am enrolled in the economics department and you can only take a limited number of courses from the statistics department. Also, I have read the SOP link, but isnt that mainly for the Doctorate programs or does it apply to Masters programs as well? Also, as my profile stands, can you please tell me what should be my safety, match and reach schools please?

[bestregards]

12 minutes ago, movingtostats said:

@bestregards The thing is that I cannot take anymore statistics courses as I am enrolled in the economics department and you can only take a limited number of courses from the statistics department. Also, I have read the SOP link, but isnt that mainly for the Doctorate programs or does it apply to Masters programs as well? Also, as my profile stands, can you please tell me what should be my safety, match and reach schools please?

I'm afraid that I might be not help with that. But I'm sure that the others in this forum can definitely help you with that.

Edited January 17, 2021 by bestregards

[movingtostats]

Just now, bestregards said:

I'm afraid that I might be not helpful with that. But I'm sure that the others in this forum can definitely help you with that.

Ohh I see, well thanks a lot for the advice that you've given me. I appreciate it.

[cyberwulf]

You're clearly qualified for an MS stat, but I actually think your problem might be that you're overqualified; in fact, I'm not entirely convinced that most MS Stat programs would even take someone who already has an MS in Quantitative Econ from ISI. You've taken the "core" math stat and probability courses already (at an institution that is known for its excellent statistical training), so all you'd have left to do are a couple of secondary required courses and a handful of electives. Is that really what you want?

Edited January 17, 2021 by cyberwulf

[movingtostats]

@cyberwulf My goal is to dive deeper into statistics, as mentioned by bestregards above I haven’t taken many stats courses. Also, I want to use the MS as a way to enter the data science/ml job market which is not possible for me right now. Finally, I might even consider a PhD and the MS will help me in that. With that said, can you please give me school suggestions?