Deciding between graduate programs

[Jdriii]

Hey all, I have applied to and been accepted to several Statistics PhD programs for the Fall and am unsure how to begin to narrow down which school I should consider.

The programs I've gotten admission into: Rutgers, Stony Brook, Florida, Boston, Virginia

Programs I haven't heard from yet but still might consider: Rice, Northwestern.

 

I have no idea where to begin in deciding which program to attend! Everywhere except for Stony Brook seems reasonably funded considering their respective locations. I am interested in pursuing an academic career (or at least would like to not rule it out), so I'm sure the rankings of the departments/fame of particular faculty members is important. 

As far as research interests are concerned, I am not particularly set in stone. I lean applied and am broadly altruistically motivated, though this could manifest in different ways (many areas in biostatistics, spatiotemporal modeling for climate, longitudinal analysis for track disease spread, etc).

I enjoy the weather of the Florida, but the intellectual and cultural community that you find in Boston is also appealing.

 

In summary, I'm convinced that graduate school doesn't have to be a miserable time. I want to have fun and do good for the world one day, and I hope to go to the place that helps me leverage my 20's in the best way to do that (if that means becoming an academic, then optimizing for academia. Same for working for Govt., etc.).

 

I know that this is a broad problem to ask strangers on the internet for help with, but I'm just looking for some guidance. I;m sure there are many unknown-unknowns and lapses in my reasoning that I'm unaware of. I'm happy to flesh out any questions you have as well. Thank you

[bayessays]

If you want to keep your options as open as possible, you'll be better off attending a higher-ranked program.  Florida and Rutgers are definitely the best programs you've gotten into.  I think Florida might be a better fit for you, as they definitely have a good amount of people doing more "applied"/methodological work.  Rutgers has a lot of very theoretical people, though they have a couple people doing somewhat more applied stuff.  I'd recommend reading through the websites of every professor at programs you're interested and counting how many people at each program look interesting.  Don't just take my word for it!

On the next level I would say is Boston, Virginia, and Rice.  These are solid programs with some good researchers, but they don't have superstar professors like Florida and Rutgers do.  Boston is associated with the math department, so they have a lot of probability researchers which won't be interesting to you.  They have Eric Kolacyzk who does exciting network stuff, but your options for advisors might be slim.  Virginia and Rice probably have research that would be more up your alley - it will be more difficult to land a very-high ranking academic job from these places compared to Florida/Rutgers.

I would put Northwestern somewhere between Stony Brook and BU/UVA/Rice -- they do have some very applied people like Hedges (whose students get good academic jobs in education departments) and Tipton though, if you want to do that type of work, that might be something to consider but it's not an elite stats program.

I don't think Stony Brook is a really serious option unless you have personal reasons to attend there or there is a special researcher you really need to work with.  

[Jdriii]

@bayessays Who would you say are the supserstars at RU / UF? I know Rutgers has Cun-Hui Zhang and Florida has Doss and Hobert. Dunno if I'm missing anything.

 

Thank you for the thoughtful reply

 

 

[bayessays]

Daniels and Michailidis at UF, not sure about Rutgers specific names but I'm looking at their new professors and seeing lots of publications in places like Annals of Statistics.

[Stat Assistant Professor]

It seems like the vast majority of Rutgers PhD graduates go into industry. This could be self-selection though, where most of them have a preference towards industry to begin with (maybe because of the proximity to NYC? Not really sure.) However, Rutgers does have some very famous faculty like Cun-Hui Zhang who has done a lot of *excellent* work on high-dimensional nonconvex problems and nonparametric/semiparametric statistics. And their recently hired Assistant Professors are all very impressive (publishing a lot in Annals, JRSS-B, JASA, NeurIPS, ICML, etc.). 

University of Florida does decently well for academic placements. There are a few PhD grads from this program who have become TT faculty at statistics/math departments (Duke, University of Minnesota, UT Austin, University of Cincinnati, etc.) as well as Biostatistics departments (University of Wisconsin, University of Buffalo, University of Louisville).  Back when there were really big hotshots in the department (Agresti, George Casella), UFL was able to place some of its graduates at places like Harvard Biostatistics and Johns Hopkins Biostatistics. That doesn't seem to be much the case anymore, but the placements are still good. Coursework at UFL can be a bit on the theoretical side, but there are a decent number of applied statistics faculty there now, so you don't have to do theoretical statistics for your dissertation research if you don't want to.

Edited February 28, 2021 by Stat Assistant Professor

[bayessays]

To add a data point on Rutgers, one of their PhD grads this year, a student of Cun-Hui Zhang, already has 3  first-author Annals of Statistics papers before graduating, which is probably the most impressive resume I've ever seen for a new grad.

[Jdriii]

Thanks guys. I'm feeling more split than ever now ?. I guess I'll need to spend some time reflecting on my priorities / interests.

[Nothalfgood]

Just now, Jdriii said:

Thanks guys. I'm feeling more split than ever now ?. I guess I'll need to spend some time reflecting on my priorities / interests.

As someone who is also stuck between closely matched choices, my two cents are that you should go with your gut at this point. Everyone is telling you that you can't make a wrong pick. If you really can't peg one or the other as the best for your career, then let location and environment be the deciding factor.

If that's the deciding criteria after all, it sounds to me like UFlorida is the place to go. You say you think you'd like the weather more than the others, not to mention that others cited research interests of faculty as probably a better match for you at Florida than elsewhere. I'm sure you have plenty of time to think on it, but if I were you I think it'd be as simple as that.

As for my situation, I've run the same simplifying calculation as I did for yours. It's still not easy to dismiss the other acceptances I've received. I'm excited about everything, everyone, and everywhere! Why must I only choose one? I ask myself. But in the end I rationally know which program I have to go to.

I'm not sure if my attitude helps with the decision, but there it is.

[Jdriii]

@NothalfgoodYou're right that when I project myself 3 years in the future I smile just a bit more in the sunny weather of Florida, and the placement of many Rutgers students into finance is unappealing. Maybe that's what really matters.

 

Thanks for the feedback

Edited February 28, 2021 by Jdriii

[bayessays]

I hesitate to ever suggest programs for people but it really does sound like Florida would be a great choice for you in almost every way. Good luck!