Master or PhD?

[ZNtheory]

Hi everyone!

I am posting this to ask for some suggestions on the school choice.

I just got UPenn AMCS master and JHU AM&S PhD offers. Out of USA, I have got the pure math master offer from Warwick and am still waiting for news from Oxford, EPFL, which are both pure math master programs. My ultimate goal is go into academia and my own research interest is in theory of ML and statistics. Could any of you give me some suggestions on how to choose these programs?

For more information: my undergrad is not math but economics and statistics, so I don't think I have that solid background compared with math major student. However, apart from usual statistics courses (mathematical statistics/Probability), I have taken most of the analysis courses including Mathematical analysis, Real/Complex Analysis, Functional Analysis besides usual Calculus. For algebra, I have taken linear algebra for two terms. Also I have taken many computational courses like Numerical analysis and Optimization. I really want to do theoretical work in future so I know I need to do more...

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Johns Hopkins AM&S is a pretty good choice, I think. The school is certainly prestigious, and the department doesn't have bad academic placements. I saw that they recently placed PhD graduates in TT positions at University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University Statistics Departments.

UPenn is obviously very prestigious too, but is the AMCS Masters funded? And is there a clear "Masters-to-PhD" route? i.e. do (m)any of the Masters students get to continue on to the PhD program at Penn as well? I would inquire about this possibility (but phrase it like, "If I perform well in the program and if I were to do research with a professor during my Masters, would it be possible to transfer to the PhD program? How many AMCS MS students can continue on to the PhD program at UPenn?") UPenn has some great people for ML/Statistics, including those working in current "hot" fields like differential privacy and deep learning.

[ZNtheory]

10 hours ago, Stat Assistant Professor said:

Johns Hopkins AM&S is a pretty good choice, I think. The school is certainly prestigious, and the department doesn't have bad academic placements. I saw that they recently placed PhD graduates in TT positions at University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University Statistics Departments.

UPenn is obviously very prestigious too, but is the AMCS Masters funded? And is there a clear "Masters-to-PhD" route? i.e. do (m)any of the Masters students get to continue on to the PhD program at Penn as well? I would inquire about this possibility (but phrase it like, "If I perform well in the program and if I were to do research with a professor during my Masters, would it be possible to transfer to the PhD program? How many AMCS MS students can continue on to the PhD program at UPenn?") UPenn has some great people for ML/Statistics, including those working in current "hot" fields like differential privacy and deep learning.

Thanks for your reply. As for AMCS program, it is said that they accepted around 10 students for this master program. This program is designed for future PhD study. One can choose any PhD level course including Wharton Stat courses. As for research, I heard from previous students that they could usually find someone to work with and around half of the graduate stayed at UPenn. For those who applied other PhD programs, it is said that people went to place like Columbia EE or UPenn EE. 

[DanielWarlock]

1 hour ago, ZNtheory said:

Thanks for your reply. As for AMCS program, it is said that they accepted around 10 students for this master program. This program is designed for future PhD study. One can choose any PhD level course including Wharton Stat courses. As for research, I heard from previous students that they could usually find someone to work with and around half of the graduate stayed at UPenn. For those who applied other PhD programs, it is said that people went to place like Columbia EE or UPenn EE. 

Upenn takes half of their own master students? This is definitely news to me. Given Upenn doesn't admit many phd students, this probably leaves no more than 3 slots for external applicants each year.

[ZNtheory]

10 minutes ago, DanielWarlock said:

Upenn takes half of their own master students? This is definitely news to me. Given Upenn doesn't admit many phd students, this probably leaves no more than 3 slots for external applicants each year.

Hi Daniel, I think these students might stay at other departments apart from math but some very "close" departments. At least the program website told me this way. Or maybe this is just data for one year.

Edited March 9, 2021 by ZNtheory

[Stat Assistant Professor]

12 hours ago, ZNtheory said:

Thanks for your reply. As for AMCS program, it is said that they accepted around 10 students for this master program. This program is designed for future PhD study. One can choose any PhD level course including Wharton Stat courses. As for research, I heard from previous students that they could usually find someone to work with and around half of the graduate stayed at UPenn. For those who applied other PhD programs, it is said that people went to place like Columbia EE or UPenn EE. 

Well, if your chances of continuing on in a PhD program at UPenn are well above average, then I would strongly consider UPenn AMCS. I know that several of the professors in the Wharton Statistics Department supervise PhD students in AMCS. I also know that some folks in the DBEI Department supervise students in other departments as well (e.g. some CS students who work on NLP are co-advised by faculty in DBEI). Some DBEI PhD students have also been advised by Wharton Statistics faculty (e.g. Edward Kennedy who is now a rising star professor at CMU), so it seems like they're pretty flexible about whom you can work with.  

Is the UPenn Masters funded (either fully or partially through TA or RA)?? That's also something to consider. 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Stat Assistant Professor

[ZNtheory]

12 hours ago, Stat Assistant Professor said:

Well, if your chances of continuing on in a PhD program at UPenn are well above average, then I would strongly consider UPenn AMCS. I know that several of the professors in the Wharton Statistics Department supervise PhD students in AMCS. I also know that some folks in the DBEI Department supervise students in other departments as well (e.g. some CS students who work on NLP are co-advised by faculty in DBEI). Some DBEI PhD students have also been advised by Wharton Statistics faculty (e.g. Edward Kennedy who is now a rising star professor at CMU), so it seems like they're pretty flexible about whom you can work with.  

Is the UPenn Masters funded (either fully or partially through TA or RA)?? That's also something to consider. 

Thanks for this! I think they do offer TA to give financial aid. I also contacted the chair of the program and they said they accepted several students from the master program into their own PhD this year as well as last year. I think this is a very good result since only half of students (5-6) will go for a PhD after finishing the degree.

Edited March 10, 2021 by ZNtheory

[ZNtheory]

Hi guys,

I am trying to update this thread and having some more questions. I have accepted the choice to UPenn. Moreover, my project during the undergrad is on arXiv and submitted to EJOS (theory & methodology paper). I am a bit curious about the reputation of this new journal among the statistician? Will this be a good choice for a ML theory paper?

[ZNtheory]

Another question is that what is the best thing that can boost my application for PhD in 2023 fall. I am now thinking taking some advanced math course such as functional analysis ( though I have done this during my undergrad), probability theory etc which are courses for math PhD. But another way might be doing a theory based project and result in a nice research paper. I wonder how to balance these in a not very long master program...