Reapply or acccept masters?

[FruityPebbles]

Hi, my friend applied to several stats/biostats phd programs. So far she was only offered an acceptance to Duke university biostat masters program. She still has yet to hear from a couple more programs but was wondering if she should just accept the masters program from duke or reapply next year? I am a med school applicant so for me reapplying is very common, but not sure about masters and phd programs. Thank you

Edited March 13, 2021 by FruityPebbles

[bayessays]

Has your friend been waitlisted at any schools?  The only issue with re-applying is that your results will not improve much if you aren't doing something to improve your profile.  If your friend was *close* to being admitted to schools, it may make sense to re-apply next year to lower-ranked programs.  Especially if they want to go into industry (or do anything except become a tenure-track professor at a top statistics/biostatistics program), I would definitely consider this to be a good option for many people.  I think many international students choose to attend MS programs because international competition is higher and also possibly because of visa issues where they want to stay in the US.  Many students have dreams of attending a top PhD program because they want to be academics though and will do anything to maximize their chances of getting there.  I personally don't think this is usually worth it, but I am very frugal.

[FruityPebbles]

I will ask about the waitlist, he did not mention anything about them. I do know that he applied to mostly schools that does not require the GRE this cycle and worry that reapplying would mean sending them (which weren't the best scores)