Deciding on a Master's Statistics Program

[mrstat]

Hello all, April 15 is the deadline to decide where I'll be going for my Master's in Stats! I'm posting here to get a better idea of where I should go. Here are my options:

UChicago, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, UW-Madison, and ETH Zurich. Worth noting is that UW-Madison is free, although money isn't really a concern for me. As of now, I'd say I'm definitely leaning UChicago based on its prestige and the strength of its master's program. While I'm not that interested at the moment in pursuing a PhD following my Master's, I suppose leaving that door open can't hurt and that there's a lot of good in learning more theory at a place like Chicago. It also seems that there are plenty of opportunities for application-based work in their consulting experience, thesis, and electives at the TTIC. 

Is there any reason to consider the others over Chicago? In addition, I am still waiting to hear from U of Washington, which would be attractive to me if I do get in. So if you have any thoughts on them, please leave them here as well. 

Again, money isn't too big of a factor, but just so you know... UChicago and Duke are around the same price (47k/year) with scholarships I've been offered, UNC is about 30k, UW-Madison is free like I said, ETH Zurich is free (aside from the astronomical cost of living in Zurich), and no idea about UW yet. 

Thanks for any feedback!

[DanielWarlock]

I personally would definitely go to UChicago. It is the most reputable and give you a leg up finding jobs in not only data analysts/statistician roles but also in finance, consulting, SDE etc whereas Duke, UNC, UW Maddison are strong in statistics but not as strong in other things (like finance). 

That said, if you would like to do a PhD, ETH Zurich may also be a good option because European masters, as far as I know, is research-based and you could very likely transfer into their very excellent PhD program and finish much faster.

[mrstat]

On 3/24/2021 at 5:48 PM, DanielWarlock said:

I personally would definitely go to UChicago. It is the most reputable and give you a leg up finding jobs in not only data analysts/statistician roles but also in finance, consulting, SDE etc whereas Duke, UNC, UW Maddison are strong in statistics but not as strong in other things (like finance). 

That said, if you would like to do a PhD, ETH Zurich may also be a good option because European masters, as far as I know, is research-based and you could very likely transfer into their very excellent PhD program and finish much faster.

Thanks for the feedback. Do you feel like Chicago's program is really that much better than the others? How does it stack up to Univ. of Washington? 

[DanielWarlock]

7 hours ago, mrstat said:

Thanks for the feedback. Do you feel like Chicago's program is really that much better than the others? How does it stack up to Univ. of Washington? 

Again, if you are talking about statistics, then I would say they are both on the same level. But the reputation of UChicago is better if you talk to someone who is not a statistician