Advice for upcoming MS Stat student interested in Stat PhD program

[interlockjohn]

Hello everyone,

I am upcoming MS Stat student at UC Davis, and I'm interested in continuing on into a PhD program after I finish my MS. I'm not sure if I would be competitive for those schools I mentioned below. I'd appreciate it if I could get an approximate range of schools I should be looking at. 

An additional note, the program at Davis does not offer a thesis, but I think I should be able to do some research with professors and possibly get a paper out. The question is, what can I do at my MS program to best improve my chances for a PhD admissions (2023 entrance)? I'm assuming I should try to take some more proof based math courses as well as ace my MS degree. Would this put me in a decent spot for admissions, or are there additional things I need to be looking at?

 

My profile is as follows:

Undergrad Institution: CSULB
Major(s): Math, Emphasis on Statistics 
GPA: 3.6 cum laude

Grad Institution: UC Davis

Major: Statistics 

GPA: Tentative

Type of Student: Asian/Domestic

GRE General Test: 168Q, 165V
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: Not taken, not sure if I should
 

Programs Applying: Statistics PhD

Research Experience: None
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List for a majority of semesters
Pertinent Activities or Jobs:  Stats and Math Tutor for 2 years 

Undergrad Math/Statistics Grades:  Calc I (A) , Calc II (A), Calc III (B),  Intro to Probability (B), Mathematical Statistics (A), Applied Regression (B), Linear Algebra (non proof based) (A), Abstract Algebra (B), Graduate Statistical Inference (B), Multivariate Statistical Analysis (A), Numerical Analysis (B), Machine Learning (A), Real Analysis I (B), Discrete Math (CR, COVID grading policy)

Courses I plan to take: I'm hoping to take a full sequence of real analysis during my MS, a mathematical stat sequence, and mainly graduate level stat electives (would love pointers on which one would be most beneficial)

Research/Career Interests: Machine Learning, Statistical Learning, Graph/Network Theory, Inference

Schools Currently Interested In: UCDavis, UCIrvine, UCLA, UCBerkley, Columbia, Yale, UTAustin

 

Thank you in advance!

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Even if you were to do well in your Masters program, I would consider UC Berkeley, Columbia, and Yale to be completely unrealistic. You have too many B's, and the competition for these schools is very stiff. Some of these schools only accept very few domestic applicants to begin with, and I'm afraid you won't be able to compete against applicants from Ivy schools, Stanford, UChicago, MIT, etc. with higher GPAs and possibly some solid research experience. 

 UC-Davis, UCLA, UC Irvine, and UT-Austin are reaches as well, IMO. It seems as though the UC schools are all very competitive, regardless of their rank (except for maybe UC-Riverside), because of their desirable locations. But I'm not sure how open UC-Davis would be to accepting their own Masters students as long as you perform well in their program, though -- that might be something to look into.

I would say that in order to be competitive for PhD programs, you have to get all A's in your Masters program, especially since you got a B in a graduate Statistics course. Definitely also take a full year of analysis and get A's to make up for your B in undergrad and possibly one or two other advanced math class (e.g. proof-based linear algebra) to show that you can succeed in math-heavy courses. The second year of a Statistics PhD program is pretty theoretical for the most part. If you do well in your Masters, you might be able to get into a program like TAMU or Iowa State. However, the most realistic schools would probably be those in the range of 37-80 of the USNWR rankings (i.e. those ranked below Yale). For your profile, I would consider TAMU and ISU to be the upper end of the schools you should be applying to for Statistics PhDs. 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Stat Assistant Professor

[interlockjohn]

10 hours ago, Stat Assistant Professor said:

Even if you were to do well in your Masters program, I would consider UC Berkeley, Columbia, and Yale to be completely unrealistic. You have too many B's, and the competition for these schools is very stiff. Some of these schools only accept very few domestic applicants to begin with, and I'm afraid you won't be able to compete against applicants from Ivy schools, Stanford, UChicago, MIT, etc. with higher GPAs and possibly some solid research experience. 

 UC-Davis, UCLA, UC Irvine, and UT-Austin are reaches as well, IMO. It seems as though the UC schools are all very competitive, regardless of their rank (except for maybe UC-Riverside), because of their desirable locations. But I'm not sure how open UC-Davis would be to accepting their own Masters students as long as you perform well in their program, though -- that might be something to look into.

I would say that in order to be competitive for PhD programs, you have to get all A's in your Masters program, especially since you got a B in a graduate Statistics course. Definitely also take a full year of analysis and get A's to make up for your B in undergrad and possibly one or two other advanced math class (e.g. proof-based linear algebra) to show that you can succeed in math-heavy courses. The second year of a Statistics PhD program is pretty theoretical for the most part. If you do well in your Masters, you might be able to get into a program like TAMU or Iowa State. However, the most realistic schools would probably be those in the range of 37-80 of the USNWR rankings (i.e. those ranked below Yale). For your profile, I would consider TAMU and ISU to be the upper end of the schools you should be applying to for Statistics PhDs. 

Thanks for your reply SAP. Davis does have an internal transfer I could look into, but it wasn't high on my list due to Davis being in a college town. It seems like I can't be too picky, even if I do well in the master's program, which is slightly disheartening. I think I'll apply to a majority of the UC's as reaches, and consider a few of the 37-80 schools you mentioned for targets. My goal is industry afterwards so the ranking may not matter as much, but I'd still like to go somewhere my research interests are prevalent.