Stats PhD programs that send a lot of alumni to work in government?

[trwhite2000]

Hello, I was just wondering if anyone knows of any statistics PhD programs where a lot of alumni go on to work in government, specifically at federal statistical agencies like the census bureau, BLS, NCES, etc. I'll be applying this fall and I have some experience in statistical demography stuff(e.g. census and survey data harmonization, small area estimation), so I think I'd be interested in working at a place like the census bureau. As I've been researching programs, though, I've noticed that these kinds of outcomes seem rare and that a lot of PhD grads who don't stay in academia end up working in tech, pharma, or finance.

[Stat Assistant Professor]

I'm not sure if any Statistics program will specifically be a pipeline for federal jobs. I do know a few PhD alumni from different programs who have ended up at places like national labs (e.g. Los Alamos National Laboratory), as well as federal agencies and government-sponsored enterprise like the FDA, the NASS branch of the USDA, Department of Defense, and Freddie Mac. If you go to any Stat PhD program and you are an American citizen, then I don't think it matters a whole lot where you got your PhD. It is possible that your research area matters though. Some of the federal jobs require a "technical talk" as part of your interview, and if you have particular expertise in an area of interest to them, you could get hired just on that basis. For example, there used to be a professor at the department where I got my PhD who left academia to work as a Director of R&D at the NASS. I'm pretty sure this was largely because this professor's research focused a lot on spatial statistics and ecological/environmental applications.

I think maybe Biostatistics sends more alumni to certain types of federal jobs, e.g. at the FDA.

[trwhite2000]

@Stat Assistant Professor Good to know, thanks for your response!

[bayessays]

The federal hiring process is so different than academia/industry (and also location-limited) that I'm not sure any department has a huge number of people go into government positions, but programs in the DC area are probably good to find those connections.  University of Michigan has the survey research center, so there are opportunities there for biostat/stat PhD students to do related research.  CMU has the stats+public policy concentration.  But agreed with above, that your research area will matter somewhat.  For instance, I know some people who do statistics+privacy research, and that is an in-demand skill for the Census Bureau now.

[trwhite2000]

@bayessays That makes sense, thank you! CMU and Michigan are definitely on my list. I had the same thought about proximity to DC and have looked in that area a little bit too, though it seems to me like there aren't many big/well-known programs that are super close (at least not until you get out to NC or PA).

[bayessays]

13 hours ago, trwhite2000 said:

@bayessays That makes sense, thank you! CMU and Michigan are definitely on my list. I had the same thought about proximity to DC and have looked in that area a little bit too, though it seems to me like there aren't many big/well-known programs that are super close (at least not until you get out to NC or PA).

The DC area does have some respectable programs like George Mason and GWU, but yeah, with your profile I think the smarter move would be to just go to a program that has research that interests you and is solidly ranked.

[trwhite2000]

4 hours ago, bayessays said:

The DC area does have some respectable programs like George Mason and GWU, but yeah, with your profile I think the smarter move would be to just go to a program that has research that interests you and is solidly ranked.

Thanks for the advice!