What should I set my sights on at this point?

[dmacfour]

I'm look at applying to PhD programs (pretty early in the process), and am wondering how high I should aim, realistically.

Just a little bit of background: I have a B.S. in Psychology, M.S. in Psychology, and an M.S. in Applied Statistics. GPAs were 3.01, 3.4, and 3.7, respectively. In between the masters programs, I took calc I-III and Linear Algebra and had A's in all of them except calc II, in which I got a B+. After the stats program, I took Abstract Algebra and Intro to Real Analysis and got an A in both. I last took the GRE in 2017 and ended up with ~80th percentile on the quant section (if I remember correctly). 

I feel pretty good about my transcript and can probably get the GRE quant score up, but I am concerned about the LOR portion of the applications. I've been working in a professional setting for the better part of the last decade. I've worked as a data scientist (my current role), a researcher in multiple labs, and as a product manager, and could get professional recommendations from a number of colleagues/managers. As for relevant academic references, I have no idea what to do. The stats program was accelerated, so I grinded through classes for 2 semesters and completed a capstone project. I had very little interaction with the faculty. 

Any thoughts where to go from here? 

Edited January 3, 2022 by dmacfour

[bayessays]

What type of program are you looking at? Biostatistics?  I think you're looking at programs outside the top 50 on USNews.  You could also do something like quantitative psychology or some type of interdisciplinary applied stats PhD.

[dmacfour]

On 1/5/2022 at 1:30 PM, bayessays said:

What type of program are you looking at? Biostatistics?  I think you're looking at programs outside the top 50 on USNews.  You could also do something like quantitative psychology or some type of interdisciplinary applied stats PhD.

The applied stats program I did was a great start, but I'd like to do something a little heavier on theory if I do a PhD. The probability theory/math stats sequence was easily the most interesting part of the program for me, and I wasn't satisfied with how in depth it was. I've mostly been looking at traditional stats and biostats programs.

I guess I'm curious if my profile would be competitive for any traditional stats program, even if it's outside of the top 50.

Edited January 12, 2022 by dmacfour