2023fall stats/biostats PhD profile evaluation

[JeroldJJ]

Hi all!

I want to apply for PhD in statistics/biostatistics in 2023fall and would like to have some advice about school list. Thanks a lot in advance!

Undergrad: Top 30 undergrad (US News) 

Major(s): Statistics & Mathematics
GPA: 3.899 (for now)

Background: International Male Asian

 

Courses taken (A unless stated otherwise): 

Undergrad class: Calculus III(A), Linear Algebra(A), ODE(A), Advanced Calculus I(A), Function of a Complex Variable(A), Abstract Algebra(A), Stochastic Process(A), Probability(A)(not measure based), Regression Analysis(A), Machine Learning(A-), Math Stats(A), Time Series Analysis(A), Advanced Data Analysis Methods(A)(covered GLM, Bayes, etc), Linear Programming(A), Dynamic Decision Making(A), Simulation(A), Special Topics: Optimization for ML and NN(B+), 

 

 

Courses planned:

Undergrad class: topology, numerical analysis, Deep Learning

Grad class: real analysis(covers Measure theory)

GRE: V157+Q169+W3.5

 

Programs Applying: Statistics and biostat

Research Experience: 

One year of experience doing Markov Decision Process on disease detection with a professor in stats department. Not sure about the result because the direction we choose seems to be very hard to deal with given limited data/information. I've been working hard on this project. Hopefully my supervisor would like to write me a good letter.

One stochastic optimization project I took over from other students. My part is basically writing MCMC algorithm to optimize the configuration of the electronic scatterers on a solar panel. 

(Probably another time series project with a professor in stats department next semester)

 

Other Experience:

Working as a student assistant for a professor from business school. Doing supply chain simulation using Arena and Python.
 

Letters of Recommendation:  Probably 2 or 3 from research mentors( haven't talked to professors about this), and some instructors from classes I did well.

 

Intended Schools(just some I'm thinking about right now):

Not sure about the school list so far. My priority is PhD in stats/biostats. One of my mentors said he knows colleagues in ORIE Cornell and IEOR Columbia. So probably gonna keep these two on my list.

 

high reaches: stats@UNC, biostats@UNC, biostats@Umich, stats@UW, stats@NCSU, stats@cornell,

biostats@vandy, stats@penn state, stats@ohio state, Biostats@Rochester. 

 

These are programs in my mind so far( my friends got into some of them). I don't mind adding more programs to my list to make me safe.

 

 

Thanks a lot again!