Fall 2023 Statistics/Biostatistics Applicants Thread

[biostat_student4]

So, I am starting this thread maintaining each year's tradition. All the prospective applicants for Fall 2023 intake (master's + PhD) in Biostat/Stat are encouraged to take part and post updates about interviews and offers. Spread information about the thread as much as possible amongst your fellow applicants. 

By the way, some biostat interview invitations have started appearing in the results thread, mainly from UPenn, JHU and NYU. By this time, Boston also should have sent some interview invitations for Biostat PhD. Anybody heard from them? or, eagerly waiting like me? Also, I guess Minnesota should accept some doemstic applicants (possibly come out in this week) if we see last few years' trends. 

 

[biostat_student4]

Just found in the results thread that someone got interview invitation from Boston Biostatistics. Anyone else who have also heard from them? Do they send all the interview invites alltogether? 

[nmc22]

I heard back from two schools so far (I applied to PhD programs in Biostatistics/Mathematical Biology/Quant Bio/Statistics).

• UNC--CH (Biostats PhD) directly sent an offer of admission on 12/22--they are yet to give me an update on funding though. 
• Dartmouth (Quantitative Biomedical Sciences PhD) sent an interview invite on 12/16--the interviews are tentatively mid to late Jan. 

From looking at the results board, I think JHU has only sent out rejections so far, I don't see any interview invites? Their confirmation email said we should expect to hear back from them around mid-Jan. 

[biostat_student4]

Heartiest congratulations @nmc22 on your offer from UNC and interview invite from Dartmouth. I don't know anything about the latter, but UNC Biostats is undoubtedly one of the best offers I think you are going to have in your hand (provided it comes with a full funding, which I believe you'd get). I have heard it is a large department, but it is one of the Biostats depts (the other two being UWashington and JHU) which will provide you a good grounding for doing methodological work later on. So, I think you should highly consider it. 

Sorry for making the confusion regarding JHU. Yes, they normally give invites on January 2nd/3rd week. I actually wanted to mean people started getting some kind of news from these schools. 

[Max_ZN]

Just got an interview invite from Rice Stat PhD.

[JeroldJJ]

2 hours ago, Max_ZN said:

Just got an interview invite from Rice Stat PhD.

Got the Rice Stat interview invite too

[biostat_student4]

@JeroldJJand @Max_ZN, congratulations on your interview. May I know when did you all submit your applications? I also applied to Rice and submitted on Dec 1. Rice was one of my target schools I really wanted to attend, but it seems like they have sent interview invites to the top few candidates. Last two years, they normally sent interview around January last or February. If they send invites to all at a time, I don't think I should keep hope to get in ?

[Max_ZN]

9 minutes ago, biostat_student4 said:

@JeroldJJand @Max_ZN, congratulations on your interview. May I know when did you all submit your applications? I also applied to Rice and submitted on Dec 1. Rice was one of my target schools I really wanted to attend, but it seems like they have sent interview invites to the top few candidates. Last two years, they normally sent interview around January last or February. If they send invites to all at a time, I don't think I should keep hope to get in ?

I submitted it on Nov 30 I think. This early interview really surprised me as well. Definitely think this should not be the only batch of interviews! :) Btw, do you by chance know what they would ask during interview? 

[biostat_student4]

Okay. Thanks. I believe it should be mostly informal with trying to gauge why you want to join them, what has attaracted you most and so on. Someone told me that some Stat depts conduct interview to assess the English communication skills of international applicants. You should also have some legitimate questions to them (sometimes some depts just ask "do you have something to ask us?") like how is it to be a PhD student in your department, average completition time, quals procedure, etc. You should have definitely written names of some professor in your SoP; so their research interests should have definitely impressed you. So, I think it will be not be problem to answer the first few questions by telling that you like Prof X's research; he works on Y & Z and I also worked on this topic, etc. etc. Sometimes dept.s also try to determine your fit with them (it's more common in Biostat). 

So, I can't say exactly what's going to happen as I will be not in the interview committee ?, but some convex combination of the above possibilities might happen with a high probability (though may not be almost surely ). 

Give me some time to find out an old document about students' interview experience which might be helpful for you. 

[biostat_student4]

Here is the document for the interview experiences :- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1epem4r5loco8ZZwJNodjZun2JReXNXIm0RiTPBeiq6s/edit

[biostat_student4]

By the by, @Max_ZN, @JeroldJJ:- Were you contacted by the graduate admission committee or it's director for the interview? Or, some individual faculty member emailed you? If latter is the case, did you mention him in your SoP? Also, any of you indicated your interest in the Joint Biostatistics program with MD Anderson? I actually tailored my SoP for this only. 

[JeroldJJ]

29 minutes ago, biostat_student4 said:

By the by, @Max_ZN, @JeroldJJ:- Were you contacted by the graduate admission committee or it's director for the interview? Or, some individual faculty member emailed you? If latter is the case, did you mention him in your SoP? Also, any of you indicated your interest in the Joint Biostatistics program with MD Anderson? I actually tailored my SoP for this only. 

Hi @biostat_student4,I think it's the admission committee. However, the email was from someone in the CS department(maybe the coordinator?) asking to sign up a time for the interview with stat committee. I didn't mention any faculty members in my SoP or the interest in biostatistics.

[biostat_student4]

Thanks @JeroldJJ for the information. Best wishes to you two for your interview. 

[Max_ZN]

3 hours ago, biostat_student4 said:

By the by, @Max_ZN, @JeroldJJ:- Were you contacted by the graduate admission committee or it's director for the interview? Or, some individual faculty member emailed you? If latter is the case, did you mention him in your SoP? Also, any of you indicated your interest in the Joint Biostatistics program with MD Anderson? I actually tailored my SoP for this only. 

Thanks for sharing the interview experiences. I have the same situation with JeroldJJ but I mentioned a few professors in my SoP in case this is useful.

[biostat_student4]

On 12/29/2022 at 11:11 PM, Max_ZN said:

Thanks for sharing the interview experiences. I have the same situation with JeroldJJ but I mentioned a few professors in my SoP in case this is useful.

Thanks. When will be the interview by the way? It will be very much helpful if you share your interview experiences after the interview. ? 

 

[biostat_student4]

Some new updates are as follows:- UPenn Biostat has started giving rejections. Harvard Biostat has started giving interview, open day invites. I can see some domestic acceptances for Minnesota Biostat as expected. Some new Rice interviews are popping up. 

Edited January 6, 2023 by biostat_student4

[mtob]

I also received an interview from Rice, I have a feeling that one of the professors I will be speaking to is tailored to my research interests?  My interview is coming up... any tips? 

[JTAN]

Have anyone received an interview from Northwestern University IEMS?  It seems to be when the interviews are given according to previous years' cases.  Though IEMS is not a statistics program, I believe that a lot of people will apply for it.

[LWAN]

On 1/7/2023 at 2:26 PM, mtob said:

I also received an interview from Rice, I have a feeling that one of the professors I will be speaking to is tailored to my research interests?  My interview is coming up... any tips? 

Hi, I also received the interview from Rice. I agree with your feeling. I did neuroimaging in my previous research, and the two interviewers both do neuroimaging. One of them come from MD Anderson.

[mtob]

53 minutes ago, LWAN said:

Hi, I also received the interview from Rice. I agree with your feeling. I did neuroimaging in my previous research, and the two interviewers both do neuroimaging. One of them come from MD Anderson.

Same... I feel like this was definitely done with purpose!  Best of luck with your interview. 

[LWAN]

2 minutes ago, mtob said:

Same... I feel like this was definitely done with purpose!  Best of luck with your interview. 

How is your interview going? Do you know how many students got interview? I know the class size of last year is 10. I hope the interview is easy, not like Duke or Columbia, 25% passing prob.

[ysh0624]

On 1/8/2023 at 11:27 AM, JTANG said:

Have anyone received an interview from Northwestern University IEMS?  It seems to be when the interviews are given according to previous years' cases.  Though IEMS is not a statistics program, I believe that a lot of people will apply for it.

Haven't received it either.

[crunch_numbers]

Has anyone heard back (or know of anyone who has heard back) from U Michigan Biostats yet - PhD or Masters? It looks like this is the week acceptances first started going out the past few years, but I haven't seen anyone post any results from them yet. Hopefully today will be the day

[biostat_student4]

I don't think UMich Biostats has started giving offers. 

By the way, did anyone receive interview invite from UC Irvine? 

[biostat_student4]

Also, anyone heard from University of Minnesota Biostatistics (PhD) ?