2023 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results for Statistics/Biostatistics

[abm495]

I found the applicant profiles and admission results over previous years to be helpful while selecting the schools I chose to apply to, and now seems like a good time to start the thread for this year. Copy the template below and fill in as much info as you would like. Keep in mind that you can't edit your post for very long after posting, so it may be good to wait until you have most of your results before posting.

 

Here are some links to threads from previous years: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

 

Below is the template:

Undergrad Institution: (School or type of school (such as Big state/Lib Arts/Ivy/Technical/Foreign (Country?))
Major(s):
Minor(s):
GPA:

Type of Student: (Domestic/International (Country?), Male/Female?, Minority?)

GRE General Test:
Q: xxx (xx%)
V: xxx (xx%)
W: x.x (xx%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: xxx (xx%)

TOEFL Score: (xx = Rxx/Lxx/Sxx/Wxx) (if applicable)

Grad Institution: (school or type of school?) (if applicable)

Concentration: 
GPA:
 

Programs Applying: (Statistics/Operation Research/Biostatistics/Financial Math/etc.)

 

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications or conference talks etc...)
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...)

Letters of Recommendation: (what kinds of professors? "well-known" in field? etc.)

Math/Statistics Grades:  (calculus sequence,  mathematical statistics, probability,  real analysis etc.) 
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: (Such as connections, grad classes, etc...)

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined
School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined
School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined

[rubotomy]

Undergrad Institution: Top 150 US News, R1 Research Public University (Unranked Stats Program)
Major(s): Statistics
Minor(s): 
GPA: 4.00

Type of Student: Domestic White Male

GRE General Test:
Q: 166 (84%)
V: 152 (52%) (lol...)
W: 4.5 (79%)
 

Programs Applying: 

Statistics MS + Statistics PhD

 

Research Experience: 

• 2 years of University Sponsored REU in Bayesian Statistics.
• 1 year of research during gap year with well known organization in Spatial Statistics.
• Two University Sponsored projects involving regression analysis
• Published one first-author paper at a relatively unknown conference. Second paper in writing.
• Did a poster presentation at local conference.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

• Valedictorian + Summa Cum Laude
• Outstanding Research Award + Extra Funding
• Math Honor Society

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

Tutored + Organized various study groups for one of my LOR writers

 

Letters of Recommendation: 

• 1 Very Strong - From my research advisor. Known very well in the engineering field. 3+ years
• 1 Good - Professor I took two classes with and organized study groups for. 
• 1 Decent - Professor I took Mathematical Statistics II with and received a 100% in the course. Also was aware of my extenuating circumstances.

 

Math/Statistics Courses (All A's):  

Calculus Sequence, Diff EQ, Linear Algebra, Statistical Theory I and II, Bayesian Statistics, Nonparametric Statistics, Categorical Data Analysis, Biostatistical Analysis, Statistical Machine Learning.

Did not take real analysis. 

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: 

Had extenuating circumstances during my Junior/Senior year that helped me write my SOP. I worked very hard on it, and the professors I showed both told me it was one of the best they'd ever read. I tweaked my SOP for every university I applied to. 

Applying to Where: 
NC State PhD - Admitted + Fellowship - Matriculated!

Texas A&M PhD - Admitted 

UMich PhD - Rejected

Wisconsin PhD - Rejected

 

University of Chicago MS - Admitted + 25% Scholarship

Duke University MS - Admitted 

Yale University MS - Admitted 

University of Washington MS - Admitted 

Wake Forest University MS - Admitted 

Stanford University MS - Rejected

UNC Chapel Hill MS - Ghosted? As of 4/4

 

Reflection:

My cycle went very well, to my shock. I don't know if I underestimated my application, or if I was very lucky, but I can safely say I'm very satisfied with the results.

 

In hindsight, it's hard to justify applying to more (high-ranked) PhD programs, since I didn't think I would get into any at all. I manically checked this site and reddit to get a good idea of where to apply. I thought I was doomed for a shot at any of the T10 and even T20 PhD programs without real analysis or a stronger mathematics background. The plan for me was to apply to mostly top Master's programs, get rigorous training in mathematics, then later apply to Top 10 PhD programs.

 

Not too sure if people still consider NCSU a top 10 program (ranked 11th on USNews and tied for 3rd on the NRC rankings) but I am beyond excited to be attending! North Carolina was where I wanted to end up(climate wise and opportunity wise) so it was perfect for me. I am so grateful for all the guiding posts on this sub and all the information available online which helped me through the process. Best of luck to everyone else.

[prgp]

Undergrad Institution: Unknown State School (100% admittance rate)
Major(s): Applied Mathematics (Essentially Applied Statistics)
Minor(s):
GPA: 3.25/4 😰

Type of Student: Domestic Hispanic Male

GRE General Test: Taken: 08/2019 (Refused to retake for Ph.D. applications)
Q: 149 (38%)
V: 158 (61%)
W: 3.0 (13%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: NA

Grad Institution: Large State School USWN (50-100)

Concentration: Statistics
GPA: 3.95/4 😏

 

Programs Applying: Statistics Ph.D. (Wide variety of interests)

 

Research Experience: Undergraduate Research and presented at 3 conferences/symposiums. Graduate thesis research in soft statistics for machine learning(publishable) and will develop an R package for it (Summer), presented at 2 conferences. Graduate research in biology mathematics for stochastic simulation presented at local conference. (Technically forgot to add this to resume, but in my math stat 1 course, we developed a workflow for the 4-parameter uniform (location-scale family) that should be getting published eventually)
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Fully funded MS student.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: x2 TA for high level undergraduate probability course (rice textbook), Recitation leader for Intro to Stats with R course. Graduate Instructor for College Prep, Trigonometry, and Intro to Stats.

Letters of Recommendation: Recommendations should be good, they are from Advisor (Assistant Department Head), Faculty who I did the bioMath research with (Associate Department Head), Math Stat I Instructor (A in class).  
Math/Statistics Grades: Undergraduate: Typical core 5 for undergraduate (C's and B's), Stats and Probability courses (B's and A's). Graduate: Applied Spatial, Data Vis, Intro to Mathematical Statistics, R Computation, Bioinformatics, Mathematical Statistics I (Casella and Berger)  (A), Geostatistics (A-)
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I did everything that I could to rectify my poor undergraduate gpa, and GRE scores. I believe I accomplished that.

UC Berkeley - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected
Washington - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected
Duke - Statistical Science Ph.D. Rejected
North Carolina CH - Statistics and OR Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
NCSU - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected Rejected
UC Davis - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
Texas A&M - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
UCLA - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
Iowa State - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
UC Irvine - Statistics Ph.D. Interview 1/20 - unofficial admittance 1/26 - Official Admittance + UC Funding 2/1 - Matriculated 3/31
UT Austin - Statistics and DS Ph.D. Rejected
Colorado State - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
Virginia Tech - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected
Oregon State - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
Home University - Statistics Ph.D. Withdrawn

Reflection:

 

I knew going into this that my low undergrad GPA and bad GRE, will potentially overshadow all of the great diverse research that I have done. It was clear on my rejection from Virginia Tech, since my reason for rejection was "non-competitive". Other programs have me waitlisted, officially and unofficially, personally those programs took too long in making a decision. Regardless of the outcomes from the remaining programs, I plan on attending UCI. They have something really special cooking out there, and I am excited to be apart of that.

[aspiringsadistician]

Undergrad Institution: Medium State School, Top 200 US News
Major(s): Math
Minor(s):
GPA: ~3.87

Type of Student: Domestic White Male

GRE General Test:
Q: 166 (84%)
V: 158 (78%)
W: 4.0 (54%)

Programs Applying: Stats PhD Programs

Research Experience: Undergrad thesis in Pure Math, along with a research experience in algebra with a professor at my school. No published papers

Letters of Recommendation:

LOR 1: Thesis Advisor, took some grad courses with them as well.

LOR 2: Did well in a graduate course with them.

LOR 3: I took the algebra research experience with them.

Overall these Professors could speak strongly about my mathematical abilities.

                                    

Math/Statistics Grades: Mostly A’s with some A-‘s and a single B. The most relevant are:

7 Grad courses including Analysis I/II and Functional Analysis.

8 independent study courses in pure math.

Probability Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Calc I – III, Linear Optimization, Adv calc I/II.

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: My school’s Honors program allowed me to take basically only math courses. So that's what I did.
Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Iowa State - Admitted + Fellowship - Accepted!

University of Florida - Admitted

Florida State University – Admitted

University of Connecticut - Admitted

University of Pittsburgh - Admitted

University of South Carolina - Admitted + Fellowship

Virginia Tech – Admitted

North Carolina State – Waitlist

University of Virginia - Waitlist

Texas A&M – No response

Ohio State – No response

Rutgers – No response

George Washington University – No response

University of Iowa – No response

Colorado State University – No response

Reflection:

I applied late in the cycle (~Jan 10) and missed the deadline for most top 20 programs. I suspect I would have had good results if I had applied to these programs. That said, I’m very happy with Iowa State.

[prgp]

On 4/4/2023 at 1:31 PM, prgp said:

 

Undergrad Institution: Unknown State School (100% admittance rate)
Major(s): Applied Mathematics (Essentially Applied Statistics)
Minor(s):
GPA: 3.25/4 😰

Type of Student: Domestic Hispanic Male

GRE General Test: Taken: 08/2019 (Refused to retake for Ph.D. applications)
Q: 149 (38%)
V: 158 (61%)
W: 3.0 (13%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: NA

Grad Institution: Large State School USWN (50-100)

Concentration: Statistics
GPA: 3.95/4 😏

 

Programs Applying: Statistics Ph.D. (Wide variety of interests)

 

Research Experience: Undergraduate Research and presented at 3 conferences/symposiums. Graduate thesis research in soft statistics for machine learning(publishable) and will develop an R package for it (Summer), presented at 2 conferences. Graduate research in biology mathematics for stochastic simulation presented at local conference. (Technically forgot to add this to resume, but in my math stat 1 course, we developed a workflow for the 4-parameter uniform (location-scale family) that should be getting published eventually)
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Fully funded MS student.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: x2 TA for high level undergraduate probability course (rice textbook), Recitation leader for Intro to Stats with R course. Graduate Instructor for College Prep, Trigonometry, and Intro to Stats.

Letters of Recommendation: Recommendations should be good, they are from Advisor (Assistant Department Head), Faculty who I did the bioMath research with (Associate Department Head), Math Stat I Instructor (A in class).  
Math/Statistics Grades: Undergraduate: Typical core 5 for undergraduate (C's and B's), Stats and Probability courses (B's and A's). Graduate: Applied Spatial, Data Vis, Intro to Mathematical Statistics, R Computation, Bioinformatics, Mathematical Statistics I (Casella and Berger)  (A), Geostatistics (A-)
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I did everything that I could to rectify my poor undergraduate gpa, and GRE scores. I believe I accomplished that.

UC Berkeley - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected
Washington - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected
Duke - Statistical Science Ph.D. Rejected
North Carolina CH - Statistics and OR Ph.D. Rejected
NCSU - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected Rejected
UC Davis - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
Texas A&M - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
UCLA - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
Iowa State - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
UC Irvine - Statistics Ph.D. Interview 1/20 - unofficial admittance 1/26 - Official Admittance + UC Funding 2/1 - Matriculated 3/31
UT Austin - Statistics and DS Ph.D. Rejected
Colorado State - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected
Virginia Tech - Statistics Ph.D. Rejected
Oregon State - Statistics Ph.D. Ghosted/Waitlisted
Home University - Statistics Ph.D. Withdrawn

Reflection:

 

I knew going into this that my low undergrad GPA and bad GRE, will potentially overshadow all of the great diverse research that I have done. It was clear on my rejection from Virginia Tech, since my reason for rejection was "non-competitive". Other programs have me waitlisted, officially and unofficially, personally those programs took too long in making a decision. Regardless of the outcomes from the remaining programs, I plan on attending UCI. They have something really special cooking out there, and I am excited to be apart of that.

 

Update: Rejects from CSU and UNC, It appears that UG GPA is weighted importantly.

 

[statsguy3]

Undergrad Institution: Large State School, Top 50 US News and World Report (Top 20 Public)
Major(s): Statistics
Minor(s): Computer Science
GPA: 3.925

Type of Student: Domestic White Male

GRE General Test: 
Q: 170 (96%)

V: 159 (81%)
W: 5.0 (91%)
 

Programs Applying: Statistics & Biostatistics PhD Programs

 

Research Experience: Summer Institute in Biostatistics, multiple research projects as part of the Statistics curriculum at Home Institution.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List (all terms)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA and grader for large online course in computer science department

Letters of Recommendation: One from my Math Stat professor who closely advised my application process, one from TA supervisor (also had as a professor), one from academic advisor who I did an internship for and could speak to some circumstances regarding a couple low grades.

Math/Statistics Grades:  A's in all the following: Calc III, Linear Algebra, Intro to Proofs, Real Analysis I, Probability, Statistical Inference, Regression I and II, DOE, R, SAS, Stat Learning, Bayesian, Math Stat.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: My SOP was fine but not outstanding and I probably would have liked to have another statistics professor to write a letter for me in hindsight.

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
NC State (Statistics PhD) - Admitted / In-Person Visit / Accepted
Emory (Biostatistics PhD) - In-Person Interview and Visit / Admitted / Declined
Duke (Biostatistics MS) - Admitted / Declined

Michigan (Statistics PhD) - Rejected

Wisconsin (Statistics PhD, Biostatistics Concentration) - Rejected

Penn State (Statistics PhD) - Rejected

Home Institution (Biostatistics PhD) - Pending/Ghosted as of 4/14

UNC Chapel Hill (Biostatistics PhD) - Pending/Ghosted as of 4/14

 

Reflection:

Overall it was definitely a challenging process and a difficult decision, but you just have to make the choice and pick. I really enjoyed my visits to both NC State and Emory and liked both programs for their own reasons. I got a lot of advice from faculty at my home program that helped guide the decision making process which was nice. I'm happy with the overall decision I made and I am looking forward to moving down to Raleigh this fall!

[lattee]

Undergrad Institution: Ivy League
Major(s): Psychology
Minor(s): Biology
GPA: 3.45

Type of Student: Domestic Female URM

 

GRE General Test:
Q: 164 (78%)
V: 163 (92%)
W: 4.5 (79%)

 

Programs Applying: Biostatistics Masters

 

Research Experience: 

Clinical research coordinator (2 years, full time job)

Undergraduate clinical research assistant (2 years part time, 2 publications (3rd & 6th author))

Experimental psychology thesis (1 year independent study course)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Dean’s list (senior year) 

President’s honor’s list (community college- post grad)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

Nursing assistant (1 year part time)

 

Letters of Recommendation: 

1. Linear algebra instructor (the instructor didn’t know me well but I needed an academic letter, okay letter), 

2. My PI from my research coordinator job (ivy med school professor, MD-PhD with dozens of publications, strong letter), 

3. My direct manager (department’s research program manager, strong letter)

 

Math/Statistics Grades: Statistics 1 (A), statistics 2 (B), calc 1 (C- first semester freshman year then retook and got an A), calc 2 (A), calc 3 (A-), linear algebra (A)

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I had an upward trend in my GPA. My freshman year grades were bad but I corrected the course as an upperclassmen and in my math prerequisites post-grad. I also think that my SOP was strong as was my research/work experience.

Applying to Where: 
Duke Biostatistics MS- Admitted + 30,000/yr scholarship - Accepted!
University of Pittsburgh Biostatistics MS- Admitted +19,000/yr scholarship - Declined 

Columbia Biostatistics MS- Admitted - Declined

Johns Hopkins Biostatistics ScM - Rejected 

Harvard Biostatistics SM-60 - Rejected

Reflection:

Very happy with these results! I got an early acceptance to Pitt because of rolling admissions so I cut down my application list and only applied to schools that I would choose over that scholarship. I applied to Duke partially because I knew that they gave half tuition scholarships but I didn't expect a 75% scholarship! My math background isn’t the strongest because I decided on biostatistics after finishing undergrad. I took Calc 1-3 and linear algebra through community college night classes. This might have been a negative for some schools but it worked out fine for me in the end.

[egcy]

Undergrad Institution: Top 5 LAC
Major(s): Statistics and Economics
GPA: 3.69

Type of Student: Biracial Domestic Female (White/Asian)

GRE General Test:
Q: 165 (81%)
V: 153 (58%)
W: 4 (54%)
 

Programs Applying: Statistics and Biostatistics Masters 

 

Research Experience: 

2.5 years of research experience at my school in statistical paleobiology 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

Statistics grader junior year

Statistics TA senior year 

 

Letters of Recommendation: 

1. My research advisor in the statistics department (strong letter)

2. Statistics professor who taught a year-long math-stat sequence I took (strong letter)

3. Econ professor/chair who taught an econ course I took senior fall (slightly better than okay letter)

 

Math/Statistics Grades:  

Multivariable Calc (B), Real Analysis (CR), Probability (A-), Mathematical Statistics I (A-), Mathematical Statistics II (A)

*Also took Linear Algebra and Stat II during Covid (Credit only)*

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: 

Had an upward trend in my GPA 

Applying to Where: 

Georgetown (Biostatistics Masters) - Admitted on 1/12

Johns Hopkins (Biostatistics Masters) - Interview: 1/18 / Admitted on 1/26

NYU (Biostatistics Masters) - Admitted 2/15

Columbia (Biostatistics Masters) - Admitted on 2/24 

UC Berkeley (Biostatistics Masters) - Admitted on 2/24

Yale (Biostatistics Masters) - Waitlisted on 2/28 (Denied waitlist offer)

Harvard (Biostatistics Masters) - Waitlisted on 3/13 (Denied waitlist offer)
Stanford (Statistics Masters) - Admitted on 3/13 / Accepted  

UCLA (Biostatistics Masters) - Admitted 03/21 

 

Reflection:

Very happy with the results! In hindsight, I should have applied to fewer places as I think I really underestimated my application! 

[ag112]

Undergrad Institution: Top 10 Public School
Major(s): Engineering
Minor(s):
GPA: <3.0

Type of Student: Domestic, non-URM

GRE General Test: Did not submit

TOEFL Score: N/A

Grad Institution: Top 20 M.S. Stats program

Concentration: 
GPA: 3.9
 

Programs Applying: Biostats PhD

 

Research Experience: Several co-authored pubs in high impact journals.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Minor fellowships in undergrad
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 10+ years' experience in biostats related positions. 

Letters of Recommendation: Faculty at well-known biostats departments.

Math/Statistics Grades:  A's in prereqs. Poor grades in some upper division math classes in undergrad. 
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Non-trad 

Applying to Where: 
UT Health MD Anderson/ Admitted in March / Declined
UT Health SPH/ Admitted in May / Accepted
Rice Stats w/ Biostats Track/ Rejected in March

 

Accepted offer from UTH SPH because MD Anderson would not allow me to fund myself with work outside the program. 

[Counterfactual]

Undergrad Institution: University locally known for business & social science in Taiwan (ranked around 200 globally in business in USNR)
Major(s): Double Major in Finance and Statistics
Minor(s): N/A
GPA: 4.29/4.3 (4.0/4.0 after WES evaluation)
Relevant courses: Calculus (A+/A+), Linear Algebra I/II (A+/A+), Mathematical Statistics I/II (A+/A+), Regression Analysis I (A+), Multivariate Analysis (A+), Programming 101 (A+, in Python), Programming and Statistical Software (A+, in R)

Exchange program institute: UC Berkeley (one-year international exchange program)
GPA: 3.95/4.0
Relevant courses: Analysis I/II (A/A-), Statistical Prediction and ML (A), Causal Inference (A), Grad Experimental Design (A), Grad Intro to Stat Computing (A)

Type of Student: International (Asian)

GRE General Test:
Q: 166 (84%)
V: 157 (74%)
W: 4.0 (54%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: N/A

TOEFL Score: R30/L28/S25/W28

Programs Applying: A mix of Statistics/Biostatistics Masters and PhD programs

Research Interests: Causal Inference, Network Analysis

Research Experience: 1 conference paper in community detection. I worked as  a student researcher at a statistical institute in Taiwan, main theme of the research is community detection algorithms.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Presidential Award x6, Study abroad scholarship, Research Scholarship 
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: N/A, nothing beyond my undergraduate research 

Letters of Recommendation: 4 letters from instructors at Berkeley (Likely the typical did-well in class letter), 1 from my undergraduate research supervisor (strong)

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: The letter from my undergraduate research supervisor should be very strong, he said he would love to have me as his PhD student, and I think that definitely helped tremendously!!

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Ohio State University Biostatistics PhD - admitted 1/26 with official letter received 3/1
Iowa State University Statistics PhD - admitted 1/31
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Biostatistics PhD - admitted 2/9 - Attending!!
University of Florida Statistics PhD - admitted 3/7
UC Davis Statistics PhD - interviewed on 2/15, admitted 2/25
University of Minnesota, Twin City - MS Biostatistics - admitted w/o funding 2/4 (rejected from PhD)
Harvard University SM 80 Biostatistics - admitted w/o funding 2/10
UW - Seattle Biostatistics MS Capstone - admitted w/o funding 2/14
UC Berkeley Statistics MA - rejected 3/11
UW Seattle Statistics MS - rejected 3/27
UT Austin Statistics PhD - rejected 3/27
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Statistics PhD - rejected 3/28
UW Madison Statistics PhD - rejected 3/29
UC Davis Biostatistics PhD - rejected 4/6
Penn State University Statistics PhD - rejected 4/11
Purdue University Statistics PhD - rejected 4/11
University of Minnesota, Twin City Statistics PhD - rejected 4/14
Ohio State University Statistics PhD - rejected 4/18
Texas A&M Statistics PhD - rejected 4/29
NC State Statistics PhD - rejected 4/20 
UCLA Statistics PhD - rejected 5/19    

Thoughts and Thanks:
I feel super blessed this applications cycle and am so very grateful for the admission results. I know for a fact that none of the above are safety schools, and though out of the 21 schools I applied to, most resulted in a straight rejection (didn't even make it to the edge of the waitlist). At the end of the day, I got into many schools I never thought I would've gotten into. I didn't have a strong math background compared to most of the international applicants, nor do I have fabulous GRE scores (my quant section was a mess). I didn't have a 3-stack strong letter that are all from reputed professors (my letters were a mix of did well in class letters from Berkeley and one strong letter from the professor whom I did research with in Taiwan). Other than a great undergrad GPA, I think the SOP carried more weight than I thought it would. And submitting a large number of applications to schools with matching interests was also definitely helpful, though hindsight 20/20. 

I've been following the forum ever since I was a freshmen in college, and I'm glad I finally made it to a PhD program!! Special thanks to @bayessays@Stat Assistant Professor @cyberwulf @trynagetby and many others! Your career and application advice helped me tremendously in terms of career planning and in the application process!!

I know there's a long way to go, but I am glad I can be making contributions to the scientific community through developing better estimation methods and help create better decision criteria via math and data! Can't wait to start the Fall semester!

Edited June 2, 2023 by Counterfactual

[dominatedconvergence]

Using a throwaway account for anonymity. These profiles helped me a lot when I was applying, so I wanted to pay it forward for future applicants! Congrats to all on your amazing results and decisions.

Undergrad Institution: Ivy
Major(s): Mathematics, Statistics (double major)
GPA: 3.9+/4.0

Type of Student: Domestic

GRE General Test: 169 (Q)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: N/A
 

Programs Applying: Statistics PhD

Research Interests: Statistical machine learning, optimization, probability theory

 

Research Experience: NSF-REU in mathematics, senior thesis with well-known professor in my department 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Phi Beta Kappa, one departmental thesis award, other GPA-related awards

Letters of Recommendation: REU professor, senior thesis advisor, optimization and probability theory professor

Math/Statistics Grades: A's in all math and statistics classes, including two courses in measure theory

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Stanford (Statistics PhD)  Admitted

UC Berkeley (Statistics PhD) Admitted

Harvard (Statistics PhD) Rejected

Carnegie Mellon (Statistics PhD) Waitlisted / Withdrawn

Columbia (Statistics PhD) Rejected

UPenn/Wharton (Statistics PhD) Admitted

University of Washington (Statistics PhD) Admitted

Cornell (Statistics PhD) Waitlisted / Withdrawn

 

Very thankful for everyone who supported me throughout this stressful process! My main takeaway has been not to overanalyze; I got so stressed seeing people post their acceptances on GradCafe when I had not received anything. It definitely made the process much more toxic than it needed to be. Please be kind to yourselves and your mental health. ☺️

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by dominatedconvergence

[explodingpineapple]

Undergrad Institution: UBC Vancouver (in Canada)
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Statistics
GPA: 88.7% (4.02/4.33) upper level GPA

Type of Student: Male Canadian Citizen, Asian/Caucasian

GRE General Test: N/A

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: N/A
TOEFL Score: N/A

 

Programs Applying: Master's programs for Statistics (All for Statistics, none for Biostatitics)

 

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications or conference talks etc...)
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...)

Letters of Recommendation: (what kinds of professors? "well-known" in field? etc.)

Math/Statistics Grades:  Calc 1 (A+), Advanced Calc 2 and 3 (A- and A+), Calc 4 (A+), Linear Algebra (A+), Introductory Statistics (A), Probability (A+), Ordinary Differential Equations (A+), Complex Analysis (A+), Intermediate Statistics for Applications (A), Number Theory (A+), Discrete Mathematics (A+), Statistical Inference (A+), Linear Models (A), Introduction to Data Science (A+), Statistical Learning (A+), Economics with Applications to Data Science (A+), Real Analysis 1 and 2 (B- and B), Mathematical Game Theory (A+), Statistical Learning (A), Stochastic Processes (A+), Abstract Linear Algebra (A+), Mathematical Research and Writing (A+), Statistical Programming (A+)
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I also went on exchange to UNSW in Sydney, where I took a course on Experimental Design and Statistics (HD, equivalent to A+) and Information, Codes and Ciphers (HD)

Applying to Where:

School - Western (Accepted Feb 6)

School - UWaterloo (Accepted Feb 😎

School - UVic (Accepted Mar 22)

School - McMaster (Accepted Mar 29)

School - UofT (Accepted Apr 16)

School - UBC (Rejected April 25)
School - SFU (Rejected April 25)

School - McGill (Rejected April 28)

Edited June 18, 2023 by explodingpineapple

[gradcafereader103]

Undergrad Institution: Relatively unknown private liberal arts school, ~5000 students
Major(s): Data Analytics & Statistics, Mathematics (dual degrees)
GPA: 3.99/4

Type of Student: Domestic White Female

GRE General Test:
Q: 170 (95%)
V: 162 (90%)
W: 4.0 
 

Programs Applying: Biostatistics (+1 Statistics) PhD programs

 

Research Experience: 1 NSF-funded REU in math and statistics (led to publication), Summer Institute for Biostatistics, year-long Undergrad Research research in biostats, several data analytics semester-long projects
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List (every term), Honors Scholar Fellowship, Mathematical Sciences Department Scholarship, university's nominee for Goldwater Fellowship
Pertinent Activities or Jobs:  Lead Mathematics and Statistics Tutor and Supplemental Instructor for several courses (mostly Linear Algebra and Statistics)

Letters of Recommendation: 2 Mathematics professors, 1 statistics professor

Math/Statistics Grades:  Calc I-III (A), Linear Algebra (A), Differential Equations (A), Real Analysis (A-), Statistics w/ SAS programming (A), Data Mining I-II (A), Probability (A), Mathematical Statistics (A), Biostatistics (A), Econometrics (A)

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
UNC Chapel Hill (Biostatistics PhD) - Admitted / 2 In-person visits / Accepted
University of Georgia (Epi & Biostatistics PhD) - Virtual Interview / Admitted / In-person visit / Declined
Augusta University  (Biostatistics PhD) -  Virtual Interview / Admitted / Declined

NC State University (Statistics PhD) - Admitted / Declined

University of Pennsylvania (Biostatistics PhD) - In-person Interview / Rejected

Duke University (Biostatistics PhD) -  Rejected

UC Davis (Biostatistics PhD) - Rejected

Emory University (Biostatistics PhD) - Ghosted/Withdrew 4-15