2024 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results for Statistics/Biostatistics

[biopengu]

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, 2023.

 

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

[stxnre]

Undergrad Institution: UC Berkeley
Major: Applied Mathematics
GPA: 4.0

Type of Student: Domestic Male

GRE General Test:
Q: 170 (94%)
V: 161 (87-88%)
W: 5.0 (91%)
 

Programs Applying: Statistics + Data Science

 

Research Experience:

- One summer REU in deep learning and natural language processing. This research poured into the school year with a part-time research job.

- The following summer, more research on a different project, involving time series analysis.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: PBK + summa cum laude (both of these are just related to my grade)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Student Researcher, Film Club Treasurer

 

Letters of Recommendation: 

1. PI from the math summer REU, who is actually a professor of literature and digital humanities; pretty strong, I would think

2. Program director at research program #2, a professor of math; also pretty strong

3. Teacher for my numerical analysis class; probably less strong, but I wanted at least one recommendation to come from my school.

 

Math/Statistics Grades:  analysis (A+), linear algebra (A+), abstract algebra (A+), complex analysis (A), numerical analysis (A), probability (A+), time series, machine learning. All A or higher
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: My interest in grad school is in statistical machine learning and sequenced datasets (like time series).

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
University of Washington - PhD Statistics / Admitted 02/02/24 / Accepted/Declined
UC Davis - PhD Statistics / Admitted 01/20/24 / Accepted/Declined
UCLA  - MS Statistics / Admitted 03/22/24 / Accepted/Declined

UCSB  - PhD Statistics / Admitted 02/14/24 / Accepted/Declined

UCSD - PhD Data Science / Pending.... / Accepted/Declined

Stanford  - PhD Statistics / Rejected 02/07/24 -> Admitted to MS on 03/26/24 / Accepted/Declined

 

I'm very grateful to have gotten into UW, which is a competitive program, and while I likely won't attend Stanford due to the cost, it was cool that they kinda accepted me. Still deciding which is the best program; my aim is not academia but a research-oriented job in industry, something I would not really be able to get out of undergrad. I also applied to the west coast, as I want to be reasonably close to family and friends. I wish I could hear back from UCSD, as a data science PhD sounds interesting, but I may end up making a decision before then....

[biopengu]

Undergrad Institution: Top 20, well known for math/stats
Major(s): Applied Mathematics
Minor(s): Computer Science, Statistics
GPA: 3.7

Type of Student: Domestic Male

GRE General Test: Did not take
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: Did not take

TOEFL Score: N/A
 

Programs Applying: Biostatistics MS

 

Research Experience: One REU with paper published in ML, a research lab at my school in Math biology
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: A few small awards
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for multivariable, math tutor

Letters of Recommendation: From diffeq professor (senior lecturer, good), school research advisor (postdoc, good), REU advisor (postdoc, great)

Math/Statistics Grades: Calc 1-3, nonlinear dynamics, discrete math, real/complex/functional analysis, stochastic processes, linear algebra, ML, theoretical statistics, bayesian statistics, probability theory, regression
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I applied mostly for applied/computational math programs but these were the two biostats programs I applied to.

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Brown University - MS Biostatistics / Admitted off waitlist 04/10/24 / Declined
Harvard University - SM-80 Biostatistics / Rejected 3/5/24

[the_variational_guy]

Undergrad Institution: Top Public U
Major(s): Statistics & CS
Minor(s):
GPA: 3.97

 

Type of Student: International Male

GRE General Test:
Honestly didn't submit to many schools and don't think it matters that much for me. Around 94% and 85% for Q/V.

TOEFL Score: Not relevant

Grad Institution: Top 10 Private School

Concentration: Statistics
GPA: 3.97
 

Programs Applying: Statistics & Data Science

 

Research Experience: A few (listed by importance)

(1) External research with Ivy professor in an empirical science on AI4Science.

(2) In-school thesis research with stat/applied math professor on MCMC.

(3) Various undergrad reading programs in approximate Bayesian inference (variational inference, prob ML, etc.)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: a bunch of normal titles. The only notable one is the department citation (speaker at commencement) for undergrad.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: a few during undergrad and none during master. Also served as a course instructor for a seminar course.

Letters of Recommendation: 3-4 letters depending on the school.

One letter from each of the (1)/(2) research mentioned above. One letter from an undergrad big-name professor who knows me decently well but interestingly not through academics (more like running clubs & administrative stuff). One letter from a prof I've taken a course with and got good grades (didn't submit for schools with no connection to him).

Math/Statistics Grades:  a bunch of standard stat courses + concentrations on Bayesian stat & statistical learning courses. Math courses involve 2 semesters of analysis and Ph.D.-level stochastic calculus.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I have a decent publication history on conferences/workshops and the topics are pretty trendy. Don't think it helps a lot.

Applying to Where: 

Only mention the accepted:

TL;DR I got into the 2 dream programs (TOP 5 in Stat as well), and got rejected by some "safety schools" lol
School - UChicago Data Science Ph.D. (New program) - Committed
School - Columbia Statistics Ph.D. - Declined
School - UC Davis Statistics Ph.D. - Declined

School - UCSB Statistics Ph.D. - Declined

 

A note on UChicago DSI: IMO it's a super attractive program for Statistics applicants. Designed as 50% stat + 50% cs, the bottom line is that you can find mentorship from any faculty in the stat department and do it similar to a normal stat Ph.D. (maybe in terms of entering academia there's a slight difference due to title). The funding structure and first-year requirement are much more flexible (no QE, encouraged to "rotate" across mentors/labs, etc.). 

 

(If you read through my post until here, lots of thanks for your attention! As I feel super indebted to many people who helped me through my application process, I'm trying to give others a hand as well. I'm specifically thinking about hosting 30-minute online Q & A sessions if you are a Stat/DS applicant in Fall 2025. You can try to follow the link here)

Edited April 23 by the_variational_guy
typo correction

[lrste]

Undergrad Institution: HYPSM

Major(s): Economics

Minor(s): Math

GPA: 3.9

Type of Student: Domestic white male

 

GRE General Test:

Q: 169 (91%)

V: 166 (97%)

W: 5.5 (98%)

 

Programs Applying: Biostatistics PhDs

 

Research Experience: Some limited undergrad research in Econ, then 2 years postgrad as an Econ research assistant at a major policy institution.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: one paper published in a somewhat selective undergrad journal at my school

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 2 time TA for econometrics

Letters of Recommendation: 1 (relatively weak) from my math advisor who is well known in combinatorics but not otherwise. 1 (fairly strong) from an economist who is extremely famous (would be known by biostatisticians for his contributions to econometrics). 1 (extremely strong) from my postgrad research supervisor, a PhD economist who is fairly well known in policy/econ circles, but not otherwise.

 

Math/Statistics Grades:  All grades are As or passes due to COVID/other grading policies: Calculus, diff eq, proof based linear algebra, probability, grad level stochastic processes, intro statistics, econometrics, grad level statistical inference, real analysis, matrix methods (focused on CS/ML), ML 

 

Applying to Where: All biostats PhDs

School - Yale - Rejected (no interview)

School - University of Washington - Rejected (no interview)

School - University of Minnesota - Accepted - Declined

School - University of Michigan - Accepted - Declined

School - Columbia University - Accepted - Declined

School - Brown University - Accepted - Declined

School - Harvard University - Accepted - Declined

School - University of Pennsylvania - Accepted - Committed!

I'm extremely pleased with how this cycle went. Mildly puzzled by the lack of interviews from Washington and (especially) Yale, but that's all in the rearview now. I wasn't sure how competitive I was because I came from a non-stats background in terms of my research experience, but I'm glad there was enough overlap with math/stats in my experience to be competitive. In hindsight, I would have applied to fewer places, because there were some programs that I just wasn't that interested in by the time decisions started coming around (UW for personal reasons, Brown and Michigan for academic reasons).

[Kalculus]

Gradcafe was incredibly useful for me in estimating the best programs I would have a chance of getting into. This is a relatively late post but considering the fact that my profile may be unusual, I hope it will benefit some similar applicant in the future.   

 

Undergrad Institution: Obscure Indian University (not ISI or IIT)
Major: Mathematics (minor in Statistics)
GPA: 4.0/4.0

 

Type of Student: International Asian male

Relevant Courses (A+ unless stated otherwise):

 

Undergraduate Level Math: Calculus (I,II,III), Real Analysis I (A), Real Analysis II, Linear Algebra, Group Theory, Topology (I,II), Complex Analysis, Applications of Dynamical Systems, Discrete Math, Intro to computational math, Numerical Analysis, Optimization, ODEs (I,II), Introduction to PDEs 

 

 Undergraduate Level Statistics and Computer Science: Introduction to Probability, Statistical Theory, Intro to Statistical Computing, ANOVA, Intro to Statistical Inference, Applied Non-parametric statistics, Basic statistical modelling, Applied Inference, Intro to Programming (CS), Web Development (CS), Intro to Computing Theory (CS)

 

Taking at the time of application: Measure Theory (in progress), Functional Analysis (in progress), Advanced Topology (graduate level, in progress), Topics in Stochastic Calculus (in progress) 

 

TOEFL:110; 30/28/25/27

GRE: 170Q/ 168V/ 4.5 AW

GRE Subject Mathematics: N/A

 

 

Programs Applying:  Statistics PhD, Biostatistics PhD

 

 

Research Experience: 

- Short REU in the US on the applications of math in cryptography (no publications), My current undergrad thesis research is on measure theory and I don't expect any publications before application deadlines

 

Work Experience:

- 6 months as a data science intern at a startup (basically data cleaning)

 

Teaching Experience: Math olympiad TA at the state level 

 

Recommendation Letters: Three; two from math professors at my institution (relatively unknown), one from a statistics professor affiliated with but outside my institution (well-known in the field). Hopefully all three will be excellent. 

 

 

Programming skills: Python, SQL, HTML, Javascript, SPSS

 

 

Research Interests: Theoretical and mathematical aspects of statistics and ML, also biostatistics (I currently have little background in this area but I believe I have the necessary math skills and an interest in its applications)

 

 

Others: Numerous awards from nationwide and international mathematics competitions both during high school and university (some of which are very well known), several fellowships and scholarships at national and state levels.

 

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)

Texas A&M - PhD Statistics / Rejected
University of Pennsylvania Wharton - PhD Statistics / Rejected 03/16/2024
Harvard  - PhD Statistics / Rejected 02/21/2024

Harvard  - PhD Biostatistics / Rejected 03/08/2024

CMU - PhD Statistics / Waitlisted 03/05/2024 /  Rejected eventually

Columbia  - PhD Statistics / Rejected 03/09/2024 -> Admitted to MS (Declined)

University of Michigan - PhD Statistics / Admitted 02/20/2024

University of Washington - PhD Statistics /  Rejected 02/04/2024

NCSU - PhD Statistics /  Admitted 02/05/2024

Duke - PhD Statistics / Admitted 01/31/2024

UNC Chapel Hill - PhD Statistics / Rejected

Emory - PhD Biostatistics / Admitted 02/17/2024

Cornell - PhD Statistics / Rejected 03/28/2024

UC Davis - PhD Statistics / Admitted 01/31/2024

Uni of Wisconsin Madison - PhD Statistics / Admitted 02/01/2024

Iowa State - PhD in Statistics / Admitted 02/22/2024

UCLA - PhD in Statistics / Rejected

Caltech - CMS (Computational and Mathematical Science) / Rejected 03/28/2024

Ohio State - PhD in Statistics / Admitted 01/14/2024

University of Toronto - PhD in Statistics / Invited to interview on 01/12/2024, admitted in March 

 

I discovered as results started rolling in that math background really does count for a lot in statistics PhD acceptances. Do not be discouraged if you do not have any publications. These are great to have but it appears one can do fine without them as long as some tough math courses appear on the transcript. Also, reach out to professors in departments you may be interested in. You are likely to be ignored, but someone may like your profile enough to write back (it does happen). Be polite, as elaborate as possible about your academic preparation (a CV and an unofficial transcript can go a long way), and explain why their work interests you. A good way to gauge your chances of acceptance is to visit the graduate student listing page on your department of interest and research the backgrounds of folks in the most recent cohorts. Have faith in the potential of your application; comparisons with other similar profiles are certainly helpful but please do not let anyone's admission results convince you to drop your dream schools from your list. Good luck!

 

 

[Jim VK]

Good advice. Thank you!