[Q] Choosing a MS Stat program

[dkng]

Hello everyone!

I'm very lucky to be admitted to some great statistics master programs. Here are the programs that I have gotten into:

UChicago MS in Statistics(10% scholarship)

NC State MS in Statistics

UMN MS in Statistics

Purdue CS joint Statistics program

Also, I'm on the waitlist for the Duke MS Statistical Science program. I plan to find a job as a data scientist or data analyst after getting my master's degree. However, I'm also considering pursuing a PhD degree. To be safe, I want to pick a master's program that can be helpful for my future job and prepare me for PhD level courses. My primary area of interest in research is machine learning, and I have several ML-related projects. For now, my number one choice is UChicago. From what I searched on the internet, the program involves several ML courses. Also, UChicago is more prestigious. However, my main concern is that many students in UChicago end up pursuing a PhD degree and I worry that the courses will be too theoretical for someone trying to exit into the industry (Besides, I almost have no work experience. I only worked as a RA during undergrad). I also want to know if there are courses at UChicago that use Python because I worry that I won't have a chance to practice my Python coding skills. Besides UChicago, I'm also interested in UMichigan's MS Applied Stat program, but I'm still waiting for their decision.

Since I'm an international student, I might have some misunderstandings about the information I searched on the internet. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Although my main question is about UChicago, I'm also eager to know information about the other graduate programs (I also heard that NC State graduates have great job placements). I would love to hear advice and thoughts from anybody with experience with these graduate programs. I would really appreciate it!

Lastly, thank you for taking the time to read this post!

[bayessays]

I think you're right about Chicago's courses being more theoretical - from what I can tell on their website, their MS students have a lot of overlap with the PhD students' classes, and their PhD program is intense.  I don't think this means you'll be less prepared for industry (you'll have to do a lot of stuff outside your classes for that, anyways - you absolutely cannot rely on a short Python course to learn coding for a data science job), but it would mean your life would be harder while in the program.  

I think all the programs you've listed are fantastic schools and I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.  Chicago may have a little more of a "wow" factor, though.