Ohio State University

[dragonlong]

Hi all,

I am accepted by OSU, but i am curious hows the reputation of OSU in general from the Statistical world.

I know the rankings and what-not, but I don't know how accurate they are and how much trust I should put on them..

Anyone has some ideas?

[the poisoned pawn]

The university has an awesome infrastructure (aka super nice buildings) for majors such as business, math, computer science, physics and one of the biggest gym out there,..., but the statistics department locates in a quite old shitty building. It can be a bit depressing

Just one thing to take into account.

Edited March 13, 2011 by the poisoned pawn

[gainer19]

Hi all,

I am accepted by OSU, but i am curious hows the reputation of OSU in general from the Statistical world.

I know the rankings and what-not, but I don't know how accurate they are and how much trust I should put on them..

Anyone has some ideas?

I visited OSU last year, and here are some of my thoughts from my visit (for what it's worth):

At that time, US News only ranked the top 10 stats programs, so I really had no clue how good OSU was (they weren't in the top 10). However, I took some comfort when talking to some of the current students, because the ones I talked to, for what it's worth, turned down some good programs (Texas A&M, Florida, & Michigan for example) to attend OSU.

I feel like their recent placements are decent. Not stellar, in my opinion, but still decent. Outside of faculty compatibility and program reputation, I place a lot of weight on placements, because I want to go to a program that will help me get to where I want to go.

I really liked the vibe I got from the current students and the faculty. Everyone seemed pretty down to earth to me. It was perfectly fine if you don't know exactly what you want to do with your life right now, but if you're good at math, like stats, and want a career in research, you can figure it out along the way. Also, they said if you aren't sure if you want a masters or PhD, it's easier to just enroll as PhD student and just leave with a masters, and plus the stipend is higher that way. I thought that was pretty cool, because a lot of other programs I've dealt with want to know your dissertation topic at this moment. Sure, I have a good idea of what my research interests are, but I also realize that a lot can happen in two years.

Related to the previous point, their department is pretty big, so there's a good chance you'll be able to do what you want, whatever it is.

They have the #1 basketball team in the country, and their football team can perform well in a shitty conference.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I was told they are planning on building a new stats building.

Anyway, probably not that helpful, but let me know what you decide, because OSU is probably my top choice right now.

[Messed_up_thrice]

It's a massive department, I enjoyed it quite a bit on my visit, and Columbus is a perfectly fine city.

On the other hand it is not as highly regarded as regional competitors such as UM and UC.

[illu]

I heard someone applied for statistics phd a few years back. Got accepted by Stanford, got rejected by Ohio State. Don't quote me on this, however.

[spade20k]

The university has an awesome infrastructure (aka super nice buildings) for majors such as business, math, computer science, physics and one of the biggest gym out there,..., but the statistics department locates in a quite old shitty building. It can be a bit depressing

Just one thing to take into account.

And if you care, they have a //really// good basketball team.