Fall 2013 Admissions Prep

[ameliabee]

Would you all mind evaluating my profile and suggesting appropriate schools? I'm learning the hard way that I'm much more geared towards applied pursuits. (Particularly clinical trials, design of experiments, statistical practice... I just want to be a lead statistician at a research center. The master's degree, by itself, won't get me much further than being a code monkey.)

I graduate in May of this year with a B.A. in Stats, GPA should be around 3.2 (I burned out, and 20 credit hour semesters are brutal...) I'm in the first year of a combined program leading to a M.S. in Stats, and I should graduate from that in May 2013, assuming I don't screw up on the qualifying exam. Oh, and this is at a major public research university - the Stats department is fairly well known and has a strong theoretical reputation. (I cannot continue beyond the M.S. at my current university - it's against the rules of the accelerated program, and even if it wasn't, academic incest much? So, I'd be doing PhD applications for Stats and Biostats.)

My horrifying transcript, in terms of relevant coursework:

Math:

Calc 1: A

Calc 2, 3: B

Diff. Eq.: B+

Intro to Proof Writing: C

Probability Theory 2 & Stochastic Processes: C+

Linear Algebra: D- (Part of the 20 credit hour semester meltdown.)

Compuational Linear Algebra: C

Adv. Calc. 1: C+

Adv. Calc. 2: (enrolled)

CS:

Intro to Fortran: B+

Stats:

Regression Analysis: A

Design of Experiments: A-

Intro to Probability: A

Intro to Statistical Theory: B+

Regression Analysis (graduate course): B

Theoretical Stats 1 (graduate course, uses Casella & Berger): B

Design of Experiments (graduate): (enrolled)

Theoretical Stats 2 (graduate): (enrolled)

Intro. to Categorical Data: (enrolled)

Life Contingencies: (enrolled)

GRE: 640 V, 800 Q, 3.5 W

Did research for a few years, no publications, had a horrible relationship with the faculty advisor leading me to quit. I did manage to get some experience working with MPI systems to run simulations as well as analyzing data from molecular dynamics. I've also worked on a project about mosquito repellent testing. Did USF's Summer Institute for Training in Biostatistics in Summer 2010. My big problem is that I try to take on too much and burnout happens. I can probably get a recommendation from a former president of the ASA, as well as two other recommendation letters from professors in math and stats.

So, what do you think? I certainly have my share of black marks, but keep in mind I had a lot of maturing to do - graduated high school in '09. I guess it really boils down to how forgiving a school is of a terrible GPA and how much they value acceleration.

Edited February 21, 2012 by ameliabee

[cyberwulf]

As far as Biostats programs go, I think you should probably look into places such as Pittsburgh, Boston, Iowa, South Carolina, Case Western, George Washington, and Vanderbilt; these aren't top shelf places in the field but they'll likely give you a solid applied foundation. If your letters are really strong you might "reach" for programs like Emory, Columbia, and UCLA.