PhD stats - please comment on my choice of schools

[sisyphus1]

All, I've decided to apply to PhD Statistics/Biostatistics programs for next year (2013). I'm currently employed as a quantitative finance analyst at a major bank but I am looking to leave the finance industry. I am interested in using statistics to guide public policy/public health type decisions (hence the interest in Biostats), as well as statistical consulting. I do not see myself in academia so the 'brand name' matters somewhat in getting companies to interview you coming out of the PhD program.

Profile

Undergrad GPA: 3.9, Math/Econ from Upenn. But my coursework wasn't that rigorous in that I took the easiest math classes to graduate (also I got a low grade in Real Analysis... I was lazy and didn't do any of the homework). Not many stats courses other than an Econometrics course.

Graduate (Masters in Statistics): 3.9 from Columbia. Took a couple of PhD level courses.

Letters of recommendation: They will be pretty good, but not from well-known professors.

GRE: 800Q, 590V, 5AW

Research experience: None (I think this will be a major flag... For one of my Master's classes we had to do a project on a topic (our group's topic was on using a refined metropolis-hastings algorithm to solve a text-mining problem). I thought it was really cool but probably not publication-worthy).

Demographic: International student from Europe

Other: Proficient in R, SAS, MATLAB, SQL etc. Will have 4 years of work experience when I matriculate (god I feel old).

My initial selection of schools is as follows:

Yale, Duke, Harvard (biostats), UCLA,

Also looking at IEOR PhDs - how competitive are these compared to PhDs in stats?

I feel like I am aiming too high... can you provide feedback? Thanks!

Edited April 5, 2012 by sisyphus1

[wine in coffee cups]

Sounds like you have worthy goals and can probably put together a pretty interesting statement of purpose talking about how you got there from your work experience. That plus good letters of recommendation and the double Ivy League degrees is going to get you in somewhere good. You should be thinking about making the case for "why statistics" or "why biostatistics" as opposed to other fields that can lead to policy roles. Talking about your master's class project and why you enjoyed it will help show your enthusiasm for statistics specifically, I think, and overcome limited research.

I don't think you're aiming too high. I would not limit yourself to those four programs, though -- presumably you make a fair amount of money working in finance, so don't be afraid to pay fees to a lot of schools to make sure you have great options. You might look at the CMU joint program in stats and public policy (one of my rejections, womp womp).

[cyberwulf]

Lack of research experience is not going to hurt you. Few people have much of it prior to applying to stats/biostats programs. If 'name' is important to you, I would consider adding Johns Hopkins biostat to your list.

[sisyphus1]

thanks all! i was thinking of my statement of purpose, and i heard it may be disadvantageous to say that you want to pursue a non-research/academic career. some programs (e.g. wharton) explicitly state that they want to train academic researchers on their website. any truth to this?

[cyberwulf]

Some truth. I would avoid explicitly mentioning that you have no interest in pursuing academia.

[ANDS!]

thanks all! i was thinking of my statement of purpose, and i heard it may be disadvantageous to say that you want to pursue a non-research/academic career. some programs (e.g. wharton) explicitly state that they want to train academic researchers on their website. any truth to this?

Be a pretty shallow program I'd think. Take a look at where their alumni goes.

But as has been mentioned, for your "career goals" you can limit that to "career research goals", so as not to pigeon hole or handicap yourself. I mentioned my lack of interest in academics, and that didn't hurt any of my admissions.

[HappyPessimist]

I don't think you're aiming too high. I would not limit yourself to those four programs, though -- presumably you make a fair amount of money working in finance, so don't be afraid to pay fees to a lot of schools to make sure you have great options. You might look at the CMU joint program in stats and public policy (one of my rejections, womp womp).

I agree with every word (except for CMU, I don't know anything about them). You're not aiming too high -- find more programs you're interested in and apply to those as well. You may want to look at North Carolina State University and UNC Chapel Hill biostats. They are both close to Research Triangle Park which has huge potential for employment in industry. NC State in particular has excellent relationships with many companies there and sends lots of graduates to work in that area.

Edited April 14, 2012 by HappyPessimist