Profile evaluation -- where should I apply for Stat phd?

[wells]

Hello,

If anyone could provide some suggestions as to some appropriate places to apply given my profile, I would really appreciate it!

The things that concern me are GRE score, the letters of recommendation and the research area.

All comments welcome.

Undergrad institution: Large school with a top 20 PhD Program in Statistics according to US News

Major: BS Applied Math and BS Economics

Minor: Statistics

GPA: 4.0/4.0

Type of Student: dwm

GRE Revised General Test:

Q: 165

V: 159

W: 4.5

Program Applying: Statistics

Interests: applied statistics, but would like an academic career.

Math Courses: Calc I (A), Calc II (A), Calc III (A+), Advanced Math (A), Diff Eq I (A), Linear Algebra (A+), Diff Eq II (A), Modern Algebra (A), Intro Sci Programming (A+) Computational Math (A-), Real Analysis (A), Math Modeling (A), Math Independent Research (P).

Statistics Courses: Intro (A), Statistical Methods (A), Intro Math Statistics I (A+), Intro Math Statistics II (A).

Upcoming Courses in Math/Stat:

Fall: Math: Independent Research, Stat: Intro to Regression Analysis, plus other non-math, non-stat courses.

Spring: ?

Research Experience: 1 Summer Workshop on Mathematical Modeling in Epidemiology and Ecology (not an REU), plan to at least present a poster at a local conference. 1 poster presentation (ecological modeling) at an ivy-league undergrad math conference, research assistant work with professor on engineering mathematics topic, no result.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Prestigious full-ride scholarship for undergrad, usual honor societies: phi beta kappa, phi kappa phi, omicron delta epsilon.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for a Calculus course.

Letters of Reference: Not settled, probably one from my math advisor (PhD top 50 in math), one from Math Stat prof (PhD from top 35 stat program), math prof (PhD top 30 math program) who oversaw ecological modeling work. I expect the LOR from my advisor to be superb, and the other two should be excellent.

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Such as connections…Not really.

[hedgie]

All the top schools you are interested in.....your profiel looks really good. Just apply to 5-10 institutions with some safeties because funding is hard. Are you a US Citizen? You can retake the GRE Q if you want...isn't out of 170? 165 should be 'OK' given the rest of your profile.

[wells]

Thanks very much hedgie for the comment! Yes I am a citizen of the US. Does that tend to make a difference one way or another?

Anyone else? Please post a comment or suggestion. Any particular schools I should look at given my interests?

Thanks!

[wells]

My list right now is at 9. (Questions/concerns follow the name.) Obviously, the question of whether they would accept me is a concern for all schools on the list! There are some "reaches" here:

HARVARD

WASHINGTON

UC-B (Completion rates)

DUKE (Is it somehow out of the mainstream? (See wine in coffee cups thoughtful post

( ) Does that matter?)

UPENN

NCSU (size, would I get lost in the crowd?)

WISCONSIN or MICHIGAN (Completion rates for both)

COLUMBIA (size, would I get lost in the crowd?)

UNC (especially if I go the biostat route, otherwise: appropriate?)

Are there other programs I should think about? Like wine in coffee cups I'm currently most interested in statistics applications to the social sciences. Any thoughts? cyberwulf? wine in coffee cups? ANDS!? Anyone else? Thank you very much!

[wine in coffee cups]

LOL at my rambling emodump post being described as "thoughtful", you are too charitable. I'm not sure that any of your concerns are founded enough at this stage to be a solid basis for dropping programs off your list -- cross those bridges when you get there, you know? Especially large size/attrition considerations, those are better evaluated in person by talking to current students if you get in.

In my experience applying last year, I wish I had been a little more discerning about personal/research fit and not applied to a couple of the programs I did that had good overall reputations but didn't make sense for me. I found the statements of purpose for those places frustrating to write and hard to make a case for why I want to go there...pretttttty much because I didn't actually want to go there. cyberwulf has mentioned before that he doesn't think trying to target stat/biostat programs primarily is the best approach and instead to consider overall strong departments. While I can't disagree with the notions that people change interests or sometimes can't get an accurately informed perspective (terrible websites, outdated information, naivete), I think the process is less stressful if you don't try to force something that you just can't get excited about. My recommendation is more or less split the difference to balance your long-term goal of going somewhere sweet with your short-term goal of surviving the process: take a long list of reasonably reputable departments, drop off ones in locations you would never realistically consider, and then further winnow down based on (i) do they have at least a couple faculty there who work on topics you are interested in and (ii) does the department have the breadth to continue to be a good fit should your interests change.

Given your qualifications and interests, I think your current list is pretty good, but there is always room for tweaking. I had applied to a lot of those same departments. You might consider CMU. I'd lean Michigan over Wisconsin (though you could apply to both obviously). I recommend making a list of faculty at each place who you'd be interested in working with and noting specifically why that is the case as you add/drop because it will make the "Why ______?" paragraph in your statements much easier.

[emmm]

For UW, the admissions are posted online: http://www.grad.washington.edu/about/statistics/summaries/2011/rptGsisAnnualDept2011.pdf

You can see how your numbers measure up to those of the typical admitted student for the stats program.

[cyberwulf]

You could add Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and Chicago to cover all the top places, but the list you have is pretty solid. Duke isn't really "out of the mainstream", it's just that almost everyone there does Bayesian statistics. Bayes theory and methods is an important and broad area, but it isn't the only one and the downside of a pure Bayesian department like Duke is that you are limited to that area. The upside, of course, is that such departments attract many of the top researchers in the field, and so there are many excellent faculty to work with.

Edited August 25, 2012 by cyberwulf

[cyberwulf]

cyberwulf has mentioned before that he doesn't think trying to target stat/biostat programs primarily is the best approach and instead to consider overall strong departments. While I can't disagree with the notions that people change interests or sometimes can't get an accurately informed perspective (terrible websites, outdated information, naivete), I think the process is less stressful if you don't try to force something that you just can't get excited about.

Yes, I think there is something to be said for making the application process more rewarding for yourself by focusing on schools that you can get excited about. What I counsel against is excluding high-ranking schools from consideration in favor of much lower-ranking ones because of perceived fit. If you apply to NC State and Berkeley instead of Chicago and Penn because you're really interested in Statistical Genetics, fine. But I wouldn't drop schools like Chicago and Penn for places outside the top 15, even if the lower ranked places are more stat gen oriented.

Writing a personal statement which basically says "I want to go to your department because it's good and the faculty are smart" might seem cliched and forced, but let me assure you that it's more or less how most statements read. A somewhat generic statement which highlights some the strengths of a department isn't going to have much of an impact on your application either way.

Edited August 25, 2012 by cyberwulf

[biostat_prof]

To answer your earlier question, it is much easier both to be admitted and to get funding if you are a U.S. citizen. If you want to do applied work, I would definitely add CMU. Chicago is debatable given that their department tends to be more theoretical. And Stanford is also worth applying to if you are willing to go to the hassle of taking the math GRE. You should also take a look at a few of the top-ranked biostat programs, namely UW, Harvard, UNC, Hopkins, and Michigan. (Since you asked about UNC specifically, I would definitely apply to biostat if you go there, since most of their strongest faculty are in biostat, and most of their best stat faculty are joint appointed in biostat anyway.)

As for your specific choice of schools, I would be leery of applying to the stat department at Harvard unless you definitely want to work on missing data or something like that. Their faculty are all excellent, but it's a very small department, and many of them work in the same few areas, so your pool of potential advisors/research topics will be smaller. And I don't see much reason to apply to Columbia unless there is a faculty member there that you want to work with. You should get into a higher-ranked program than that.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I don't read this forum regularly, but I try to come on here every so often during application season.