STAT and CS background, should i apply for these schools?

[wangyuchen]

I major in STAT with very low GPA 2.7/4.0, and minor in CS with scores between 60-75, almost a B- or C+. I don't know how much my grades will determine my application, but I can do nothing about it now.

Other informations is: GRE 156/167, TOEFL 97 (foreign students), apply for 2013 fall.

My stat major focus on theories, but I am interested in application. Although my grades are low, I learned a lot in combining my CS programming ability into statistical computing. Last summer I've done a research program in statistical quality control with a professor, and proved I didn't waste my time in learning those didn't required by the exam. Besides typing codes to get the standard results, you should also organize your data, choose and design a correct data structure, making your program running faster, write a package of programs that haven't found on CRAN and fix every possible problem you will meet on your computer.

I've done these very well and the professor recommend me to apply for PhD directly. But I think I should prove my research potential by being a qualified master first, with a GPA that reflects my true ability.

I already have some backup schools that will accept me as a master because of my professor's recommendation, those schools ranking at about 50. now I want to choose some school as a 'reach',

by checking the min requirements of those top 20 statistics program, I have:

UCB, Harvard, Washington, Duke, Texas A&M, UW, ISU, PSU, Cornell, UNC

I mean I don't really think I can go to these, but I will give it a try to apply 2-3 schools, do you know which school is not very GPA-orientaled and willing to accept students like me? Should I apply for data mining and statistical learning programs? I know these are alway under CS department and just few school like CMU have a specified STAT-CS program. Thanks!

[crazystat]

I know PSU is not a good choice. Their admission rate is extremely low...

I think your background is not bad, the reason I say that is that CS+STAT background is a very very good combination. A lot of stat department are starting their machine learning team by hiring more professors who works on that.

I know UWashington is currently constructing their "machine learning" team. I use quota is because sometimes, they hire professors who is not really working on classical machine learning, but related to that field.

Also, standford is also a good choice actually. You should try it.

CMU is a popular one, and a great one.

[wangyuchen]

I know PSU is not a good choice. Their admission rate is extremely low...

I think your background is not bad, the reason I say that is that CS+STAT background is a very very good combination. A lot of stat department are starting their machine learning team by hiring more professors who works on that.

I know UWashington is currently constructing their "machine learning" team. I use quota is because sometimes, they hire professors who is not really working on classical machine learning, but related to that field.

Also, standford is also a good choice actually. You should try it.

CMU is a popular one, and a great one.

thanks for your advice, it's very helpful. But I think CMU or Stanford is out of my reach because their minimum GPA is 3. I will try Washington.

[emmm]

http://www.grad.wash...ualDept2011.pdf

You can see the stats for UW here. For CS and statistics, the accepted students had GPAs around 3.75-3.8.

And I think there is a school-wide minimum of 3.0 to be accepted to any graduate program, though exceptions can be made.

Edited November 9, 2012 by emmm