Compare two programs: Chicago and Harvard Stat

[Rob1234]

Please suggest which of the two programs would be a better fit both career-wise and academically. I have interest in Bayesian Analysis, Monte Carlo Methods, Statistical Machine Learning. I am more inclined right now towards staying in academia after PhD than going to the job market.

[biostat_prof]

I'm not extremely familiar with either department these days, but I know Chicago's department is much larger. As I understand it, Harvard's stat department is relatively small and focuses heavily on missing data problems and Monte Carlo methods. Unless you definitely want to do Monte Carlo work I would probably lean toward Chicago if only because you will have more potential research options there. But you should be able to find a job in academia coming out of either school if you pick a good adviser.