Biostatistics phd program at university of Florida

[hopenxx]

I got accepted by the biostatistics phd program at University of Florida last week. Does anyone hear about this program? Is it a good place to go?

 

Thanks in advance!

[student12345]

Hi hopenxx,

 

I visited the department a couple of weeks ago and spoke with one of the faculty in IFAS, Nikolay Bliznyuk. My program is Statistics but as you may know, the two programs are under the same Department of Statistics; the faculty, however, are divided under CLAS (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and IFAS (Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences). There are more faculty under CLAS (they do theoretical work); I was under the impression that there are very few IFAS faculty (there are so few CLAS faculty to begin with, due to the recent budget cuts and the recent and tragic loss of Casella) but I don't know much about Biostats departments. 

 

Nikolay was very kind and has a lot of research going on, I seem to remember that he has some students (and he talked about the work that students have done as well). I am not sure who your POI are at UF but I had a great time in Gainesville when I visited, you might find it worthwhile to fly over if they are willing to pay for the trip. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions regarding the department or the campus (which was lovely!)

 

Thanks,

Nick

Edited March 28, 2013 by kimolas

[cyberwulf]

UF is decent for biostats right now, and I think they will improve their standing going forward. They seem to be well-connected to the stats department, which is good because there are several strong faculty there.

[hopenxx]

Hi hopenxx,

 

I visited the department a couple of weeks ago and spoke with one of the faculty in IFAS, Nikolay Bliznyuk. My program is Statistics but as you may know, the two programs are under the same Department of Statistics; the faculty, however, are divided under CLAS (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and IFAS (Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences). There are more faculty under CLAS (they do theoretical work); I was under the impression that there are very few IFAS faculty (there are so few CLAS faculty to begin with, due to the recent budget cuts and the recent and tragic loss of Casella) but I don't know much about Biostats departments. 

 

Nikolay was very kind and has a lot of research going on, I seem to remember that he has some students (and he talked about the work that students have done as well). I am not sure who your POI are at UF but I had a great time in Gainesville when I visited, you might find it worthwhile to fly over if they are willing to pay for the trip. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions regarding the department or the campus (which was lovely!)

 

Thanks,

Nick

Hello Nick,

 

Thank you for your kind reply. I think statistics program at UF is really good. Do you plan to go there?

 

Hopenxx

[student12345]

Hello Nick,

 

Thank you for your kind reply. I think statistics program at UF is really good. Do you plan to go there?

 

Hopenxx

 

Hi Hopenxx,

 

I am currently leaning towards UNC as there are more faculty there doing the kind of work I'm interested in, but UF is a great option as well and their offer is making the decision very hard for me. 

 

Nick

[biostat_prof]

I'm not very familiar with UF's biostatistics department, but just eye balling their list of faculty they seem to be decent, although very small. There is definitely some methodological work going on and some of their junior faculty look fairly promising, but I don't see regular publications in the best journals. And from the perspective of a prospective student, I would be concerned about the fact that they have so few faculty members, because it may be difficult to find a strong adviser in one's area of interest. (I would almost certainly choose UNC over UF unless one wanted to live in Florida or something; UNC's department is much stronger overall.) Also, this is complete gossip, but I was told at one point that there is a long-running feud between the stat and biostat departments at UF to the point that the faculty from the two departments barely even talk to one another. Take this for what it's worth: it may be completely false, and even if there was some truth to this story it may no longer be true. But if I were a prospective biostatistics student thinking of working with an adviser in the statistics department, I would try to find out how often this happens and if both departments are supportive of the idea.

[student12345]

I'm not very familiar with UF's biostatistics department, but just eye balling their list of faculty they seem to be decent, although very small. There is definitely some methodological work going on and some of their junior faculty look fairly promising, but I don't see regular publications in the best journals. And from the perspective of a prospective student, I would be concerned about the fact that they have so few faculty members, because it may be difficult to find a strong adviser in one's area of interest. (I would almost certainly choose UNC over UF unless one wanted to live in Florida or something; UNC's department is much stronger overall.) Also, this is complete gossip, but I was told at one point that there is a long-running feud between the stat and biostat departments at UF to the point that the faculty from the two departments barely even talk to one another. Take this for what it's worth: it may be completely false, and even if there was some truth to this story it may no longer be true. But if I were a prospective biostatistics student thinking of working with an adviser in the statistics department, I would try to find out how often this happens and if both departments are supportive of the idea.

 

Not sure if the UNC comment was directed towards me; my program is Statistics, not Biostatistics. The two programs seem comparable but UNC has an advantage with their more notable faculty. I'd agree that UNC over UF is clear for Biostats. 

 

And Jim Hobert, the graduate coordinator of UF's department, seemed very positive about me talking to Nikolay so perhaps there is no longer any animosity.