Biostats PhD admission profile

[a563]

I posted a long time ago, but now that I'm actually applying and have a list of schools mostly complete, I figured I'd check in again!

 

School: Canadian university, reputable for math and stats

Major: Statistics

GPA: 3.75 (estimated - my school does not have a 4-point scale; also, higher if only considering major classes or all classes in previous 2 years) 

 

Research experience: Part-time research with a professor in biostatistics; full-time research with two others (one statistics, one biostatistics), with potential to be coauthored on one or two papers.

Letters of recommendation: from the three professors above

 

GRE: Not yet taken

 

Schools (all PhD Biostatistics): Harvard, Washington, UC Berkeley, Michigan, UNC Chapel Hill, Minnesota, UW-Madison

 

Appreciate any feedback!

[cyberwulf]

This list of schools is *probably* going to yield a couple of admissions offers for you, but I would still advise adding a handful of somewhat lower-ranked biostat departments (Emory, Columbia, UCLA, Pitt) and/or some of the bigger stat departments (NC State, Iowa State, Ohio State) to give yourself a better safety net.

[a563]

Thanks for the reply! Of my list, which would you say are more likely, and which would be overly optimistic?

[cyberwulf]

Harvard is going to be a tough nut to crack for an international student. Washington gets a very large number of applicants, and a good fraction of the spots are earmarked for U.S. citizens/permanent residents. Berkeley is such a small program that results can be weird. Of your list, Wisconsin is probably your highest likelihood of admission, closely followed by Michigan, UNC, Minnesota, and Berkeley.

[qqyyzz]

A note about the UW-madison program.  I got accepted to their program when I applied two years ago.  I believe UW's biostat program doesn't accept students directly.  You must apply and be accepted to the stat program.  As a result if you're considering UW be warned that it will probably be more theoretical than a regular biostat program.