Yet Another Request for Stats Phd Chances Eval

[persistent_homology]

Hello I would really appreciate any thoughts you could give me on my chances.

 

I am from the UK studying a 4 year undergraduate/masters course in mathematics at a good UK university.

 

GRE scores: Verbal:169, Quantitative: 164, Writing:4.5.

 

Grades are good, (1^st class in UK system), grades most likely place me in top 1 or 2 in year.

 

Taken standard stats modules, as well as a data mining course, taking Bayesian Inference this semester and

mathematical statistics next.

 

Taken standard calculus, diff eqs, linear algebra, computing with fortran, functional analysis. Taken graduate courses in measure theory, geometric analysis, geometric group theory, algebraic topology, differential geometry.

 

Dissertation is on random matrix theory.

 

Research experience: spent two summers researching with department. First summer in probability/analysis area resulted in a publication at a decent journal. Second summer also in probability/analysis, resulted in a paper, should be submitting soon, but unlikely to be accepted by application deadlines.

 

References should be good, with one or two being very good (fingers crossed).

 

Misc: Have a blog where I discuss statistics/machine learning/computational topology stuff I've implemented in Python started this summer..

 

My interests are in topological/geometric methods in statistics/machine learning, random matrix theory and applications like compressed sensing and deep learning.

 

At the moment I will applying to Alberta, Toronto, CMU, Duke, Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan and Wharton in Pennsylvannia

for stats/machine learning phd.

 

Please let me know if you think this is remotely realistic, or if you have any good ideas for other places to look into. My dream choice would be Stanford, but I don't think its worth taking the subject gre for such a long shot.

 

Greatly appreciated!

 

 

[DMX]

dude, you will get in everywhere. Add Stanford to the list if you are interested in ML.

Edited October 21, 2013 by DMX

[persistent_homology]

dude, you will get in everywhere. Add Stanford to the list if you are interested in ML.

I am glad that you think so! The problem is I think that I am international and so cost a lot more. Stanford would be amazing, but then I would have to take the math gre just to apply to one place.

[cyberwulf]

dude, you will get in everywhere. Add Stanford to the list if you are interested in ML.

 

Let's not get carried away here. The OP has a very good profile, but competition is extremely stiff at the top stat departments so I suspect results may be a bit more mixed. I think the list is reasonable; Alberta and Toronto are probably pretty safe bets, with CMU/Wharton being less certain (though I think OP's chances of admission to at least one of these are decent). Cost is rarely considered when admitting international students--often because graduate students receive in-state tuition rates through an agreement with the university--so that shouldn't be a barrier to admission.

[persistent_homology]

Let's not get carried away here. The OP has a very good profile, but competition is extremely stiff at the top stat departments so I suspect results may be a bit more mixed. I think the list is reasonable; Alberta and Toronto are probably pretty safe bets, with CMU/Wharton being less certain (though I think OP's chances of admission to at least one of these are decent). Cost is rarely considered when admitting international students--often because graduate students receive in-state tuition rates through an agreement with the university--so that shouldn't be a barrier to admission.

I am glad to hear that international students do not perhaps cost as much as I thought!

 

I would be thrilled to go to either Toronto or Alberta so I am much less anxious about my prospects now thank you.

 

The main reason I made this post is to see whether I needed to make more applications, but I am extremely short on cash, so hopefully I can get away with having these few, although of course there are never any guarantees.

 

Thank you again.

[cyberwulf]

The key determinants of your success will mainly be:

- the reputation of your school

- the strength of your letters of recommendation

 

It's hard to "chance" you accurately without knowing more specific details; feel free to PM if you want. One thing to consider is that funding can be awfully tight at Canadian universities, so you might want to broaden your list to include a couple of larger U.S. stat departments such as North Carolina State and Purdue. And if you're interested in ML then Washington wouldn't be a bad option either.