2014 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results for Statistics/Biostatistics

[Stat Assistant Professor]

They do this over at mathematicsgre.com. Thought it might be fun to see it for statistics/biostatistics. Fall 2014 applicants: please fill out this template.

 

 

Undergrad Institution: (School or type of school (such as Big state/Lib Arts/Ivy/Technical/Foreign (Country?))
Major(s):
Minor(s):
GPA:

Type of Student: (Domestic/International (Country?), Male/Female?, Minority?)

GRE General Test:
Q: xxx (xx%)
V: xxx (xx%)
W: x.x (xx%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: xxx (xx%)

TOEFL Score: (xx = Rxx/Lxx/Sxx/Wxx) (if applicable)

Grad Institution: (school or type of school?) (if applicable)

Concentration:
GPA:
 

Programs Applying: (Statistics/Operation Research/Biostatistics/Financial Math/etc.)

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications or conference talks etc...)
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...)

Letters of Recommendation: (what kinds of professors? "well-known" in field? etc.)
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: (Such as connections, grad classes, etc...)

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined
School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined
School - Program / Admitted/Rejected/Waitlisted/Pending on (date) / Accepted/Declined

 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Undergrad Institution: Ivy League
Major(s): Government

Minor(s): Asian Studies
GPA: 3.51
Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

Grad Institution: Top 70 Math (US News)
Concentration: MS in Applied Mathematics
GPA: 3.91

GRE General Test:
Q: 164 (89%)
V: 166 (96%)
W: 6.0 (99%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 660 (52%) - from 2009, did not submit to most schools

Program Applying: Statistics, one machine learning (all PhD)

Research Experience: Just class projects and research seminars
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: University teaching award for TAing
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for probability and discrete math, TA for statistics. For the past two years I have working in industry (engineering). Some statistical algorithm design work, programming MATLAB.
Letters of Recommendation: 2 from math professors, 1 from statistics professor. One was from a research seminar professor so he spoke about my research capabilities

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: "non-traditional" student. However, I took a bunch of math classes as a non-degree student after graduating, while working full-time (before I began my Master's program)

Applying to Where:

Harvard - rejected 2/13
UC Berkeley 
Washington - rejected 1/31
Duke - rejected 1/29
UCLA
Carnegie Mellon - Machine Learning - rejected 2/17
Michigan - rejected 2/10
Minnesota
North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Florida - accepted 2/13
Rice
University of Connecticut
UMass Amherst - withdrew 2/13
Oregon State University - withdrew 2/13

Edited February 19, 2014 by Stat Applicant

[cyprusprior]

Undergrad Institution: Top 20 small liberal arts college
Major(s):  BS Biology
GPA: 3.74

Type of Student: Domestic Male

 

Masters Institution: 2nd-tier medium sized research university
Concentration:  MS Stats/ Applied Math (terminal masters, very applied, spread out over several years via night classes)
GPA: 4.0

GRE General Test:

I took the Kaplan class and contrary to my expectations it helped a lot.

Q: 170(98%)
V: 166 (96%)
W: 5.0 (93%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
Did not take
 

Programs Applying: Biostatistics, Statistics, Computational Biology

Research Experience: plenty of bio research experience including 1 publication, none relevant to PhD programs.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Fulbright, various departmental awards at undergrad institution, no awards at grad institution.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: worked as a software tester for 5 years. Learned a ton about programming and databases, forgot a ton of linear algebra and real analysis.

Letters of Recommendation: one stat professor, one biostat professor (both from grad inst.), one undergrad bio professor who was my research advisor. Good relationships with all three.

Applying to Where:
Biostats:

UW (Seattle)- admitted January

Harvard- invited to interview January, accepted Feb

Hopkins- invited to interview January, withdrew application

UNC- admitted Jan/Feb

Minnesota- admitted Jan/Feb

Berkeley- admitted Feb, turned down offer

Michigan- admitted Feb

Emory- ???

UCLA- ???

 

Stats:

NC State- admitted January, turned down offer

 

Comp. Bio:

Duke- invited to interview Jan/Feb

Yale- invited to interview, withdrew application

Carnegie-Mellon/ Pitt- invited to interview, withdrew application

Stanford- rejected via postal mail, Jan/Feb

UCSD- ???

Edited February 19, 2014 by cyprusprior

[effhorses]

Undergrad Institution: Big state school, well-regarded but not super elite
Majors: Math (Statistics concentration), Economics
Minor: Philosophy
GPA: 3.9

Type of Student: American white guy

GRE General Test:
Q: 164 (89%)
V: 167 (97%)
W: 4.5 (78%)

 

Math GRE: didn't take

 

Programs Applying: Statistics PhD

Research Experience: Some experience with statistics research at internship, but no publications
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list, various academic honors (mostly for good grades)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Intern at federal agency

Letters of Recommendation: Supervisor at internship is fairly well-known, and my limited research experience came working with him. One came from an economics professor who taught econometrics-focused classes, letter was assuredly very positive. One came from a math professor who taught probability theory, not sure how positive the letter was but I was one of the top students in the class.

Applying to Where: 
Carnegie Mellon University / Rejected on 2/14

University of Washington / Rejected on 1/23 
Harvard University / Admitted on 1/29

University of Michigan 

Duke University / Rejected on 2/7

UCLA

Columbia University

Northwestern University / phone interview on 2/20

Iowa State University / Admitted 2/9 / declined 2/13

UC-Davis / withdrew 2/8

University of Illinois / withdrew 2/8

[StatsPhD]

Undergrad Institution: Big state school, well-regarded but not super eliteMajors: Math (Statistics concentration), EconomicsMinor: PhilosophyGPA: 3.9

Type of Student: American white guyGRE General Test:

Q: 164 (89%)V: 167 (97%)W: 4.5 (78%)

 

Math GRE: didn't take

 

Programs Applying: Statistics PhDResearch Experience: Some experience with statistics research at internship, but no publicationsAwards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list, various academic honors (mostly for good grades)Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Intern at federal agency

Letters of Recommendation: Supervisor at internship is fairly well-known, and my limited research experience came working with him. One came from an economics professor who taught econometrics-focused classes, letter was assuredly very positive. One came from a math professor who taught probability theory, not sure how positive the letter was but I was one of the top students in the class.Applying to Where: 

Carnegie Mellon University / Rejected on 2/14

University of Washington / Rejected on 1/23 

Harvard University / Admitted on 1/29

University of Michigan 

Duke University / Rejected on 2/7

UCLA

Columbia University

Northwestern University / phone interview on 2/20

Iowa State University / Admitted 2/9 / declined 2/13

UC-Davis / withdrew 2/8

University of Illinois / withdrew 2/8

I'm sorry but you really do not deserve to go to Harvard.

[mittensmitten895]

I'm sorry but you really do not deserve to go to Harvard.

 

What a ridiculous statement to make!  You have a small window into the admissions process and suddenly you can make a better decision than a whole committee of experienced Harvard faculty members did with a lot more information than what you see here?!  It sounds like sour grapes on your part, and you should wonder if your entitled personality is holding you back from attaining the success you "deserve."

 

P.S. You're screwing up our already-skewed sample by discouraging certain types of profiles from reporting.  I hope you're not interested in survey research.

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Co-sign, mittsmitten895. effhorses definitely sounds like an impressive candiate.

 

I thought my own profile was relatively unimpressive compared to most people's (my undergrad GPA is undoubtedly lower than a lot of applicants), so i was hoping that this would not discourage people from posting their stats... though obviously, there are problems with trying to gather data like this to begin with. I would not be surpirsed if UF is the only school I am admitted to. Haha.

[CauchyProcess]

Undergrad Institution: UC Santa Barbara
Majors: Statistical Science B.S., Psychology B.A., minor in Russian
GPA: 3.91, rank is either 1st in department or very close

Type of Student: DWM

GRE General Test:
Q: 168 (96%)
V: 165 (95%)
W: 5.5 (97%)

 

Math GRE: did not take

 

Research Experience: NSF REU in Artificial Intelligence, resulted in a poster
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Honors Program
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Math Tutor for 2 years in group format basically identical to discussion sections

Letters of Recommendation: 1 from chair of undergrad program, 1 from professor who taught a stochastic processes series where I did an honors contract, 1 from REU mentor. None (to my knowledge) are well-known.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Grad classes in Measure Theory & Time Series Analysis, worked in a psych lab for a bit, 3 years student government experience including co-chairing a 500-person $70,000-budget conference.

Research Interests: Applications to social, economic, and political sciences.
 

Applying to Where: 
Stanford - Management Science & Engineering, Probability & Stochastic Systems Track / Pending, but unlikely since they have admitted other applicants

Columbia - Statistics / Pending, but unlikely since they have admitted other applicants

Princeton - Operations Research & Financial Engineering / Rejected

Brown - Applied Mathematics / Rejected

UC Berkeley - Statistics / Pending, but unlikely since they have admitted other applicants

UCLA - Statistics / Pending

NYU Stern - Statistics / Pending

UCSC - Statistics & Applied Mathematics / Accepted, 24k fellowship

UCI - Statistics / Pending

UCSB - Statistics / Shortlisted, no info yet on possible funding

SUNY Stony Brook - Applied Mathematics & Statistics / Accepted, 17k TAship

I hope this form lets me edit and update it in the future.. if not I'll re-post my results later on.
 

Edited February 20, 2014 by CauchyProcess

[coffeehouse]

Effhorses definitely had strong letters. Impressing the right people is a skill in itself, you can't do that by luck.

[wine in coffee cups]

FYI, this forum imposes short time limits on editing, unlike mathematicsgre.com, which is why profile posts work well there and don't work here. You might use the signature feature to track acceptances/rejections/waitlists, which can be edited at any time and would have the advantage of following you around to other threads. (There are so many people here this year whose usernames are variations on "Stat PhD Applicant" or that start with "c" that this curious onlooker can't keep anyone straight, but a signature might help disambiguate )

[CarpeDiem]

is there anyone who receives any messages from unc?

when can i expect to get a result from unc??

[clurp]

UNC stats sent out a first round of acceptances. The fact that they used the phrase "first round" suggests to me that they are likely to make more offers down the road. 

Edited February 20, 2014 by clurp

[Stat Assistant Professor]

FYI, this forum imposes short time limits on editing, unlike mathematicsgre.com, which is why profile posts work well there and don't work here. You might use the signature feature to track acceptances/rejections/waitlists, which can be edited at any time and would have the advantage of following you around to other threads. (There are so many people here this year whose usernames are variations on "Stat PhD Applicant" or that start with "c" that this curious onlooker can't keep anyone straight, but a signature might help disambiguate )

Thanks for the tip, wine in coffee cups. I have updated my signature. It would still be pretty neat if other people could post their stats, so we could see what the competition was like this year.

 

Don't be shy,folks.  I guarantee everyone here that my undergraduate GPA will be amongst the lowest in this very strong applicant pool. I was a bit of a "late bloomer" though (due to some personal issues and immaturity at the time, I did not perform well until later on in my college career and in my post-college career when I started to take math classes as a non-degree student). Luckily two adcoms were able to see past the undergrad GPA.

[adagietto]

is there anyone who receives any messages from unc?

when can i expect to get a result from unc??

 

If it's biostats, the recruitment weekend begins tomorrow, but you're definitely not out of the running.

 

EDIT: Until you receive a rejection. Many schools do "rounds" of admission, from what it seems like. UNC's deadline wasn't until recently though, so the weekend was only extended to those who applied earlier than the deadline.

Edited February 20, 2014 by adagietto

[agent229]

Undergrad Institution: Large state school, not particularly highly ranked
Major(s): Mathematics (focus on pure math)
Minor(s): Computer science
GPA: 3.9

Type of Student: American Female

GRE General Test:
Q: 168 (96%)
V: 168 (98%)
W: 5.5 (97%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: N/A
 

Programs Applying: Statistics PhD

Research Experience: REU at a very interdisciplinary place where I did a machine learning project, leading to presentation at undergrad math conference
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutored while in undergrad, taught high school math/programming after graduating from undergrad

Letters of Recommendation: One math professor, one CS professor who is probably fairly well known, and my REU advisor

Applying to Where: 
Carnegie Mellon - Statistics and Joint Program in Machine Learning / Admitted (to both programs)

UW Madison - Statistics (with Biostat concentration, after professor contacted me about a fellowship) / Admitted

Colorado State - Statistics / Admitted

Purdue - Statistics / Admitted

Cornell - Statistics / Admitted

U Michigan Ann Arbor - Statistics / Waitlisted (notified by email on 2/20)

Berkeley - Statistics / Pending on 2/20

U Chicago - Statistics / Pending on 2/20

University of Washington - Statistics / Rejected

Harvard - Statistics / Rejected

Edited February 20, 2014 by agent229

[statshopeful2014]

 

Undergrad Institution: Ivy League

Major(s): Government

Minor(s): Asian Studies

GPA: 3.51

Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

Grad Institution: Top 70 Math (US News)

Concentration: MS in Applied Mathematics

GPA: 3.91

GRE General Test:

Q: 164 (89%)

V: 166 (96%)

W: 6.0 (99%)

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:

M: 660 (52%) - from 2009, did not submit to most schools

Program Applying: Statistics, one machine learning (all PhD)

Research Experience: Just class projects and research seminars

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: University teaching award for TAing

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for probability and discrete math, TA for statistics. For the past two years I have working in industry (engineering). Some statistical algorithm design work, programming MATLAB.

Letters of Recommendation: 2 from math professors, 1 from statistics professor. One was from a research seminar professor so he spoke about my research capabilities

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: "non-traditional" student. However, I took a bunch of math classes as a non-degree student after graduating, while working full-time (before I began my Master's program)

Applying to Where:

Harvard - rejected 2/13

UC Berkeley 

Washington - rejected 1/31

Duke - rejected 1/29

UCLA

Carnegie Mellon - Machine Learning - rejected 2/17

Michigan - rejected 2/10

Minnesota

North Carolina-Chapel Hill

University of Florida - accepted 2/13

Rice

University of Connecticut

UMass Amherst - withdrew 2/13

Oregon State University - withdrew 2/13

 

 

 

Undergrad Institution: Top 20 small liberal arts college

Major(s):  BS Biology

GPA: 3.74

Type of Student: Domestic Male

 

Masters Institution: 2nd-tier medium sized research university

Concentration:  MS Stats/ Applied Math (terminal masters, very applied, spread out over several years via night classes)

GPA: 4.0

GRE General Test:

I took the Kaplan class and contrary to my expectations it helped a lot.

Q: 170(98%)

V: 166 (96%)

W: 5.0 (93%)

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:

Did not take

 

Programs Applying: Biostatistics, Statistics, Computational Biology

Research Experience: plenty of bio research experience including 1 publication, none relevant to PhD programs.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Fulbright, various departmental awards at undergrad institution, no awards at grad institution.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: worked as a software tester for 5 years. Learned a ton about programming and databases, forgot a ton of linear algebra and real analysis.

Letters of Recommendation: one stat professor, one biostat professor (both from grad inst.), one undergrad bio professor who was my research advisor. Good relationships with all three.

Applying to Where:

Biostats:

UW (Seattle)- admitted January

Harvard- invited to interview January, accepted Feb

Hopkins- invited to interview January, withdrew application

UNC- admitted Jan/Feb

Minnesota- admitted Jan/Feb

Berkeley- admitted Feb, turned down offer

Michigan- admitted Feb

Emory- ???

UCLA- ???

 

Stats:

NC State- admitted January, turned down offer

 

Comp. Bio:

Duke- invited to interview Jan/Feb

Yale- invited to interview, withdrew application

Carnegie-Mellon/ Pitt- invited to interview, withdrew application

Stanford- rejected via postal mail, Jan/Feb

UCSD- ???

 

 

interesting to note that while the two above profiles are for the most part similar (of course it's hard to say anything about letters), that the applicant to biostats had a lot more acceptances than the stat applicant.  I wonder, Stat Applicant, if you had applied to biostats instead of stats if you would have gotten into most of the schools you were rejected from.   

Edited February 20, 2014 by statshopeful2014

[Stat Assistant Professor]

interesting to note that while the two above profiles are for the most part similar (of course it's hard to say anything about letters), that the applicant to biostats had a lot more acceptances than the stat applicant.  I wonder, Stat Applicant, if you had applied to biostats instead of stats if you would have gotten into most of the schools you were rejected from.   

I think it is likely I would have a better acceptance record if I had applied to biostats programs, but I wasn't sure I wanted to specialize in biostatistics so I just applied to pure stats programs. I was hoping that my grades in upper division math classes and my MS degree in applied math would be able to compensate for the undergrad GPA, but alas, it did not.

 

That's okay though, you ultimately only choose one school to attend, so I'm happy with UF so far.  In retrospect, I should have applied to more schools in the range of rankings of UF (and schools below that), with perhaps Purdue and CMU being my "reaches" instead of anywhere UMich or higher.

[ezballer1126]

Undergrad Institution: Big state school, pretty highly ranked amongst public schools (U of Florida)
Major(s): Stats, Criminology
Minor(s): Math
GPA: 3.83

Type of Student: American Male

GRE General Test:
Q: 170 (98%)
V: 159 (81%)
W: 3.5 (35%)

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: Nope

TOEFL Score: Nope

Grad Institution: Not yet

 

Programs Applying: Biostat (Mostly terminal MS, and one Ph.D)

Not sure if I want to continue to Ph.D or get out after masters

Research Experience:

3 semesters unpaid RA in psychology/law at UF.  Nothing biostat related.  No thesis/publication/conferences

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

Dean's list, cum laude...all related to high GPA, nothing more.  And Phi Beta Kappa honor society

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

TA for theoretical stats (STA4322) - second of 2 course undergrad sequence in theory (one semester)

TA for intro to stats 1 - basic freshman stats, mostly non-majors (one semester)

BS "stats" internship for a sports media website.  But i think I twisted it on my resume to make it sound like a relevant stats internship (one year)

 

Letters of Recommendation: 1) The stats prof I TAed for (4322).  Young, not very well-known. But probably wrote a good letter because he knew me well, especially concerning my ability to teach.

2) Stats prof who taught me for 2 semesters  (A's in both).  Didnt know me personally, told me he just described the 2 courses in the letter, and said I did well in them.  Old guy who's been around the block a bit in stats, but not particularly well-known.

3) Head prof of research lab I worked in. Criminology prof, not stats related at all, but corroborated my research experience, which probably helped.  Young, not very well-known outside of my university.

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Nope

Applying to Where:
Ohio State - MS Biostat -Accepted 1/9/14

Emory - MSPH Biostat - Accepted 2/6/14

UNC - MS Biostat - Accepted 2/6/14

UF - Ph.D. Biostat - Accepted with funding through RA 2/19/14

UC Berkeley - MA Biostat - still waiting

Duke - Master Biostat - still waiting

Hopkins - MS Biostat - still waiting

[BoFoSho]

Undergrad Institution: Top 10 Private University (US News)
Major(s):  Economics

Minor(s): Mathematics (started too late to get the major  )
GPA: 3.84

Type of Student: Domestic White Male

Grad Institution: Ivy League

Concentration: MS in Statistics

GPA: 3.73

 

GRE General Test:
Q: 170 (98%)
V: 166 (96%)
W: 4.5 (78%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 790 (79%)

 

Programs Applying: Statistics PhD

Research Experience: Some econ research; Work as an RA for a stat prof - no publications
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Some minor departmental stuff for econ
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: None

Letters of Recommendation: The (associate) stat professor I am a RA for; two other statistics professors I took classes from - one from my undergrad (almost surely unknown) and one from my MS program (possibly well-known).
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Not an incompetent programmer

Applying to Where: (All Stat PhD unless otherwise noted)

Berkeley - Accepted

Carnegie Mellon - Accepted (Rejected from Joint ML program)

Columbia - Pending

Hahvahd - Accepted

Michigan - Accepted

Stanford - Rejected

UChicago - Pending

Washington- Accepted

Wisconsin- Accepted

[prashanth058]

Undergrad Institution: India
Major(s):Civil Engineering
Minor(s):
GPA:4/4 (WES Evaluation)

Type of Student: International , Male

GRE General Test:
Q: 168(96%)
V: 152 (53%)
W: 3.5 (35%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: NA

TOEFL Score: (100 = R27/L26/S22/W25)
Grad Institution:

Concentration:
GPA:
 

Programs Applying: Statistics Masters

Research Experience: One international Publication in the field of Machine learning and one under review.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Deans list for three years.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor for one year on www.studentoffortune.com( I don't think this was given any consideration)

Letters of Recommendation: 2 Letters from mathematics professors and one from a Civil Engineering professor.


Applying to Where:
 Washington-Rejected via Email on 15th Feb
 NCSU  - Rejected via email on 18th Feb
 Michigan -Admitted via email on 19th feb

 Chicago- Pending

 Texas A & M- Pending

 UIUC(MS in Analytics)- Pending

 UNC- Pending

[Lia92]

Undergrad Institution: Small liberal arts school, but very highly ranked.
Major(s):  Mathematics

Minor(s): Biomathematics
GPA: 3.82

Type of Student: Domestic Asian female

Grad Institution: none

Concentration: 

GPA: 

 

GRE General Test:
Q: 161 (81%)
V: 157 (73%)
W: 4.5 (78%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
I didn't take it.

 

Programs Applying: Biostatistics PhD

Research Experience: I've had multiple research experiences, none particularly in biostatistics, but two biomathematics projects, a statistics project, and currently beginning a biostats project. Publication is currently being written for submission for review. I have presented my work at 2 conferences.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Some scholarships, Dean's list
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Department grader, tutoring

Letters of Recommendation: An assistant professor who teaches the stats courses here, an associate math professor and associate biology professor, both of whom I did research with.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I have various relevant programming experience. My stats professor has a connection with UNC, and an admissions board member at UTSPH is one of our alumni who met with me, and we got along quite well.

Applying to Where: Mostly biostats PhD programs (unless noted otherwise)

Ohio State - Accepted (1/10)

University of Washington (Seattle) - Rejected (1/13)

UNC-CH - Accepted (1/13)

Minnesota - Waitlisted (1/18)

University of Texas School of Public Health (Houston) - Accepted (1/20)

Emory - Rejected, Accepted to MSPH program, but I declined (2/4)

NCSU - (Stats program) Rejected (2/6)

Virginia Tech - (Stats program with a bioinformatics track) Accepted (2/24)

Boston University - Pending

University of Pittsburgh - Pending

Vanderbilt - Pending

[Lia92]

Update: 

Ohio State - Accepted (1/10) Funding offer (3/18)

University of Washington (Seattle) - Rejected (1/13)

UNC-CH - Accepted (1/13) Funding offer (2/27)

Minnesota - Waitlisted (1/18)

University of Texas School of Public Health (Houston) - Accepted (1/20) Unofficial funding offer (3/19)

Emory - Rejected, Accepted to MSPH program (2/4) Declined Offer

NCSU - (Stats program) Rejected (2/6)

Virginia Tech - (Stats program with a bioinformatics track) Accepted and funding offer (2/24) Declined Offer

Boston University - I accidentally applied to the MS program instead of the PhD (woops). Accepted (3/14) Decline Offer

University of Pittsburgh - Waitlisted (3/25) Declined Offer

Vanderbilt - Pending

[biostat_prof]

I don't want to discourage anyone from posting information that could help other applicants. However, I do think it is worth noting that you should not expect anonymity if you post as much detail as some people have posted on this thread. I'm pretty sure I could guess the real identity of a couple posters on this thread based on their applications to my department. So I guess I thought it was worth noting that if you post this much information on this thread, I recommend that you do not say anything here that you wouldn't want an admissions committee (or a faculty member in your future department) to read.

[cyberwulf]

It's not that hard to figure out who's who, true, but in my several years reading this board I have seen very few instances where people have posted comments that might negatively impact their chances of admission. 

 

These detailed profiles and admissions results lists are very helpful to future applicants (and, honestly, to faculty as well), so many thanks to those who are providing this public "service".

[CauchyProcess]

 

Undergrad Institution: UC Santa Barbara

Majors: Statistical Science B.S., Psychology B.A., minor in Russian

GPA: 3.91, rank is either 1st in department or very close

Type of Student: DWM

GRE General Test:

Q: 168 (96%)

V: 165 (95%)

W: 5.5 (97%)

 

Math GRE: did not take

 

Research Experience: NSF REU in Artificial Intelligence, resulted in a poster

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Honors Program

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Math Tutor for 2 years in group format basically identical to discussion sections

Letters of Recommendation: 1 from chair of undergrad program, 1 from professor who taught a stochastic processes series where I did an honors contract, 1 from REU mentor. None (to my knowledge) are well-known.

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Grad classes in Measure Theory & Time Series Analysis, worked in a psych lab for a bit, 3 years student government experience including co-chairing a 500-person $70,000-budget conference.

Research Interests: Applications to social, economic, and political sciences.

I hope this form lets me edit and update it in the future.. if not I'll re-post my results later on.

 

 

Here's a small update to anyone that may be interested.

 

Applying to Where: 

Stanford - Management Science & Engineering, Probability & Stochastic Systems Track / Rejected from PhD, accepted to Master's with no funding, can't go

Columbia - Statistics / Still pending as of March 28th, presuming rejection

Princeton - Operations Research & Financial Engineering / Rejected

Brown - Applied Mathematics / Rejected

UC Berkeley - Statistics / Rejected

UCLA - Statistics / Waitlisted

NYU Stern - Statistics / Rejected

UCSC - Statistics & Applied Mathematics / Accepted, 24k fellowship

UCI - Statistics / Accepted, 17k TAship

UCSB - Statistics / Accepted, no info on funding

SUNY Stony Brook - Applied Mathematics & Statistics / Accepted, 24k TAship

 

Just finished visiting all of the departments that accepted me, still need to think a bit about what I want to do, but leaning UCSC since it seems the more I've been reading papers/books/etc about Bayesian statistics, the more interested I've gotten in the topic. And, they offered me a full fellowship, which is big plus because I don't want to TA.  

 

I don't want to discourage anyone from posting information that could help other applicants. However, I do think it is worth noting that you should not expect anonymity if you post as much detail as some people have posted on this thread. I'm pretty sure I could guess the real identity of a couple posters on this thread based on their applications to my department. So I guess I thought it was worth noting that if you post this much information on this thread, I recommend that you do not say anything here that you wouldn't want an admissions committee (or a faculty member in your future department) to read.

 

 

 

That's no doubt the case for me given my posts, and precisely the reason I did not post anything until a good deal into the process, at which point my applications would have probably been read already. But in the end, this is just some forum on the internet - are faculty really going to be spending their highly valuable time reading it?

Edited March 28, 2014 by CauchyProcess