CMU vs. UMich Statistics Ph.D.

[justgoSUPERSAIYAN]

Hi,

 

I am trying to decide between these two programs. I intend to go into academia after finishing and, like everyone, would like to have options for what institution I go to. Is CMU's program head-and-shoulders above UMich's, or could UMich help me to equally good job placement? Any thoughts are much appreciated!

[cyberwulf]

I would rate them as fairly equal. Michigan stat grads have had some really good placements in both stat and biostat departments over the past few years.

[cicada2014]

depends on what you want. If you got into CMU ML-stats joint program, then go there and don't look back (although Michigan's ML seems pretty good, CMU cannot be beat for ML).

[StatPhD2014]

Hi,

I am trying to decide between these two programs. I intend to go into academia after finishing and, like everyone, would like to have options for what institution I go to. Is CMU's program head-and-shoulders above UMich's, or could UMich help me to equally good job placement? Any thoughts are much appreciated!

The job placements for Carnegie Mellon is online, you should check it out. In terms of academic placement it doesn't look great, for Michigan you can call or email them and they will give you some recent placement information, it sees they have better placements than Carnegie Mellon. I agree with CW that Michigan has had some impressive placements over the past few years

Edited March 28, 2014 by StatPhD2014

[StatPhD2014]

Below is the link for placements, you can google their names to find out exactly what position they obtained, some are post-docs and some are tenure track positions, a quick search will reveal which one. 

 

http://www.stat.cmu.edu/academics/graduate/recent-phd-dissertations

[stats applicant]

I'm on the same boat.

I am going to focus ML during my Phd, but I wasn't accepted to CMU joint program. Now I'm trying to choose between the two.

The faculty at my university all recommend CMU, and I was under the impression that they are extremely good in ML, but looking at those job placement it indeed doesn't look that impressive. 

 

Any insights would be greatly appreciated. If anyone can also share some inside information about Pittsburgh/Ann Arbor, or the departments atmosphere that would also be great.  

[justgoSUPERSAIYAN]

It doesn't really seem to me that UMich Stat has better placements then CMU Stat. Here are some CMU's that I picked out since '91.

 

Duke University 6

Carnegie Mellon University 4

University of California, Berkeley 3

Ohio State University 2

University of Michigan 1

University of Washington 1

North Carolina State University 1

Cornell University 1

Iowa State University 1

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 1

[StatPhD2014]

It doesn't really seem to me that UMich Stat has better placements then CMU Stat. Here are some CMU's that I picked out since '91.

 

Duke University 6

Carnegie Mellon University 4

University of California, Berkeley 3

Ohio State University 2

University of Michigan 1

University of Washington 1

North Carolina State University 1

Cornell University 1

Iowa State University 1

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 1

dig a little deeper the vast majority of those are post docs. Its probably also better to look at more recent years (say past 5-10 years)

Edited March 29, 2014 by StatPhD2014

[statisticsfall2014]

CMU!

[agent229]

I'm going to piggyback here... I am really struggling to choose between CMU and Cornell... any thoughts? CMU seems better "on paper" but multiple advisors have told me Cornell may be a better choice overall. I really liked both departments when I visited.

[wine in coffee cups]

I think the placements coming out of Michigan and CMU look equivalent, though I only Googled the names of students from the past couple years of Michigan grads. I see lots of data scientists in the past couple of years from Michigan. CMU has some recent placements suggestive of a two body solution. I don't have the impression that one school is likely to set you up for better opportunities than the other.

 

Postdocs seem common in statistics now even for people with strong CVs coming out of a PhD. I wouldn't view those as questionable placements unless they were with unknown groups. A friend from my department last year had many interviews and received several tenure-track offers. She accepted one of those offers but deferred its start to do a postdoc at a well-known research institute with a focus on her specialization. If you're going to become faculty anywhere besides a very large department, you might not have many opportunities to collaborate locally with people who work in your area of research because you might well be the only person or one of a few people. You can use a postdoc to work with the giants in your area and build up a network of potential collaborators from other institutions before becoming more isolated in a faculty job. Postdocs are also a final opportunity to live somewhere interesting for a year or two before being more at the mercy of the academic job market in terms of location. If you are being rather picky about where you apply for faculty jobs, strengthening your research with a postdoc while waiting a year or two for the right openings makes some sense.

 

As for choosing: first, remember that both are good options and there are no real mistakes to be made here. At this level of program, placement is not really a deciding factor. I think if you are very interested in machine learning AND you can work on ML research without being in the joint program (I don't know if this is the case or not), the CMU makes more sense. If you are generally undecided, I think Michigan might be better as it is an overall more well-rounded department than CMU, quite large, and has a great biostatistics department too. I really hope you visit both schools and talk to as many students and faculty as you can, though. You want a place where you can fit in happily for 5 years, and that is basically impossible to judge without being on site. Some departments are more tightly knit than others, and it's nice to be at a supportive department with students/faculty who generally like being around each other. I would also think about whether you'd rather live in Pittsburgh or Ann Arbor, obviously.

[wine in coffee cups]

I'm going to piggyback here... I am really struggling to choose between CMU and Cornell... any thoughts? CMU seems better "on paper" but multiple advisors have told me Cornell may be a better choice overall. I really liked both departments when I visited.

Did you advisors elaborate on why Cornell might be a better choice overall than CMU?

[justgoSUPERSAIYAN]

Thanks for the responses! For what it's worth, here is what the department head at a top program had to say to me on the matter. I also have an offer from Cornell.

 

"They are all great PhD programs, but I'd rank them CMU > UM >> Cornell.  I'd probably rank CMU's Statistics department equal to Harvard's, if not better.  It has more breadth and depth, and many terrific faculty (including two of my former PhD students,                 and                  ).  CMU has long been a leader in statistical computing, too.

 

We would hire from any of them: we look at individuals' work, letters of reference, research and teaching statements, publications, etc. But we do consider who wrote the letters of reference...

 

Congratulations on having several great choices!"

[agent229]

Did you advisors elaborate on why Cornell might be a better choice overall than CMU?

 

One just thinks the small college town would be a better overall experience, the other mentioned that he thinks it's "overall a stronger and more interesting institution". However... that person is actually not in statistics, so maybe that advice is not really helpful.

 

 

Thanks for the responses! For what it's worth, here is what the department head at a top program had to say to me on the matter. I also have an offer from Cornell.

 

"They are all great PhD programs, but I'd rank them CMU > UM >> Cornell.  I'd probably rank CMU's Statistics department equal to Harvard's, if not better.  It has more breadth and depth, and many terrific faculty (including two of my former PhD students,                 and                  ).  CMU has long been a leader in statistical computing, too.

 

We would hire from any of them: we look at individuals' work, letters of reference, research and teaching statements, publications, etc. But we do consider who wrote the letters of reference...

 

Congratulations on having several great choices!"

 

 

Thanks! This is helpful!

[wine in coffee cups]

One just thinks the small college town would be a better overall experience, the other mentioned that he thinks it's "overall a stronger and more interesting institution". However... that person is actually not in statistics, so maybe that advice is not really helpful.

IMO these are not great reasons, no disrespect to your mentors but when receiving similarly well meaning but not-very-helpful not-very-informed advice from a lot of the non-stats people I worked with, this was just added noise making a decision harder for me.

 

I'm sure you have your own location opinions, but let me just add a counterpoint to the "small college town" argument. If you stay in academia, you're fairly likely to end up in a college town after your PhD for a postdoc or professorship, so you're not really missing your one opportunity to live in a collegiate area if you choose Pittsburgh over Ithaca. I personally see it as the opposite tradeoff: I would want to go to grad school in a city I love and enjoy my (sadly dwindling) youth in an exciting place where I can enjoy the non-academic things that matter to me most, have some friends who have no current affiliation with the local university, etc.

 

As for the "overall a stronger and more interesting institution" argument, I'm unmoved. I think that's just saying that Cornell is Ivy League institution most laypeople have heard of with a full array of departments, while CMU is more specialized, maybe like a poor man's MIT. I think for any job you would reasonably want to use a statistics PhD (or consolation master's?) to attain, though, both departments are going to look great, CMU maybe a little better. I don't have the impression that researchers in Cornell's statistics department have stronger connections to other departments at Cornell than CMU researchers do to other departments at CMU, which would be the main reason something like "interesting"ness should matter.

[stats_applicant]

I think this highlights an important point: whether you decide you prefer the small college town or the larger city, I do think it's important to seriously consider where you would like to live.  Many of the other students I met on my visits weighted academic program quality as 90 to 95 percent of their decision, but I personally factored in geographic location and non-academic lifestyle much more heavily.  I think in many cases the differences in academic experience for programs ranked similarly may be marginal, so you may as well choose somewhere that you'll be happy living for five years.