Would anyone accept me?

[Publius1]

do After earning my BA (Summa Cum Laude) and MA in social sciences (with distinction) from a T4 university in Ohio, I left for law school in Pennsylvania on a full ride T3 and decided that it was not for me. I cam back to T4 to work as a research assistant and complete course work for the Ph.D. as though I never left the MA program. In the process, I have been taking a series of quantitative methods class and this has become my biggest interest. I have taken:

Three non-calc based statistics courses in the social sciences. (Many extensions of multiple regression and very application oriented) Earned an A in all but one (A-)

An Intro to Econometrics course (with Calculus) (A-)

A Structural Equations Class (Psychology) (

During this time, I was taking two classes a semester and working in a full time research capacity. The other courses I took were:

Calc I (C-)

Calc II (C+)

Linear (Summer)

Before I apply, I would also have finished Calc III, Math for Graduate Econ Students and by the time I enrolled, I would have had Econometrics I and Prob Theory.

Based on this and the fact that I expect to get a Quant (80-85th percentile) and Verbal (70th percentile), do I have any hopes of studying statistics. I am really interested in application based programs. Do I have any chance of getting in? Are there any schools for which I seem like a good fit?

Thanks!

[nandelle]

To answer your title question, yes - a lot of people enter statistics with backgrounds in other fields.

Are you interested in doing a phD in stats or an MS? Is your end goal to work in academia/research or to work in industry or government? Without knowing that it's tricky to advise you as to what programs could potentially be good.

You're going to want to work hard, though, in your math courses. linear algebra is important for stats, and a good grade in Calc III will help offset your grades in Calc 1 and 2.

Would the prob theory course be calculus or non calculus based? I think that's the other thing it would be nice to have - a solid calculus based statistics course.

I'd suggest maybe going to talk to one (or several) of your stats teachers, and finding out what they'd recommend for you. They may have some interesting suggestions of universities well suited to your background and interests.

Best of luck! Statistics is awesome!

[Publius1]

Thanks Nandelle!

At this point, I would be interested in an MS in statistics. I would consider continuing on if I felt that I could handle the Ph.D. Eventually I would like to teach in Academia, but it might be in another topic. Ultimately though, I would want the training in statistics.

In terms of the Probability Theory course, one must have calcIII and linear to take it and therefore I believe it is a calc based course.

I greatly appreciate your reply.

[nandelle]

The probability theory course sounds like a solid upper level course.

Do you need funding for your master's degree, or would you go without funding?

Speaking from personal experience (ie sample size 1), I got into several good programs easily, but had a harder time securing funding (and my background, like yours, is a little skewed towards the applied). I guess they figure we'll make so much $$ when we graduate that they don't need to fund us, eh?

I know some of the top programs would be Berkeley, Chicago, Washington, Carnegie Mellon, and oh gosh I know I'm forgetting some. I do'nt know if I would apply there, if I were you. I might look at second tier schools where you might get more attention, and they may have more of an applied focus (Minnesota, UCSB has a phD in applied statistics I believe, and other programs).

In particular, if you're mainly interested in a master's degree, state schools usually offer very applied programs with some great business connections - if you would rather work after your master's degree, that's sometimes a good option.

Do you have a geographic region you're interested in? I was interested in the west coast, so that's where I researched schools.

[Publius1]

Although I would greatly prefer some sort of funding. I would definitely consider without funding. I am not really concerned nor do I think I am competitive for top programs. I would be happy with a good school that has a good job placement record. Maybe eventually I would consider going on.

[mitmathphd]

do After earning my BA (Summa Cum Laude) and MA in social sciences (with distinction) from a T4 university in Ohio, I left for law school in Pennsylvania on a full ride T3 and decided that it was not for me. I cam back to T4 to work as a research assistant and complete course work for the Ph.D. as though I never left the MA program. In the process, I have been taking a series of quantitative methods class and this has become my biggest interest. I have taken:

Three non-calc based statistics courses in the social sciences. (Many extensions of multiple regression and very application oriented) Earned an A in all but one (A-)

An Intro to Econometrics course (with Calculus) (A-)

A Structural Equations Class (Psychology) (

During this time, I was taking two classes a semester and working in a full time research capacity. The other courses I took were:

Calc I (C-)

Calc II (C+)

Linear (Summer)

Before I apply, I would also have finished Calc III, Math for Graduate Econ Students and by the time I enrolled, I would have had Econometrics I and Prob Theory.

Based on this and the fact that I expect to get a Quant (80-85th percentile) and Verbal (70th percentile), do I have any hopes of studying statistics. I am really interested in application based programs. Do I have any chance of getting in? Are there any schools for which I seem like a good fit?

Thanks!

Flame?

[Xero735]

You need to shoot a lot lower than T1 schools IMO if you are going for a graduate degree. A C means you can barely make it through calculus and they have plenty of applicants that not only can ace the calculus, linear algebra, and a probability sequence. You are also competing with students who aced their math sequence including their lebesque probability theory courses and stochastic modeling courses. I also didn't see any programming background courses which are always desirable (especially if you are heading into Biostats). I am simply stating this so you don't waste your money applying to Harvard. Aim low these days as graduate admissions (even non-funded) is tight.