Help with lower ranked programs (Biostats)

[Darwins_finch]

Greetings all, 

 

I'm a rising undergraduate senior. I'm a biology major that has taken an interest in statistics and want to apply to grad schools in the Fall. However, I've read you need a really strong math background for the best programs, which I don't have. I'm working my way through my calc sequence, and I'm taking Linear Algebra over the summer and Calc 3 in the Fall (as I apply). My GPA is right around 3.5, with a B in Calc I, although I should have an A in Calc II, which I'm finishing this semester. 

 

Basically, I'm not shooting for the stars here. I know I'm not Harvard material, but I'm hoping I have reasonable shot at the lower ranked programs. I know how good Harvard, Hopkins, UW, Michigan, UNC, and the rest of the big names are, but I'm wondering about some lesser ranked programs. I've done some digging and the names I see coming up not in the top 10, but seem to have been around a while are:

- Pittsburgh

- Boston

- UC-Denver

- Iowa

- Medical University of South Carolina

- U of Buffalo

 

Basically, I'm wondering if anyone has insight into those lesser ranked schools that I'm interested in, and how they compare/rank with each other?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[cyprusprior]

I don't know anything about the programs at these schools, but here are a couple of other places that I believe have biostats PhD programs:

- Vanderbilt

- Virginia Commonwealth University

-  Rutgers

- Rochester

- Duke (brand new program, hence unranked)

- University of Texas Health Science Center (Houston- I think this is affiliated with MD Anderson Cancer Center, a strong place for Bayesian stats)

 

Another possibility to expore- some higher ranked biostats departments have a separate, less mathematically rigorous track to a "Doctor of Public Health" instead of PhD. I think UNC and Emory might be in this category.

 

Final thought- What are your long-term career goals? If you're sure you want to do biostats research, maybe it's worth it to take some more advance math classes and go for a top program. If you're not sure, maybe it would provide clarity to work for a few years doing applied data analysis in a health or biology setting and find out if you like the statistics more or the biology more. And in any case, it's definitely worth learning some basic programming skills because that will be useful in almost any career track. If you have a chance to take computer science 101 or a MOOC along those lines, you may end up becoming fascinated by comp-sci and could orient more towards "bioinformatics" or "computational biology". There are so many diverse opportunities out there, good luck!

[Biostat_Assistant_Prof]

The other schools Cyprusprior mentioned are worth looking into as well. However, I thought Duke only had a Masters program currently...?

 

With the exception of UC Denver, I've heard a little about all of the schools you listed. They are all smaller programs (except maybe Pitt), but they are mentioned occasionally and have been around a while. I don't really know how they rank compared to each other, but they're all probably too similar to really say any one is better than another.

 

My biggest suggestion would be to research specific faculty members at each of those schools. One of the biggest benefits of the higher ranked schools is the large number of faculty members doing research in diverse areas that have funding to support students. I didn't fully comprehend this until I started, but your adviser is the most important part of your grad school experience. The lower ranked schools may not have as many faculty members that can support a student, limiting the type of research you'll be able to do. Of the lower ranked schools, identify the ones with the most faculty members doing research that may potentially interest you (I say potentially, because you probably don't have a good idea yet). It's not as common in our field, but I'd venture to say it wouldn't be a bad idea send a few emails to see if the specific faculty you find interest in would even be able to take students in the coming years. 

Edited April 29, 2014 by Noco7