Profile eval / Shld I retake GRE?

[haruxhime]

Hi

 

So i just took the GRE today, and my results are horrible. I am wondering, with my profile, is it better that I retake my GRE? Also, I am interested to know and would greatly appreciate if advice could be given on my university choices.

 

V: 152

Q: 160

AW: unknown

 

I didnt really prepare for this GRE due to work and procrastination (ikr...). The centre was freezing didnt help much either (I came prepared but hoodie's hood was not allowed on head?!).

 

Background:

- BSc (Hons) specialised in Statistics in globally highly ranked non-US university (not 2nd upp...)

- MSc in Statistics in globally highly ranked non-US university (not many As too...)

- A few years working experience in non-statistics research industry

- Few publication in non-statistics journals (thanks to work; i did the stat analysis for those papers)

 

 

Program interested in: PhD in Statistics (interest in applied statistics/analytics/big data)

 

Some uni that I have shortlisted/aiming for:

- UC Berkeley (very slim chance i supposed)

- U of Washington

- Duke U

- U Michigan

- Texas A&M U

- North Carolina State U

 

What are some other uni I should realistically considered? 

 

Another concern is the letters. Should I submit all 3 from my non-stats related work bosses (they are all profs/post-doc)? I dont really know any of my stats profs on personal basis, so not sure if they would write a good one for me...

 

Should I find a prof that would take me in first? My friends advised so.

 

Thanks!!

Edited September 26, 2014 by haruxhime

[Stat Assistant Professor]

In what country did you do your BSc and MSc? It is very competitive for international applicants, and departments are heavily biased in favor of a few schools that have reputation of producing successful PhD students (Peking University, ISI, Tingshua to name a few). That said, it is not impossible either -- there are a few students in my current program from a few other places like Russia, Iran, South Korea, and Turkey, but most international are definitely from India and China. And the bar is set higher for international students too. Given this, your list of schools might be a bit of a reach if your grades were not solid A's, and you might want to aim lower and/or apply to do ANOTHER Masters program in the U.S. first and then go from that to a PhD (this is not unheard of -- many international students have had to redo a Masters in the U.S. and then proceed onto PhD).

 

Your letters of recommendation should all be from professors. I think one applicant on this forum got into Harvard with one recommendation letter from a boss, but it was a research position. If you haven't been working in statistics research, all the letters need to be from professors.

 

In stats, you do not need to contact professors beforehand, since incoming students are not paired with advisors like they are in other fields (e.g. where you have to be accepted to a professor's lab or research group). In stats, no one comes in with a doctoral thesis advisor. You can contact them if you want, but most won't think much of it or use the correspondence to recommend you for admission to the graduate admissions committee.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Applied Math to Stat

[haruxhime]

Thanks for the reply!! 

 

Both are from my local Us that are globally quite highly ranked I supposed, from all those Times and QS rankings, and I am not from India/China. 

 

I wasnt much of eager student in my undergrad, and my interest only slowly started becoming stronger in my later part of my masters. and i m not strong in my theory. So my grades werent solids As. in fact, i only have 2 As out of 10 modules for my msc.... 

 

as to why i am aiming for straight phd instead of another masters is largely due to funding. i need full funding where possible, and masters dont provide funding from my understanding. naturally those that provide full funding for their phd students are usually those top ranked universities 

 

so u think those 5 abv are near impossible to reach, excluding UC Berkeley (i know this is to far out  )? 

 

what are some other well regarded uni? i didnt really wanna do phd in a uni that is not that well recognised globally... but i know i cant possibly be much of a chooser w my profile... 

 

another thing is, since i am interested in applied, some said that biostats might be more suitable. my work exp could be considered as biostatistician i supposed. bt i wanted stats as i didnt really want to limit myself to bio. 

 

by profs, u mean stats profs or any profs? because i dont really know any stats prof per se. what i do have are profs in the research industry that i worked for. oh, and by prof, do you mean prof prof, or those associate/asst profs will be just as fine?

 

thanks for the advice that no prior contact is needed. i didnt really have a fixed area in mind, so that would be a challenge to find so many potential profs.

 

so is it recommended that i retake my gre? not quite sure on how big a part gre plays. those schs i aiming for, gre scores are like in the range of 166+. 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Your rec letters should be from professors in statistics or in other quantitative disciplines (mathematics, etc.).

 

And I agree that it may be more suitable for you to apply to biostatistics PhD programs than statistics (unless you get another MS in Statistics in the U.S. first but it seems as though you don't want to pursue that option). Based on your info here, you wouldn't be amongst the most competitive international candidates for stat programs (and there are some very impressive ones from ISI, Peking, and Tingshua alone). But even Biostatistics seems to be very competitive too. Maybe a biostatistics faculty member or student can speak to the OP's competitiveness for biostatistics.

[haruxhime]

Your rec letters should be from professors in statistics or in other quantitative disciplines (mathematics, etc.).

 

And I agree that it may be more suitable for you to apply to biostatistics PhD programs than statistics (unless you get another MS in Statistics in the U.S. first but it seems as though you don't want to pursue that option). Based on your info here, you wouldn't be amongst the most competitive international candidates for stat programs (and there are some very impressive ones from ISI, Peking, and Tingshua alone). But even Biostatistics seems to be very competitive too. Maybe a biostatistics faculty member or student can speak to the OP's competitiveness for biostatistics.

 

thanks for the reply~

 

i'll have a look at the biostats prog too. initially was hoping to get in stats and do some biostats modules/work also :/ 

 

UC Riverside actually has an applied stats phd. any comments on that?

[Stat Assistant Professor]

thanks for the reply~

 

i'll have a look at the biostats prog too. initially was hoping to get in stats and do some biostats modules/work also :/ 

 

UC Riverside actually has an applied stats phd. any comments on that?

 

If you want to apply to statistics programs and not just biostats, you may want to try applying to some bigger stats programs that have faculty working in biostats (NC State, Ohio State, etc.). Some schools like OSU are more forgiving of lower GPAs, and they do not separate biostat from stat.

 

I am not familiar with the program at UC Riverwise at all. I think one of the faculty members and some other members on this forum may have indicated skepticism towards degrees offered in "Applied Statistics" (including ones offered by highly reputable institutions like University of Michigan). I think this is probably true, since I took a look at an Applied Statistics "professional" Masters program offered at my alma mater (an Ivy League school), and this program does not even require a lot of the core classes that one would have to take in a typical Statistics MS program. I think it would be better to get a degree in Statistics or Biostatistics, but to focus on applied statistics for your actual research (that way, you have sufficiently learned the theory and had to demonstrate proficiency in it on quals, even if you actually work in applied topics later). Getting a degree that is called "Applied Statistics" may make employers question if you had enough training in theory to understand the theory behind the applied stats.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Applied Math to Stat

[haruxhime]

If you want to apply to statistics programs and not just biostats, you may want to try applying to some bigger stats programs that have faculty working in biostats (NC State, Ohio State, etc.). Some schools like OSU are more forgiving of lower GPAs, and they do not separate biostat from stat.

 

I am not familiar with the program at UC Riverwise at all. I think one of the faculty members and some other members on this forum may have indicated skepticism towards degrees offered in "Applied Statistics" (including ones offered by highly reputable institutions like University of Michigan). I think this is probably true, since I took a look at an Applied Statistics "professional" Masters program offered at my alma mater (an Ivy League school), and this program does not even require a lot of the core classes that one would have to take in a typical Statistics MS program. I think it would be better to get a degree in Statistics or Biostatistics, but to focus on applied statistics for your actual research (that way, you have sufficiently learned the theory and had to demonstrate proficiency in it on quals, even if you actually work in applied topics later). Getting a degree that is called "Applied Statistics" may make employers question if you had enough training in theory to understand the theory behind the applied stats.

 

Thanks!

 

Have been advised on NCS as well. Personally rather keen in it too would take a look at Ohio. Do you have anymore examples of schs that have big stats dept and less stringent on undergrad/grad GPA requirements? I think this is the general direction I should be looking at. But there are hundreds of uni out there, so any enlightenment would be great!

 

in short, i have somewhat some exp in biostats, and hoping to do more applied stuff, but dont really wish to limit to just biostats phd, if possible. 

 

appreciate ur fb on UC Riverside. agreed w ur pov. tt's my main concern too guess not really viable.

 

is biostats a lot less regard in industry than stats?

[Stat Assistant Professor]

Thanks!

 

Have been advised on NCS as well. Personally rather keen in it too would take a look at Ohio. Do you have anymore examples of schs that have big stats dept and less stringent on undergrad/grad GPA requirements? I think this is the general direction I should be looking at. But there are hundreds of uni out there, so any enlightenment would be great!

 

in short, i have somewhat some exp in biostats, and hoping to do more applied stuff, but dont really wish to limit to just biostats phd, if possible. 

 

appreciate ur fb on UC Riverside. agreed w ur pov. tt's my main concern too guess not really viable.

 

is biostats a lot less regard in industry than stats?

University of Pittsburgh is another possibility for Stats. I think you have a lot better chance in biostats than most stats though, TBH

 

I don't think biostats will limit you to only working in pharmaceuticals. Your marketability in industry depends not only on degree but what your skills are. If you have a degree in Biostatistics, but are familiar with Hadoop, machine learning, and data science, then you should be fine to apply to a lot of data science jobs, for example.

[haruxhime]

University of Pittsburgh is another possibility for Stats. I think you have a lot better chance in biostats than most stats though, TBH

 

I don't think biostats will limit you to only working in pharmaceuticals. Your marketability in industry depends not only on degree but what your skills are. If you have a degree in Biostatistics, but are familiar with Hadoop, machine learning, and data science, then you should be fine to apply to a lot of data science jobs, for example.

 

thanks for e reply will look into Pittsburgh

 

yeap, after much evaluation n looking ard this forum's profiles, seems like i m not very competitive for stats phd as i think i wld be... guess too naive initially. hahaha. 

will seriously consider n look up biostats prog as well.

 

on e other hand, do u think i have a safe chance with Duke/NCSU/UNC? or are they in the "reach" category?

 

for biostat, my best chances would be in which tier/ranking?

 

to score, what is the min i shld safely be scoring for GRE Q? another concern is, due to ltd places, i only managed to reg for retake on early dec. is not too late right?

[Stat Assistant Professor]

thanks for e reply will look into Pittsburgh

 

yeap, after much evaluation n looking ard this forum's profiles, seems like i m not very competitive for stats phd as i think i wld be... guess too naive initially. hahaha. 

will seriously consider n look up biostats prog as well.

 

on e other hand, do u think i have a safe chance with Duke/NCSU/UNC? or are they in the "reach" category?

 

for biostat, my best chances would be in which tier/ranking?

 

to score, what is the min i shld safely be scoring for GRE Q? another concern is, due to ltd places, i only managed to reg for retake on early dec. is not too late right?

 

I think the schools you have listed are most definitely reach schools. Honestly, if you are an international student who isn't from a handful of universities and you don't have a lot of A's on your transcript, it is going to be an uphill climb at a lot of universities ranked in the top 20 or so. That is why I suggested that your best chance is to get a Masters degree in the U.S., doing well (so as to offset the earlier performance a little bit), and then applying to PhD programs.

 

I suppose you could improve your GRE Q score, but it's not so disastrous that it raises a red flag. The grades are the bigger problem for you.

[haruxhime]

I think the schools you have listed are most definitely reach schools. Honestly, if you are an international student who isn't from a handful of universities and you don't have a lot of A's on your transcript, it is going to be an uphill climb at a lot of universities ranked in the top 20 or so. That is why I suggested that your best chance is to get a Masters degree in the U.S., doing well (so as to offset the earlier performance a little bit), and then applying to PhD programs.

 

I suppose you could improve your GRE Q score, but it's not so disastrous that it raises a red flag. The grades are the bigger problem for you.

 

thanks for the reply

 

well, i get ur point abt the masters. will see how it goes.  i m not getting my hopes up too high, just thought to go for it anyway

 

yeah. grades are horrendous. didnt study back then if only i know i wld be interested to venture down this path someday...