Profile Evaluation for Masters in Stats

[statbound]

Hi all,

 

I've lurked on this forum for some time now, and have found a lot of great information here, so thank you all for that! I haven't contributed at this point, but would like to start doing so now that I feel like I am somewhat more knowledgeable. For now, I was hoping I could get a profile evaluation as I am not really sure how competitive I am for admissions into masters in statistics programs. If it is not cool to have your first post as a profile evaluation, please let me know and I can contribute elsewhere first.

 

About me

Domestic, white male

School: Top 10 state school

Majors: B.S. in Psychology and Economics

Minors: Mathematics and Business

Other: Completed pre-med course curriculum (thought I wanted to be a doctor, but I don't)

Cumulative GPA: 3.75 (3.76 with transfer credits)

Psychology GPA: 3.94, will graduate with distinction

Economics GPA: 3.95

Math GPA: 3.93

Business GPA: 3.92

Pre-med GPA: 3.34

 

Will take me 5.5 years to graduate due to extra courses taken due to changes in pursuits (will have 192 total credits (174 at my school), need 120 to graduate)-- Will the extra time it took to graduate hurt me?

 

GRE scores

 

167 Q

161 V

5.0 W

 

Quantitative Courses + Grades

 

Calc I (AP credit)

Calc II (A)

Calc III (A)

Probability and Math Stats I (A)

Probability and Math Stats II (AB-- between A and B, this is how my school does it)

Matrix and Linear Algebra (A)

Theory of Single Variable Calculus (proof-based class, A)

Accelerated Intro to Stats (A)

Econometrics (A)

Intro to programming in R (A)

Intermediate programming in R (A)

Advanced Programming in R (A)

 

Weaker Quantitative courses + Grades

 

Intro + Intermediate Microeconomics (A, A) (Intermediate was calc-based)

Intro + Intermediate Macroeconomics (A, A) (Intermediate was calc-based)

General Chemistry I + II (A, A) (non-calc based)

General Physics I + II (AB, A) (non-calc based)

Neuroeconomics (A)

Psychology Stats-- B  (this was a fluke grade)

Experimental Psychology (A)

Intro to Finance (AB)

Investment theory (A)

Other economics courses (A's)

 

(I wasn't sure which courses to include so made this list exhaustive)

 

Internship experience (not sure how much this matters, but thought I should include it)

 

Spent one summer at a market research firm in NYC (mostly editing surveys, formatting data, interpreting data, and creating PowerPoint reports for clients)

Spent one summer at an large insurance company in NYC (not really any quant work here)

 

Academic research experience

 

Worked in a psychology lab as an experimenter and supervisor for a total of 4 semesters (this involved data collection, data entry, management of lab processes as a supervisor, not much quant work here); I hope to get re-involved in this lab before I graduate and do some data analysis projects so that I can get a solid letter of rec from this experience

 

Other things (again, not sure if these matter)

 

Played club baseball at my school for 5 years

Was on the board of Psi Chi (psychology honor society) for a year and was headed a large, year-long project due to my position (Newsletter chair)

Lifeguarded for 4 summers

Was part of an investment club for 2 years and served as treasurer for some of that time

 

Letters of rec

 

Should get one solid one and not sure about the other two yet (I am at a big school and it is often difficult to get to know professors)

 

Would it make sense to get a letter from my market research employer if I think it would be a solid one?

 

 

 

Please let me know what range of schools you think I would be competitive for-- I am mainly concerned about letters of rec and having no classes like analysis on my transcript. Any advice and suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated! Sorry if this is really long. I hope I can be of help to some of you in the future. Thank you for reading!

Edited October 27, 2014 by statbound

[Stats2015]

You definitely have a very diverse background. Your grades don't look too bad with the exception of your premed classes but it has been my experience that those grades are generally lower than normal for most people. You just might have to have a letter writer mention something in that regard.

As far as asking the market research employer, I know it is generally preferred to have Professors as they are ranked higher, but a strong letter from an employer might be better than a weak letter from a Professor as long as the other two letters are from Professors.

One other thing you may want to address is what you want to do and why. With your varied background, I would make sure you can portray that you know what you want.

[statbound]

Stat 2015,

 

Yes, I've tried a lot of different things as I had no idea what I wanted to do originally and found my motivation weakening in the pre-med area as I was realizing that I didn't really want be a doctor. So I ended up with B's in biology and a B and C and Orgo I and II, respectively. I was also just much less focused as a student in my first two years (my GPA in the last 3.5 years is 3.9+ with very heavy course loads each semester).

 

Ok yeah, choosing professors seems to be the consensus of what I've read, so what you're saying makes sense.

 

Well at this point I can say that I know I want a quantitative focused career, but I can't say that I know the specific industry I want to work in.

 

I am worried about not having a class with the rigor of real analysis on my transcript.

 

Thanks for your help, and good luck with PhD admissions (I looked at your profile)

[Stats2015]

A lot of programs seem to mostly be concerned with your last two years so you should be alright in that regard. I know Washington for instance wants to know your GPA for the last 60 credits which I thought was interesting.

With your background you may be able to go into Applied Statistics. Otherwise I know there are quite a few Stats programs that have specialties in Economics and even a few that have faculty in Psychology.

I know what you mean about Real Analysis. Ideally it's probably best to take it prior to applying to be competitive but I know it can be made up once in graduate school.

You have good GRE scores and pretty decent experience so hopefully that will overshadow the Real Analysis deficiency.

Thank you for the well wishes, and good luck to you as well!

[Applemiu]

With your background you may be able to go into Applied Statistics. Otherwise I know there are quite a few Stats programs that have specialties in Economics and even a few that have faculty in Psychology.

 

Please could you point me to those Master programs with faculty in Psychology? I would like to go in that direction. Thank you.

[Stats2015]

The program's that I remember having faculty in Psychology related fields (i.e., Psychometrics, Psychiatry) are:

-Carnegie Mellon

-Ohio State

-Michigan

-UCLA

-Missouri

-Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)

But keep in mind that this is just a list of schools that have more than one faculty in a Psychology related field and it only includes schools I was originally considering so there may be others.

Best of luck!

[Applemiu]

Thanks a lot!