Profile eval: Biostats PhD/DrPH

[rodeoclowns]

Undergraduate:

BS in Biology 3.2 GPA (top tier State school)

Relevant courses: Calc 1: B, Calc 2: B-, Calc 3: B, Stats for Life Sciences: A-

 

Graduate:

MPH 3.66 GPA (WashU)

Relevant courses: Intro to Biostats: A- , Applied Linear Modeling: A-, Multilevel and Longitudinal Modeling: B

 

Currently taking an online Linear Algebra course

 

GRE: 164 Quant, 156 Verbal, 4 Writing

 

Research Experience:

Currently working (will be 1 year full-time and 1 year part-time by Fall 2015) in a public health research (health disparities) lab. No publications yet. I use SAS at work (beginner) and have some experience with R (used in MLM).

 

My recommendations will likely be:

1. My PI who is has a PhD in Biostatistics (from a top 5 school in Biostats) and is published (and gives talks) often

2. Another PI I work with. Also has a PhD in Biostatistics (same school as other PI) but seems to have fewer publications

3. My Epidemiology from grad school professor. I took two courses with her and was her research assistant for a few months

4. (if required) My supervisor at the job I worked at during undergrad. In terms of "knowing me", she'll be a better option than the 1-2 jobs I took during grad school.

 

I'm wondering what type of schools I should be reasonably applying to. Right now my list is very top heavy (my mentor is my main source of information about programs and she's really only given me top tier suggestions) so I would love to hear more realistic suggestions as I don't want to waste my money on schools I have 0 chance with. 

 

UW-Madison (PhD Stats)

Harvard (DrPH)

SLU (PhD in Public Health with concentration in Biostats)

Emory (PhD)

Vanderbilt (PhD)

Georgia Southern (DrPH)

NC State (PhD Stats)

UMich (PhD)

UCLA (DrPH)

UC Berkeley (PhD)

Rutgers (DrPH)

 

If the school offers PhD and DrPH, I will apply to DrPH.

[peachypie]

I think you have pretty good chances at some of those schools.  GRE verbal is a bit lower, but not terrible.  That should be rectified by the master's gpa and the good LORs.  Sounds like you should have good luck!

[cyberwulf]

Wow, that is a broad range of schools. I don't think you have much chance of getting in at: Wisconsin, NC State, Michigan, Emory, or Berkeley. Vanderbilt might be a stretch, but it's a newer program so it's probably worth a shot. I don't know as much about DrPH programs, but I suspect you're also going to have a tough time cracking the program at Harvard. 

 

Frankly, given your limited math background, I think you'll have to drop pretty far down the rankings to get into a PhD program. Have you considered doing an MS in biostatistics first? You might be able to get into a decent program and build your profile from there.

[rodeoclowns]

Wow, that is a broad range of schools. I don't think you have much chance of getting in at: Wisconsin, NC State, Michigan, Emory, or Berkeley. Vanderbilt might be a stretch, but it's a newer program so it's probably worth a shot. I don't know as much about DrPH programs, but I suspect you're also going to have a tough time cracking the program at Harvard. 

 

Frankly, given your limited math background, I think you'll have to drop pretty far down the rankings to get into a PhD program. Have you considered doing an MS in biostatistics first? You might be able to get into a decent program and build your profile from there.

 

Yeah, I know most of these schools are quite a reach. That's why I wanted to get some other ideas (I honestly don't know what schools are good or bad beyond the top 10 that you can find through a quick google search). I originally wanted to do a PhD in Epidemiology (and probably will end up applying to a few programs still) but my mentor who is a Biostatistician suggested getting a Biostats PhD and then do a post-doc in Epi. It makes sense career-wise too because I'll have more options beyond academia if I want to go that route.

 

As far as the DrPH program at Harvard goes, turns out it's just a year old and interdisciplinary, so I won't be applying there anymore. I got confused between that and the PhD (which I realize is wayyy beyond my reach, so not applying).