Choosing a Master's Program in Stats

[coffee123]

How important is it to go to a big name/highly ranked school for a master's in stats? I applied to a mix of schools. Now that acceptances are trickling in, I'm not sure how I'll make a decision. Any advice?

[GTM-1]

I guess you mean Columbia......or otherwise you would simply accept that offer.

[Stat Assistant Professor]

It does not matter that much. Name recognition matters most for PhD students who want to go into academia (and even then, reputation of ADVISER, rec letters, and publication record will trump prestige of institution). For anyone interested in industry, name recognition may be viewed positively, but is not that essential (my Masters institution is ranked 60-100 in math and unranked in stats, but there were stats PhDs who got jobs at DeutscheBank and Google (as a PhD statistician).

Edited January 22, 2015 by Applied Math to Stat

[coffee123]

Thanks for your response! That's good to know. So far I haven't heard anything about funding, but if I get any, I think that will make my decision for me.

[wine in coffee cups]

If you are offered funding, take it. That either means they think you are one of the strongest incoming students, or it's a small program and you're going to have the opportunity to work closely with faculty (e.g. as a research assistant or on a master's thesis). In either case you are being set up to get good advising and have nice references for employment or for a PhD down the road.

 

Remember that rankings of departments are based on their faculty and PhD programs, which won't necessarily mean you get a good master's experience. As a rule of thumb, the larger the program, the more you're competing with other students for attention. Being one of the top students in your classes is the main way you distinguish yourself in a non-thesis MS program, and that's easier said than done in a big program with many other smart and hard-working people. For PhD applications, it matters that you get faculty enthusiastically on your side. To do that, I would guess that you're better off being one of the top couple of students in a smaller less-known master's program than being outside of the top few students in a large master's program that just happens to be linked to a highly ranked PhD. (The exception would be if that program happens to recruit a lot of its PhD students out of its master's cohorts.)

 

For jobs, this doesn't really matter, because employers mostly care about whether you have the experience they are looking for and come off as quick-learning and competent. I'd pick the program primarily based on the geographic area you want to be in and what kinds of jobs its graduates get, maybe with debt as a tie-breaker. A fancy name will open more doors nationally, but a regional job search is logistically much easier. For local job hunting, the added value of the fancy name is smaller since there is more of an awareness of the non-fancy programs nearby.

[coffee123]

Thank you, that's very, very helpful. If only there were a way to know about the quality of master's programs! But for now, all I can do is hang tight anyway.