Biostats PhD profile evaluation (lost-help!)

[OctopusPrime]

I was hoping to get some suggestions as to what range of Biostats programs I should apply to, because I have no clue.  My profs are pretty unhelpful in this regard.  My interests are mainly in epidemiology and Bayesian methods, if that's relevant.

Undergrad: Mediocre public school

Major: Math (Math Stat concentration)

Minor: Political science

GPA: 4.0

GRE Scores (revised version):
Q: 165
V: 170
AW: 4.5

Research Experience: A few projects in political science and psychology, resulting in two conference talks.  Spent two summers working on applied math problems, the second being quite statistical.  No publications or biostats-related projects, though.

Programming: Matlab, R, Python, a bit of SAS

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: None except for aforementioned summer work
Letters of Recommendation: 1 math (good to glowing), 1 stats (good to glowing), 1 political science (the political science guy knows me best and loves me, since I've worked with him since I was a freshman, but would it be a bad idea given his discipline?  The alternative would be math profs who would write good but probably not glowing recs)
Stats Courses taken: Probability, Math Stats (honors), Stochastic Processes, Intermediate Stats, grad Regression, grad Categorical Data, grad Data Mining

Proof-based courses: Advanced Calc 1 (honors), Advanced Calc in n dimensions, Integral Transforms, Discrete Dynamical Systems, upper level Linear Algebra

Other courses: intro bio sequence, intro chem sequence, a few environmental science courses

 

So far I'm thinking Minnesota, Michigan, and UNC as the best schools I'll be applying to.  But again, I have no clue what schools are good bets, which ones are long shots, and which ones are off limits.  I could really use some help!

 

 

[cyberwulf]

You're certainly not wasting your time applying to the three schools you listed. Depending on how "mediocre" your public school is, and how good your recommendations are, you might consider throwing an application at one of the top three places (Harvard, Washington, Hopkins). Of course, if you're interested in Bayesian stuff, Washington and Hopkins aren't really great fits for you.

[OctopusPrime]

Thanks!  That's encouraging.

[wine in coffee cups]

You're certainly not wasting your time applying to the three schools you listed. Depending on how "mediocre" your public school is, and how good your recommendations are, you might consider throwing an application at one of the top three places (Harvard, Washington, Hopkins). Of course, if you're interested in Bayesian stuff, Washington and Hopkins aren't really great fits for you.

UW's curriculum is not Bayesian but it doesn't lack for faculty and students doing research using Bayesian methods, particularly in the statistics department. And combining both of OP's research interests, Wakefield has supervised a bunch of students from both departments in Bayesian epidemiology.