Decision Help Please! (masters in statistics)

[statisticsapplicant]

Hi everyone!

I've been lucky enough to have been accepted to:
 

Berkeley

CMU

Duke

University of Michigan

University of Chicago

Johns  Hopkins

 

About Me: I was a statistics major in undergrad and am about 85% sure I want to get my PhD in statistics. I have 2 years of work experience as a data scientist. I am using my master's degree to: 1) Take real analysis 2) Get better at math 3) Get better at theoretical statistics and 4) figure out what areas of statistics interest me the most. To that end I prefer programs with a thesis component. 

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated

[Kevin Yeom]

Hello, I am in the similar situation,

I have been accepted to CMU and Duke as well. 

From my knowledge, CMU has sent some Ph.D statistics students to its own Ph.D. program, but the program is heavily focused toward the application part of statistics, and you won't get to take mathematics courses while attending.

I think the same is true with Duke, but if you are into Bayesian statistics and want to pursue your study in Bayesian, Duke should be good for Ph.D preparation.

Also, Berkeley and Chicago are both great in statistics, so I would recommend you to attend Berkeley or Chicago if you want to pursue Ph.D in the future. You should definitely look into each program's curriculum and find out if each program provides good amount of theoretical statistic coursework in preparation for Ph.D. Also, you should ask each director of the program to find out the placement of previous students on graduate programs. 

Best of your luck, and should you choose to attend CMU, I might see in the near future

[beerkatmanor]

I didn't apply to Berkeley so not sure about their program, but I'm also considering Chicago and they are super well-regarded for a theoretical curriculum. Don't forget to email current students questions (did the advisor send you a list of addresses?) and consider the weather too--Chicago is about as wintery as it gets and Berkeley is much calmer. 

[Residuals]

I agree with Kevin Yeom in that Chicago and Berkeley lend themselves better to getting into a PhD in statistics. I would say Chicago's masters program is the most foundational in terms of future preparation. But beware that courses in Chicago's masters program are the same courses populated by the PhD students. So, it might present a challenge for getting top grades which will be critical for getting admitted into PhD programs.