Ohio State or Iowa State for West Coaster

[Nate W]

Hi all!

As an applicant with a strong liberal arts and minimal math background (=not a super strong profile), I've been miraculously admitted to the MS Stats programs at Ohio State and Iowa State so far. Iowa State is offering a teaching associateship and Ohio State is trying to (I should know by next week). I am working to get more info on these schools and will try to reach out to some students directly, but would greatly appreciate any additional information or thoughts you might have about the relative merits of these institutions. I am also waiting to hear back from UC Irvine, but they apparently cannot give any updates via email or phone and their website says that they send decisions into May/June...

I am lifelong West Coast resident (Northern CA, Southern CA, and Seattle) although I did put in one year of undergrad in Minnesota. It was cold and undiverse in a small town but I am probably much better equipped to deal with the Midwest this time around. I'm frankly pretty excited that both these school want to offer me a TA position.

My objective is to return to industry on the west coast, so the more applied coursework, the better in my book. They are both MS programs. My career objective is to be deeply knowledgeable in statistics but not necessarily be pushing the bleeding edge of methods. I'm interested in liberal-artsy applications of statistics like sabermetrics, fivethirtyeight, etc.

My priorities for grad school are to find a program with quality professors, contemporary coursework (e.g., a machine learning course or two), a maximum of electives, and fellow graduate students who are interesting people (and not just interested in statistics). The quality of nearby rock and ice climbing is also a factor. Other little considerations are accessibility (how easy is it to fly into/out of), diversity, and things to do in town. Ohio State, being in Columbus, has the edge location-wise, but I'm willing to go to Ames if it's a stronger program with a friendly and close-knit stats community.

Ohio State - Pros

• Explicitly says they have students from various academic backgrounds
• In decently large city (Columbus)
• Large program overall
• Better football team
• Maybe more accessible

Iowa State - Pros

• Have a written TA offer
• Affordable and well-run school
• Historically strong program
• Iowans are supposed to be super nice
• Similar/close to Minnesota
• So cold there must be good ice climbing
• Structure seems slightly more flexible -- cool "creative component" to MS

Ohio State - Cons

• Waiting on TA offer
• Maybe too large of a program?
• Ohioans less nice?
• Placement list doesn't have any sexy tech firms
• Lower ranked than Iowa State
• Never have liked the Buckeyes

Iowa State - Cons

• Ames is a small town in not-as-friendly part of the state
• Really cold in winter
• Can't find a list of placements --> anyone have intel?
• Still has professors specializing in agricultural statistics; may be on the decline

Irvine, should I get in, has the appeal of being in Southern California. It's a new program, housed within their computer science program (so presumably has good machine learning courses). I have friends and family in the area and J-Tree and Yosemite are weekend options.

Thank you! This website has been tremendously helpful throughout the process.

 

[ace589]

Ohio will usually be a little colder than Iowa but Iowa will get lots of sun too.  Imo Ohio will have more outdoorsy things to do.  

But I'd take Iowa since you already have the TA offer.  

[CBclone]

On 4/8/2016 at 7:17 PM, Nate W said:

 

Iowa State - Cons

• Ames is a small town in not-as-friendly part of the state
• Really cold in winter
• Can't find a list of placements --> anyone have intel?
• Still has professors specializing in agricultural statistics; may be on the decline

 

 

I attended Iowa State for undergrad (loved it), after being raised in a few different areas of Iowa. I don't know much about Ohio State or the stats programs, but my take on your cons:

--Where does the "not-as-friendly" thing come from? Ames is a fantastic college town with great support and relationships between the city of Ames and the university. Some of the nicest people you'll meet, IMO -- and I've lived a lot of places throughout both Iowa and the U.S. It's generally a very clean city, stable jobs, lots of campus and off-campus activities to do. I'd wager you're more likely to find "bad apples" in a bigger city like Columbus than in Ames, but that's my very amateur opinion. 

--It is really cold in the winter. Fact Mainly because it's a "wet" and humid cold and can be quite windy. Warm up in Hilton Coliseum with basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, or wrestling. You'll be hooked. 

I don't know much about your last two points. The College of Ag is still often considered the pride of the school and it's most well-known aspect, for good reason. Engineering programs are phenomenal as well.

RE: Ice climbing...there's not much nearby. There is a great climbing wall in the campus rec center, and a warehouse type climbing gym not too far away plus some options nearby at Ledges I think. My brother got really into climbing while we were in school in Ames. There is a silo a couple hours from campus that gets sprayed with water in the winter and is open for ice climbing; kinda cool, very midwest haha. Great outdoor options in MN, WI, and northeast Iowa if you want a weekend trip.