Machine Learning/NLP Profile Evaluatoin

[Farge]

I'm interested in applying to PhD programs (or funded MS programs) with a focus on machine learning. In particular, I am interested in Natural Language Processing).

I plan to apply this fall and am looking to identify a few reach schools and target schools.

Type of Student: Domestic White Male
Undergraduate Institution: My state's land-grant institution (not particularly known for stats or cs)
Major: Mathematics
Minor: Statistics and a number of CS electives
GPA: 3.95/4.0
Relevant Courses:
A's: Multivariate Calculus, Linear Algebra, Prob & Stats I & II, Computer Science I & II, Data Structures, Predictive Analytics, R Programming, SAS Programming, Forensic Statsitcs (Independent Study), Natural Language Processing (Independent Study), Time Series Analysis, Numerical Analysis, Statistical Computing and Simulation
B's: Real Analysis, Abstract Algebra
Academic Awards/Honors: Goldwater scholarship nomination, Dean's list

GRE: QR: 167 (94%), VR: 165 (95%), AW: 4.0 (56%)

Research Experience:
3 research projects, each presented locally or regionally. One published in a minor journal. One planning to publish in a major journal (probably not accepted by the time of my application).

Letters of Recommendation:
One from a fairly well-known stats professor with whom I have conducted two research projects and one independent study.
One from a brand new stats professor (PhD. from University of Alabama) with whom I have conducted a research project and independent study.
One from math & stats department head whom I know well.

Other considerations: I would like to go to school in a big city, as I have lived in small towns in the midwest most of my life. I manage to find interesting programs at many schools, but could use some help in identifying ones that would be a good fit for my profile.

Thanks for reading!

[compscian]

1. From your profile, you will have better chances at statistics or computational linguistics programs as opposed to CS, which requires competent knowledge across theory, systems, and ML; and not just ML. You can of course sit in a stats program and have an adviser in CS (your best option IMO).
2. For a good list of schools, I'll refer you to Jordan Boyd-Graber's pretty comprehensive list: http://qr.ae/8YoNwX
3. My personal picks: UW, WUSTL, Stanford, Columbia, CMU are the strongest for ML/NLP overall. Regina Barzilay at MIT does some of the most interesting work. JHU, TTIC and UMass (Andrew McCallum) are easier to get into, but also have great ML/NLP research groups.