Toronto Biostatistics

[ecomath]

Hello,

I have received an offer of admission to U of T's Biostatistics PhD. I know that U of T is surrounded by a big medical research hub and U of T itself has strong medicine and biology departments, so it seems like it has the ingredients of a good program. It's also close to my family so I have personal reasons for wanting to attend. The problem is that I can't find much info about the Biostatistics PhD. Does U of T have a good reputation in the field? Does anyone know what its placements are like in academia and/or industry? It seems to have a focus on statistical genetics, which I'm interested in, but I don't know much more about its research strengths.

Sorry for the naive questions.

Thanks in advance!

[cyberwulf]

U of T stat is a pretty decent department, but biostat is pretty much unknown.

[ecomath]

30 minutes ago, cyberwulf said:

U of T stat is a pretty decent department, but biostat is pretty much unknown.

Okay, I applied to U of T Stats as well and I think I have a good shot of getting in. Maybe it's better to do a Stats PhD and collaborate with the Biostats Department.

[ecomath]

For those curious, I did some digging into this programme. U of T's School of Public Health is very new and the Biostatistics Division is accordingly very small with only 4 tenure-track faculty. As I understand it, PhD students are often advised by professors in the Statistics Department, which has a cohort of about 5 or 6 people doing biostatistics research, and by status-only professors in the surrounding research hospitals. In terms of placements, over the last 10 years (N = 21), 30% went on to be university faculty, some at U of T, and 40% went on to research institutes and teaching hospitals. The rest are in industry and government.

This information isn't easy to get hold of, so hopefully some fellow Canadians will find it useful.