Suggestions for Statistics Safety Schools

[Bayesian1701]

Undergrad Institution: Tier 1 State School
Major: Math, minor in Economics,  expected graduation May 2018
GPA: 3.67

Type of Student: domestic female

Upper Division Courses: 

Proof(A), Math Stat I (A+), Diff Eq. (A),  Programming(B) (horrible professor),  Calc III (B), Calc II(A),  Linear Alg. (A),  Enrolled in: Math Stat II, Real Analysis I, Numerical Analysis, Will take Abstract Algebra and Real Analysis II, and two semesters of graduate statistics next year

 

 

GRE: Taking in August

Undergraduate Research:

Independent long term project 10 hours a week for  over a year, preparing to send manuscript to journals

Jobs:

I got paid for my research

 

Plan to apply to:

Reaches:  Duke,  UNC,  NCSU, Columbia, Baylor

 

FSU, SMU, Missouri, 

 

 

What are some additional safety schools I could add?  I need to be funded.  I want to go into Bayesian statistics.

Edited December 11, 2017 by fuzzylogician
edited for privacy at OP's request

[GoPackGo89]

The forum vets like cyberwulf, biostatprof ect will give you the best feedback but until then id say if you finish with As in thosr upper level classes and nail the GREs your list of schools is good. Check out Penn state and Minnesota too.

Edited February 10, 2017 by statbiostat2017

[MsHypatia]

The following is given under the assumption that you are applying to PhD programs:

These aren't necessarily safety schools, but here are some schools you might consider. Some might be considered safety, some not so much (but still worth considering given your interests, size of departments, your profile, etc):

Texas A&M, Colorado State, Iowa State, Michigan, Purdue, Michigan State

Some general advice that I wish others had given to me:

Apply to as many programs as you can afford. Also, I come from a similar undergraduate institution, and so I'll relate what I've experienced on that front. I am a female domestic McNair Scholar, had 2 years of research experience, a stellar GPA, great GRE scores (even in verbal and writing), fantastic letters of recommendation, and so far, have been rejected by all of the top ten schools I applied to, including Duke. I have however cracked the top 15. If I could go back and do it all again, I would have applied to more schools in the 10-25 range and fewer (or none) in the top ten (according to usnews or other ranking sources). Also, study hard for that GRE. I liked magoosh. It served me well. Some people may tell you great (perfect or nearly so on quant) GRE scores aren't that important, but go look at the results search on this site. A near perfect quant may not get you into a top tier school, but chances are you aren't getting in one without it. Do well (As) in your courses this semester, apply broadly, do your research on the programs you're applying to, and good luck!

[GoPackGo89]

12 minutes ago, MsHypatia said:

The following is given under the assumption that you are applying to PhD programs:

These aren't necessarily safety schools, but here are some schools you might consider. Some might be considered safety, some not so much (but still worth considering given your interests, size of departments, your profile, etc):

Texas A&M, Colorado State, Iowa State, Michigan, Purdue, Michigan State

Some general advice that I wish others had given to me:

Apply to as many programs as you can afford. Also, I come from a similar undergraduate institution, and so I'll relate what I've experienced on that front. I am a female domestic McNair Scholar, had 2 years of research experience, a stellar GPA, great GRE scores (even in verbal and writing), fantastic letters of recommendation, and so far, have been rejected by all of the top ten schools I applied to, including Duke. I have however cracked the top 15. If I could go back and do it all again, I would have applied to more schools in the 10-25 range and fewer (or none) in the top ten (according to usnews or other ranking sources). Also, study hard for that GRE. I liked magoosh. It served me well. Some people may tell you great (perfect or nearly so on quant) GRE scores aren't that important, but go look at the results search on this site. A near perfect quant may not get you into a top tier school, but chances are you aren't getting in one without it. Do well (As) in your courses this semester, apply broadly, do your research on the programs you're applying to, and good luck!

Good advice! Based on what you said it seems the only difference between you and Marmle (who has gotten 4 acceptances/waitlists in the top 10) is your undergrad institution (he lists top 35 undergrad). I wonder how much undergrad institution reputation is hurting. Also what upper level math courses did you take? 

Edited February 10, 2017 by statbiostat2017

[MsHypatia]

@statbiostat2017 I have my calculus sequence (of course), discrete, ODEs, proof-based linear, Bayesian statistics, 2 semesters intro upper division statistics, mathematical statistics (1 sem), graph theory, Analysis (1 sem). 

[abstract_art]

Hey so I'd concur with what was said above about adding Texas A&M, Colorado State, and Purdue if you're interested in Bayesian stats (not so sure about Iowa State, Michigan State, or Michigan though). In addition I'd add UT Austin, UConn, and UC Irvine. I don't know if any of these would be safeties per se but I'd imagine you'd have a good chance at Colorado State and UConn. But really to see which schools have professors doing bayesian stats research/ research that interests you, and that aren't just top 10-20 schools, you should probably just go through a bunch of department's websites.

If you get an A/A- in Analysis 1 and get 85+ percentile on the quant section of the GRE you should have a shot at some of the bigger programs in the top 20. There aren't any really safety schools when applying to grad school. If you'd be ok applying to biostatistics programs you could probably crack the top 10 (the math requirements are a little more lenient), there are some departments that have research doing bayesian stats (off the top of my head UNC, and Minnesota, with Minnesota being the big bayesian biostats department). I'd agree with the advice above about applying to as many schools as you can.

@MsHypatia @statbiostat2017 I think a difference in MH's profile and mine might (not sure obviously without comparing our CVs and transcripts side by side lol) be that while MH has more research experience than me, I have more breadth (depth? idk) in courses? I have 3 semesters of analysis (1 of which was grad) and MH only has 1 (the rest of our math background is pretty similar), and I have a whole cs major worth of courses (not sure how many MH has taken). I think the cs courses might be an asset for be but I can't be sure. I'm not sure if undergrad reputation has much to do with our different outcomes as my math/cs departments are unranked/ only math has a grad program.

[MsHypatia]

Good points all @marmle. Seconded on the no safety schools and the advice on biostatistics. I've had a lot of experience with code and had an internship using R (ggplot) to generate plots from SWPC data. My first research project was in high energy physics using the ROOT data analysis framework (C++) to analyze charge flip rates in Z boson decay. I've created an R package, etc. etc. No CS classes however. So, maybe that's a factor. I don't think I would say undergraduate institution isn't a factor, but it depends, right? My institution doesn't have a statistics department and is ranked low in math. That probably didn't do me any favors. However, coming from a department like that, if I had been admitted to a "top ten" I may have been over my head. So, I'm really happy with the schools I've gottten into thus far, and I think it all worked out for the best. 

[poopyhead]

Similar question: As a "backup/safety" plan, I think I'll apply to programs that accept students in the spring. I'm thinking UIC Stats, but does anyone have other suggestions?

Edited February 10, 2017 by poopyhead

[panletitbe]

4 hours ago, poopyhead said:

Similar question: As a "backup/safety" plan, I think I'll apply to programs that accept students in the spring. I'm thinking UIC Stats, but does anyone have other suggestions?

I remember JHU stat has spring admission. 

https://engineering.jhu.edu/ams/recent-admissions-statistics/

[poopyhead]

12 minutes ago, panletitbe said:

I remember JHU stat has spring admission. 

https://engineering.jhu.edu/ams/recent-admissions-statistics/

Ooh, thanks for the info. Hopefully I'll be in grad school by September, but just in case ...

[notasworried]

On 2/10/2017 at 9:24 AM, marmle said:

I think a difference in MH's profile and mine might (not sure obviously without comparing our CVs and transcripts side by side lol) be that while MH has more research experience than me, I have more breadth (depth? idk) in courses? I have 3 semesters of analysis (1 of which was grad) and MH only has 1 (the rest of our math background is pretty similar), and I have a whole cs major worth of courses (not sure how many MH has taken). I think the cs courses might be an asset for be but I can't be sure. I'm not sure if undergrad reputation has much to do with our different outcomes as my math/cs departments are unranked/ only math has a grad program.

From my (limited) experience, undergraduate institution matters a lot more than I would have expected. I have a sub-3.5 GPA from Stanford (and my mathematical & computational science major GPA is even lower than that), which I thought would have put me out of the running for basically every program I applied to. So far, I am absolutely grateful to have been accepted to 5 schools (out of the 10 I applied to!), and I have not been rejected from any schools yet. I should make the disclaimer that I didn't apply for any of (what people usually consider to be) the top programs, since I assumed they wouldn't have even looked at my application due to my low GPA. However, I think I was accepted to some pretty fantastic programs. I'm actually really shocked right now, because I don't think there was anything really standout about my applications.

Edited February 12, 2017 by reallyworried

[abstract_art]

9 hours ago, reallyworried said:

From my (limited) experience, undergraduate institution matters a lot more than I would have expected. I have a sub-3.5 GPA from Stanford (and my mathematical & computational science major GPA is even lower than that), which I thought would have put me out of the running for basically every program I applied to. So far, I am absolutely grateful to have been accepted to 5 schools (out of the 10 I applied to!), and I have not been rejected from any schools yet. I should make the disclaimer that I didn't apply for any of (what people usually consider to be) the top programs, since I assumed they wouldn't have even looked at my application due to my low GPA. However, I think I was accepted to some pretty fantastic programs. I'm actually really shocked right now, because I don't think there was anything really standout about my applications.

I wasn't saying undergrad reputation doesn't matter at all, but that in the case of me and MsHypatia it probably doesn't matter as much, as both of our schools don't have stats departments, and our math departments are both low ranked/ unranked. Obviously coming from Stanford or another top school where adcoms have some reference for what different gpas mean (e.g. is your sub 3.5 really that low in the context of Stanford), or maybe they know your letter writers, is gonna help you out.

[milka49]

I just went through the application process and applied to 5 (very risky!) schools. They were all of the sameish type (seriously, I straight up applied to all Big 10 schools).

I've found that there's no predicting what's a safety and what's a reach. At least, there's very little predicting. A lot depends on fit. Is there a professor whose research catches your eye? Reach out before applying! Get your name on his/her radar. That might get you in.

Scores and grades matter, but fit matters more. Research experience matters even more, and letters of recommendation may matter most. If you can say "I want to go here because this person does this research, and I like that research and here's proof I've done that from my SOP and my profs' letters of rec" you'll be a lot more appealing than someone who says "I want to go here because this is the best place and I have a 3.96 and a 338 GRE. Research? What's that? I just study all day."

 

Long story short: Find a place with good opportunities for you. You have the numbers and research experience to back up an application to pretty much any top 30 program. Just argue that you'd be a good fit and get good letters from professors. If possible, have at least one outside your school.