Fall 2018 Statistics Applicant Thread

[BStat]

26 minutes ago, OptimisticCynic said:

All those rejections from CMU and UW... RIP. 2/9/18 will live in infamy on this forum.

Are the rejections from UW still coming out ? What I want to understand is are they still in process of sending these ? Can anyone one respond to that ? 

[lilchow]

32 minutes ago, OptimisticCynic said:

All those rejections from CMU and UW... RIP. 2/9/18 will live in infamy on this forum.

Man... I feel it. First decision back and its a rejection. Not starting off on a good note. LOL (actually tears tho)

[statphd]

I got an email today as an invitation to visit Johns Hopkins Department of Biostatistics for their "departmental visitors weekend". Does this mean I have been admitted, or just that they are interested? Does this weekend serve as an interview? Would appreciate any input on this.

[NumStats]

43 minutes ago, lilchow said:

Man... I feel it. First decision back and its a rejection. Not starting off on a good note. LOL (actually tears tho)

Yeah same here. At least getting some news after awhile. Hopefully we're going to get good news soon.

[hvu26892]

Hullo! Long time lurker on this thread

Just got unconditional offer from LSE for their MSc Statistics (Research) programme. Very excited but I am still waiting for Imperial and UCL, as I think their departments of Statistics have more prestige and rigour.

Obviously I'm an applicant to UK schools any not really relevant to most people here but just wanna share because this is my first acceptance  hope it doesn't bother anyone...

[statscan9]

@hvu26892 Congrats!! Not bothering anyone, that's what this forum is for! Our friends can only hear us talk about grad school for so long before they get annoyed lol, so we need to have someplace to share 

[biostat314]

I had my phone call with University of Michigan Biostatistics this week and was told that decisions would be made at the end of February. This conflicts with what I've seen in this thread, so I wanted to let everyone know what I heard! 

[rosebud123]

1 hour ago, statphd said:

I got an email today as an invitation to visit Johns Hopkins Department of Biostatistics for their "departmental visitors weekend". Does this mean I have been admitted, or just that they are interested? Does this weekend serve as an interview? Would appreciate any input on this.

You aren't admitted yet and the weekend will involve interviews

[SheldonCopper]

International student from top 30 US University very well known research institute with GPA above 3.9, took 5 graduate level math and stat classes with all grades above A-, have two minor publications, got all my recommendations from research supervisors, GRE subject math > 85 percentile, GRE all above 90 percentile and still got no admission but 1 waitlist and 5 rejections(CMU, UW, Stanford, Chicago, Michigan). I applied for 15 programs in top 20 stat phd program, did i aim too high? What else should I do to get into these programs? Was it this competitive in past years?

Edited February 9, 2018 by SheldonCopper

[GoPackGo89]

13 minutes ago, SheldonCopper said:

International student from top 30 US University very well known research institute with GPA above 3.9, took 5 graduate level math and stat classes with all grades above A-, have two minor publications, got all my recommendations from research supervisors, GRE subject math > 85 percentile, GRE all above 90 percentile and still got no admission but 1 waitlist and 5 rejections(CMU, UW, Stanford, Chicago, Michigan). I applied for 15 programs in top 20 stat phd program, did i aim too high? What else should I do to get into these programs? Was it this competitive in past years?

Your profile seems as good as any I have seen when it comes to GPA (with > 85 percentile on the math GRE I can only assume you have taken a fair share of analysis and algebra) , pubs, gre scores so I am just as puzzled as you are. Where were you waitlisted and where are you waiting to hear back from? You said you are a few years removed from academia so maybe that is playing a role?

Can you clarify what you mean by 'minor' publication? 

[bayessays]

Those particular programs have always been exceptionally hard to get into, especially for international students. I don't think it's unusual that even someone with your profile was rejected from them - there are other programs in the top 20 that are significantly less competitive, so I wouldn't lose hope. 

[SheldonCopper]

Both are published in the proceedings of computer science(machine learning) conferences(not top tier ones like nips, ICML, AISTAT, but just local one) And I have been working for software company for three years due to my financial issue. I had to support my family before pursuing PhD degree. Actually I never took algebra class back in my undergraduate. But I took three analysis courses(basic analysis, analysis on R^n, complex analysis) with all A. I never took measure theory class but I learned it by myself during my research experience. Would that be the reason? Including waitlisted school, I am waiting for Harvard, JHU, Cornell, Columbia, Yale, Upenn(both wharton and AMCS), Berkeley, Wisconsin, UNC.

Edited February 10, 2018 by SheldonCopper

[Woolworth]

What do you guys consider top ten/twenty? I've seen US News ranking but I don't really trust it. Seems biased towards larger programs. 

[bayessays]

I would say US News is, for the most part, a really good picture. Can you give an example of it being biased towards larger programs? The larger programs tend to be better because they're older - NCSU, Iowa State and TAMU have very old large departments with a lot of history, and their ratings aren't inflated in my opinion (they're between 10 and 20 in US News). CMU, Duke, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Chicago are smaller and ranked higher.  

Edited February 10, 2018 by bayessays

[Woolworth]

7 minutes ago, bayessays said:

I would say US News is, for the most part, a really good picture. Can you give an example of it being biased towards larger programs? The larger programs tend to be better because they're older - NCSU, Iowa State and TAMU have very old large departments with a lot of history, and their ratings aren't inflated in my opinion (they're between 10 and 20 in US News). CMU, Duke, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Chicago are smaller and ranked higher.  

Good point. Maybe I'm confounding "quality" with "selectivity". Like, Cornell tends to have a lower acceptance rate than NCSU, but NCSU is much higher ranked than Cornell, which is much smaller.

[bayessays]

11 minutes ago, Woolworth said:

Good point. Maybe I'm confounding "quality" with "selectivity". Like, Cornell tends to have a lower acceptance rate than NCSU, but NCSU is much higher ranked than Cornell, which is much smaller.

Yeah, smaller departments, departments in desirable locations and name brand schools (think Yale's department especially) are more selective if not more prestigious. Cornell has a good department, but I don't think it compares to NC State, which has so many good professors working in so many areas. 

[phdhopeful1995]

4 hours ago, SheldonCopper said:

International student from top 30 US University very well known research institute with GPA above 3.9, took 5 graduate level math and stat classes with all grades above A-, have two minor publications, got all my recommendations from research supervisors, GRE subject math > 85 percentile, GRE all above 90 percentile and still got no admission but 1 waitlist and 5 rejections(CMU, UW, Stanford, Chicago, Michigan). I applied for 15 programs in top 20 stat phd program, did i aim too high? What else should I do to get into these programs? Was it this competitive in past years?

May I ask whether you are applying for Stat PhD or Biostat PhD?

[jo3859]

Hey everyone! So, I got accepted to Miami University (Ohio) last week for MS in Stats and I also recently got accepted to Kansas State University for MS in Stats. However, both of these letters did not include funding information and reading through several posts, it seems like many initial acceptance letters don't talk about funding yet? 

Would you suggest I contact these departments right away and inquire about funding? I was going to wait at least two weeks before contacting them, but maybe I should do it as soon as possible? 

[bayessays]

11 minutes ago, jo3859 said:

Hey everyone! So, I got accepted to Miami University (Ohio) last week for MS in Stats and I also recently got accepted to Kansas State University for MS in Stats. However, both of these letters did not include funding information and reading through several posts, it seems like many initial acceptance letters don't talk about funding yet? 

Would you suggest I contact these departments right away and inquire about funding? I was going to wait at least two weeks before contacting them, but maybe I should do it as soon as possible? 

Do you expect funding? Funding is pretty rare for master's degrees, so no funding info might just imply that there is none. 

[jo3859]

@bayessays Yes, for Miami, they only have an MS program (no PhD) and from what I've seen on other forums, a lot of applicants receive funding. For Kansas State, they do offer funding for MS applicants. I actually filled out a separate application for a TA position and submitted it with my Kansas State app. 

So I'm like fairly certain I could receive funding for both schools. I'm just not sure how to go about inquiring about it. 

[bayessays]

I would just email them now then. No reason to wait. 

[ileeminati]

I got an interview from UIUC. What kind of questions should I expect?

[Bayesian1701]

5 minutes ago, ileeminati said:

I got an interview from UIUC. What kind of questions should I expect?

Some questions I have been asked for other interviews are:

Why do you want a PhD (MS) in (bio)statistics? 

What are your research interests?

Do you have any faculty members you are interested in working with? 

What are your career goals?

Why UIUC(this program)? 

Questions about my research experience (what exactly did I do,  do I want to continue it)

Questions about my academic preparation (classes I have taken,  how has it prepared me)

[aaaapvawgw]

On 2/9/2018 at 3:49 PM, BStat said:

Are the rejections from UW still coming out ? What I want to understand is are they still in process of sending these ? Can anyone one respond to that ? 

Similar question about Carnegie Mellon- seems like there have been a lot of Acceptances, Waitlists, and Rejections posted but I haven't heard anything. Usually I would have thought that they would send out a bunch of acceptances, a bunch of rejections, and if you hadn't heard anything you were probably somewhere in between. But since CMU has also sent out many waitlists, I am not sure. (and not sure about UW, sorry!)

[Gauss2017]

2 hours ago, aaaapvawgw said:

Similar question about Carnegie Mellon- seems like there have been a lot of Acceptances, Waitlists, and Rejections posted but I haven't heard anything. Usually I would have thought that they would send out a bunch of acceptances, a bunch of rejections, and if you hadn't heard anything you were probably somewhere in between. But since CMU has also sent out many waitlists, I am not sure. (and not sure about UW, sorry!)

What is your profile aaaap ?