Fall 2018 Statistics Applicant Thread

[Taheel]

29 minutes ago, Bayesian1701 said:

On a related note at most  the number of unique applicants in stat/biostat  PhD programs is probably in the low thousands.  Assuming about 150 applicants on average (may be low) for around 100 programs (ballpark number based on US news) and 8 programs (may be more like 10+)  per applicant that’s about 1875 unique applicants.   But assuming an average cohort of 10 there are about 1000 spots? Do my numbers sound reasonable? Because that seems like a lot more people fail than I expected. I am just guessing here based on the programs I am familiar with.   I am guessing here. But how do my numbers sound? There are some large outliers for applications and cohort side so it’s probably pretty skewed.  

Edit: Cohort size may be more like 8.   But either way if my unique individual number is anywhere close the probability of not getting a spot is much higher than I would have thought.  

Wouldn't it be easier to look at the number of people graduating each year with a stat/biostats PhD and add up from there? I believe Amstat publishes those numbers. 

[skinfaxi]

17 minutes ago, ileeminati said:

Yes. Did you get one too? I wonder if they have a visit day.

No, it seems I was waitlisted. Really feel frustrate now. I don't know whether they will release more offer this year. 

[HappyDog]

I saw some posts about TAMU so I also sent an email to ask. They reply that I should wait until 4.15. Is anyone in the same situation?

Does anyone have any ideas about the waitlist in NCSU? Waiting all the time, cannot sleep well...

Edited February 28, 2018 by HappyDog

[NumStats]

36 minutes ago, HappyDog said:

I saw some posts about TAMU so I also sent an email to ask. They reply that I should wait until 4.15. Is anyone in the same situation?

Does anyone have any ideas about the waitlist in NCSU? Waiting all the time, cannot sleep well...

Maybe you're in the waitlist. Just wait for it then, I got a straight rejection when I emailed them.

[AndrewYao]

17 hours ago, jensenabyss said:

Any international student received offer from Iowa State? I saw two results posted today and got really nervous

So I just called ISU, they sent out their first round admissions, and they said also expect to accept fewer student due to budget cuts. Things are looking worse and worse.

[HighlyImprobable]

On 2/27/2018 at 11:47 AM, ileeminati said:

Unfortunely, it was not me. I don't think they will make me an offer based on their reactions. They mainly asked me about my upper level math and stats class. They were interested if I took a notorious hard grad stats class, which I didn't.

Thank you for sharing your experience! I think we are supposed to hear from them next week. Hopefully, there is some good news. You do have an offer from Chicago(?) which is a great program.

Edited February 28, 2018 by HighlyImprobable

[Bayesian1701]

3 hours ago, Taheel said:

Wouldn't it be easier to look at the number of people graduating each year with a stat/biostats PhD and add up from there? I believe Amstat publishes those numbers. 

Good idea. In 2016 there were 402 stat phds and 190 biostat.  Assuming 75% completion that would be 790 spots approximately.  

Edited February 28, 2018 by Bayesian1701

[DJ3Sigma]

54 minutes ago, Bayesian1701 said:

Good idea. In 2016 there were 402 stat phds and 190 biostat.  Assuming 75% completion that would be 790 spots approximately.  

Based on ASA there are a total of 120 stats and biostats phd programs in the US (I think they are missing a few schools). So I would say that anywhere between 960 and 1200 spots (incoming class size of 8 or 10). Of course this drops completion rate to somewhere between 49% and 61%. This to me seems reasonable as according to the Council of Graduate Schools website PhD completion in mathematics and physical sciences is 54.7%.

Edited February 28, 2018 by DJ3Sigma

[Bayesian1701]

Plus people who graduated in 2016 started in the early 2010s so it has probably grown by then and more programs have definitely popped up.  I would think stats would have a higher completion rate than math/physical sciences and be closer to engineering.   The NSF graduate student survey has about 8,000 stats graduate students that number may include biostats some might be counted in the life science category.  Computer science has over 10 times that and math has two and half.   I am basically guessing here and mainly I am just curious how stats compares to other fields.   I know psychology is highly competitive and depending on the subfield have average acceptance rates of under 5%.  It seems like a rough year this year for stats.  

[statsmaster]

I applied to the masters program in statistics at UW-Madison. Have they sent out acceptances yet?

On the results page there was one Phd acceptance a while ago and then 5 rejections on monday. But this was the last day of the month when they said we'd hear back so I'm worried..

Edited February 28, 2018 by statsmaster

[GoPackGo89]

59 minutes ago, Bayesian1701 said:

Plus people who graduated in 2016 started in the early 2010s so it has probably grown by then and more programs have definitely popped up.  I would think stats would have a higher completion rate than math/physical sciences and be closer to engineering.   The NSF graduate student survey has about 8,000 stats graduate students that number may include biostats some might be counted in the life science category.  Computer science has over 10 times that and math has two and half.   I am basically guessing here and mainly I am just curious how stats compares to other fields.   I know psychology is highly competitive and depending on the subfield have average acceptance rates of under 5%.  It seems like a rough year this year for stats.  

Wow there's that many more math and cs grad students than stats. I feel like a special snowflake now. I'd love to see it broken down by phd and masters though

[Bayesian1701]

@GoPackGo89 I also wish it broke it down by masters and phd.  It's probably close but there are more masters student spots since it is a shorter program so you can get 2-5 masters cohorts (depending on if it's a 1, 1.5, 2 year program) through for each phd cohort.  I looked up the ASA master data and Columbia had 435 people graduate in 2016,  so it's definitely a cash cow program.  There were 3249 stats masters graduates and 657 biostat graduates.  The ASA data is here.   

[jensenabyss]

5 hours ago, AndrewYao said:

So I just called ISU, they sent out their first round admissions, and they said also expect to accept fewer student due to budget cuts. Things are looking worse and worse.

I feel terrible. My background is not very good. I just emailed them for the application status and now I am afraid of their reply.

[DJ3Sigma]

3 hours ago, Bayesian1701 said:

Plus people who graduated in 2016 started in the early 2010s so it has probably grown by then and more programs have definitely popped up.  I would think stats would have a higher completion rate than math/physical sciences and be closer to engineering.   The NSF graduate student survey has about 8,000 stats graduate students that number may include biostats some might be counted in the life science category.  Computer science has over 10 times that and math has two and half.   I am basically guessing here and mainly I am just curious how stats compares to other fields.   I know psychology is highly competitive and depending on the subfield have average acceptance rates of under 5%.  It seems like a rough year this year for stats.  

@Bayesian1701 why do you think it is a rough year for stats?

[NumStats]

11 minutes ago, DJ3Sigma said:

@Bayesian1701 why do you think it is a rough year for stats?

I think I've been seeing the departments said something like "their funding has decreased for this year". A lot of factors might affect that actually if you follow the news. It's just a guess tho...

Edited March 1, 2018 by NumStats

[DJ3Sigma]

7 minutes ago, NumStats said:

I think I've been seeing the departments said something like "their funding has decreased for this year". A lot of factors might affect that actually if you follow the news. It's just a guess tho...

@NumStats that would make sense and I am sure that funding plays a major role in what each program offers. I was just thinking that I did not apply to the right places. I did not adequately gauge the level of competition in the field. I am too much of a dreamer haha.

[NumStats]

39 minutes ago, DJ3Sigma said:

@NumStats that would make sense and I am sure that funding plays a major role in what each program offers. I was just thinking that I did not apply to the right places. I did not adequately gauge the level of competition in the field. I am too much of a dreamer haha.

Don't worry, I am in the same position. I might be aiming too high (No real safety school) and without a decent preparation.. We only can wait for now I guess.. Wish for the best *finger crossed*

[Bayesian1701]

@DJ3SigmaIt seems like very few of the active people are getting multiple offers and applications seem to be up across the board.  Sure this is a biased sample,  and it's not universal (I have done better than expected) but I would have expected people do better than they are.  I don't think the funding problem is a big deal since not much on the federal funding level has changed but public institutions rely on state funding that can be fickle. For example, funding may be a problem in Iowa, but not Texas.  Maybe the international student disadvantage has increased at certain public institutions.  If funding was cut I think it would be tougher to justify spending more money on international students tuition (if they have to and they may not) especially with the America first mentality that is popular right now in some places.    If you could afford 5 domestic students but only 4 international students you might go for 5 domestic students even if the international students were more qualified.  Maybe people did overshoot their chances and it's not as bad as I think it is.  This could all be selection bias and it could be typical but just not seen in past threads on gradcafe.  

[StuartLittle]

Welcome to the month of MARCH everyone!! More anxious waiting...

And meanwhile, I have two midterms this evening and Friday evening...and around 600 midterms (Multivariate Calculus II and Introductory Statistics) to grade over the weekend HAHAHA.

Can't wait to hear more good news from y'all.

[OptimisticCynic]

Does anyone know if UW-Madison has an on-campus information day for students accepted to the PhD program in Statistics?

[Alexg]

15 hours ago, jensenabyss said:

I feel terrible. My background is not very good. I just emailed them for the application status and now I am afraid of their reply.

I figure out today that its not background that matters, I have good background + published papers but I didn't put that much time on gre , instead I was working on a paper to submit and add it to my CV. I got rejection and no acceptance. Today I called Notre Dame university and the professor said we rejected you because we first rank based on gre then research

[BL250604]

Saw someone got into Umich with a 3.3, and more of the lower end GRE general scores. Anyone here? 

[Alexg]

4 minutes ago, BL250604 said:

Saw someone got into Umich with a 3.3, and more of the lower end GRE general scores. Anyone here? 

maybe his quant gre is 90 percentile, this is the most thing they look 

[aei]

Is anyone else still waiting to hear back from the University of Minnesota for their master's program in Biostatistics? I saw a lot of acceptances offered earlier this month, but many were applicants rejected from the PhD program. Perhaps they're waiting to hear from that group before they send out another wave of acceptances to master's applicants?

[Bayesian1701]

@BL250604  They likely have really good research experience or amazing rec letters  or connections with the department or some combination of the three.   Plus they were domestic which probably made them a little more forgiving of the GRE/GPA. Plus they could have went to UChicago or somewhere else with grade deflation (making their GPA not as bad as it seems) or have a masters from a top program.  GPA/GRE don't tell the whole story.