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How high to aim? (Biostatistics PhD)


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Undergrad Institution: Low-ranked non-flagship state school
Major: Mathematics, CS minor
GPA: 3.95 (4.0 in math)
Type of Student: DWM
Upper Division Courses:
Real I/II, Mathematical Statistics, Categorical Data Analysis, Abstract Algebra, DEQ, Set Theory (grad level)
 
GRE: 169V/170Q/5.5W
 
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Generic math department awards/ high gpa awards
 
Research experience: Past summer at top 15 biostatistics department in clinical trials, two working papers in stat, one r&r in graph theory

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Student teaching assistant in math department 
 
Letters of Recommendation: Math department chair, young stat professor from department, leader of data coordinating center from top 15 biostat department
 
Research Interest: Clinical trials, specifically Phase I and Phase II (I want small grant hell for the rest of my life), and structural neuroimaging
 
(Plan) to apply to (PhD Biostatistics Programs):
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
UNC
Michigan
Emory
Minnesota
Florida State (hopefully safety)
SMU (hopefully safety)
 
Possibly (PhD Statistics):
Purdue
WashU
South Carolina (safety)
 
Random:
Notre Dame AMSC (one adviser in particular)
 
I worry I may be aiming too high on the biostats side. I would love anyone's opinion/advice! Thank you all in advance.
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On 8/16/2017 at 8:38 PM, StatHopeful said:

@cyberwulf - thank you for your input. Would you recommend applying to Havard/WashU/Hopkins even though I go to a poorly-ranked institution with no GRE subject? 

Thank you again!

With your profile you will be in the discussion EVERYWHERE. I can't wait to be the one reviewing applications one day to know for sure but for now I hypothesize there are less than 50 applicants with your kind of profile

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37 minutes ago, statbiostat2017 said:

With your profile you will be in the discussion EVERYWHERE. I can't wait to be the one reviewing applications one day to know for sure but for now I hypothesize there are less than 50 applicants with your kind of profile

Op definitely has a strong profile, especially with multiple papers in the works and summer research at a top 15 biostats program, so they should apply to everywhere they want to. Just would caution about being overly optimistic for UW/Harvard (not sure about Hopkins), even though that already kind of goes without saying since grad admissions are super competitive. At the visit days for both, nearly everyone was either from a top 20 undergrad, a flagship state school, or a top liberal arts college. There were a few from colleges that didn't fit into that mold, but they were definitely the minority (I would consider myself in the minority even though I went to a top 35 undergrad). Then again, this might've just been this years applicant pool, so idk if this is typical or not.

Also to the op, if you're interested in neuroimaging why not apply to Penn biostats (http://www.med.upenn.edu/pennsive/)?

 

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