BS in Biology/Math minor ------> PhD in Statistics program? Is it possible?

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm going to be a junior soon and my gpa is pretty low due to freshman and sophomore year. I'm assuming that I will have a 3.2ish -3.3ish gpa during my senior year.</p>

<p>I am a Biology major with a Math minor. My math minor includes Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Ordinary Differential Equations, and 2 semesters of Probability and Statistics. I have also taken a psychology statistics beginner course (doesn't count towards the minor).</p>

<p>Will I be able to get into a PhD program for statistics assuming I have a high GRE and good LORs to go along with my mediocre gpa? My undergrad also has a very good reputation of getting students into reputable graduate programs and professional schools.</p>

<p>I was planning on applying to Purdue's Statistics Graduate program because it's close to home and it's one of the top programs.</p>

<p>I was also considering IU's stats program and IUPUI's stats program.</p>

<p>Help?</p>

2

<p>Help!!! I know there’s someone that can answer my questions!!</p>

3

<p>Since you’re a bio major, have you considered applying to departments of biostatistics? The admissions focus tends to be a bit less on math background (eg. not having a course in real analysis is less of a big deal for biostat than for stat, where many applicants have math/stat degrees), and this may work in your favor.</p>

4

<p>I see I see good point.</p>

5

<p>Your background is pretty perfectly suited for biostatistics or even epidemiology. I know that your coursework meets the minimum requirements for admission into a program, but if you are going to be a junior you may want to take more math classes to make yourself a more competitive candidate. Also, you should do some research with a statistics professor (or a math professor who does statistics research).</p>