<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I'm currently a graduating senior(expected June 2014) pursuing a BS Mathematics Degree at the University of Washington-Seattle. My overall GPA is 3.25 and my major gpa is 3.4 with an average of 3.5+ for the last 60 credit hours. I have no research experience, but I have been a math tutor, and including other mentoring and leadership experiences. I want to go for the PHD in Stats as my terminal degree but I feel that my package isn't very strong. My schools of interest are: Columbia, Purdue, Indiana Bloomington, University of Florida, UC Davis/UCLA, typically schools with rank 20 - 30 in their Stats program. I should be able to get some stellar LORs. Also, I'm taking a gap year and will be applying for Fall 2015. One more thing I like to add is that I am an international student therefore I need to get into a program or I won't be able to stay in the US once my OPT runs out.</p>
<p>What are my chances at these schools? I don't mind applying for unfunded master's first in order to progress to a PHD degree if my chances to apply straight for a PHD are too low. I've decided to visit the above schools and hopefully meet some faculties F2F in order to maximize my chance.</p>
<p>Any feedback or comments are appreciated. Plz also let me know what can I do during the 6 month time span before applying to polish a better application package.</p>
<p>Thank you all.</p>
<p>I know that math is different, but in many fields to be a competitive statistics applicant for PhD programs that you need research experience. Your major GPA is also just a tad low, so you may want to take one or two graduate-level classes (as a non-degree student; you can do this at a public university) to prove that you can achieve on the grad level.</p>
<p>These are all things you can’t really effectively do between now and September/October 2014, when you’ll be preparing applications. In my field (and most social sciences and natural/physical sciences) no research experience would make you uncompetitive for a PhD, especially in the top 30. But I know math is different because it’s sometimes difficult for math students to get research experience; either their professors aren’t doing it OR they don’t know enough math yet even in their junior and senior year to get research experience.</p>
<p>We can’t really predict your chances, though. It really depends on who you are competing with and other things. Here’s what Columbia has to say:</p>
<p>We receive more than 300 applications a year and there are many students in our applicant pool who are qualified for our program. However, we can only admit a few top students. Before seeing the entire applicant pool, we cannot comment on admission probabilities.</p>
<p>The only things that you can do that are under your control and changeable in the next 6 months:</p>
<p>-Get really high GRE scores.
-Craft a well-written personal statement that clearly delineates your research interests and why you want to go to X program. Fit is the most important element to the application package, so given some theoretical minimum level if you are a perfect fit you may be admitted over a student who, on paper, looks “more competitive” but doesn’t have as good a fit with the department.</p>
<p>-Juillet</p>
<p>Thank you for the feedback. What do you think about the idea of meeting the faculty in person that you have interest in working with prior to applying? The head of the PHD Stats admission committee told me that this could be a enormous boost to my application. What are your thoughts on this? Do you know any student in my situation that was successful after talking to faculty in person?</p>
<p>Thanks </p>
<p>Knowing the faculty ahead of time could, potentially, be a boost. It depends on a variety of factors - the particular professor needs to be looking to take on graduate students; they need to be suitably impressed with you as a person; there needs to be no competing students who have better profiles than you who could potentially take your place. Your credentials also need to be such that the professor doesn’t have to spend too much social capital arguing for your admission.</p>
<p>Of course, “knowing” faculty is different from “talking to/meeting” faculty in person. A one-time meeting or conversation without some kind of extant connection usually doesn’t foster this kind of impact/boost. When I have usually seen this work in my own department is the student in question did some kind of service with Professor X - either they were an undergrad here and worked as an RA, or they volunteered as an RA as they worked full-time, or they worked as an RA during a master’s program in another department or worked as a lab manager - and thus the professor knows them and their work ethic and is willing to vouch for them. I’ve also seen it work when the applicant in question worked with Professor Y, Professor X’s bestest buddy from their grad school/postdoc days. X has tremendous respect for Y, so his recommendation means a lot and X can be reasonably sure that the applicant has the kind of prerequisite training she needs.</p>
<p>But anyone could arrange a prior meeting with a professor to discuss that professor’s research and plead to be let into the program. That kind of meeting doesn’t necessarily give the professor any long-term insight into your work habits, your accomplishments, your research knowledge, etc.</p>
<p>I can also tell you that in my field and my specific department, no amount of meeting a professor in person would be able to overcome having no research experience. It’s just a requirement in our field, and we have many outstanding applicants who have experience. (Having a little experience - maybe 6 months to 1 year - could potentially be overcome by talking to faculty by emphasizing passion and maybe noting an incredibly intense experience that taught you a lot, but none? Nah.)</p>
<p>But again, math/stats isn’t my field and other math grad students here have pointed out that research experience isn’t as important for PhD programs in math. In fact, since you are still in college, you should ask your own math professors these questions - what do they say? Is having no research experience a game-killer? Should you meet in person with them? Will the gap year be enough?</p>
<p>Also, my final question: If you have no research experience in statistics, how do you know that you want a PhD in statistics?</p>
<p>Good luck with your applications. I don’t know how this works for your residency requirements, but your school has a great online Masters (both in stat and applied math). Penn State also has a good online degree in stat.</p>