MS/Ph.D Statistics?

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm intending on entering grad school in 2012 for a MS in Statistics.</p>

<p>I have a BA in econ from a state school, an unimpressive 3.0 GPA due to the first 2 years being on academic probation (1.6-1.8), though my last 3 years were significantly better.</p>

<p>GRE taken about a month into calc, after not being a classroom in a couple years, was v(high500's), q(mid 700's).</p>

<p>since graduating, i've been taking the requisite classes necessary to enter a masters program in statistics. i've been getting A's in everything recently. (calc 1-3, lin alg, diffeq, intro stats, gonna be taking combinatorics and discrete math next semester)</p>

<p>anyways, i'm trying to figure out how useful the us news rankings are, as a lot of schools that i <em>know</em> are good schools are completely unranked.</p>

<p>and i'm trying to get a feel for how high i should really be aiming for my "pie in the sky" school. i have a dedicated fallback school, a state school near where i live.</p>

<p>whether it be University of Florida, Iowa State, or even University of Washington. or if i'm just dreaming, haha.</p>

<p>i'm not asking for where i'd get accepted, merely where i'd have a chance.</p>

2

<p>U.S. News is not useful for graduate admissions. Most fields maintain their own set of rankings or ratings of graduate schools; the best people to ask to evaluate schools are professors within your field. The other thing to remember is that statistics is a degree in high demand, so unless you intend to enter academia, an MS or a PhD in statistics from even a middling school will probably get you good employment.</p>

3

<p>my field is economics, and my economics professors are first to admit they don’t know where good stats programs are. my undergrad school doesn’t have a stats department.</p>

<p>i’m taking a class through a local university in stats, and they’re my fallback school, so i would feel kinda weird asking them about competing “better” universities.</p>