ProspectPhd

I think your opinion is very important. When an applicants tend to look at their own profile they can't really see the flaws or they see too many flaws! I am very grateful that there are members like yourself that evaluate profiles. Generally, it is good to get your profile looked at by fellow applicants and graduate students. Honestly, I am more confident now then before I posted my profile even though the assesments were not all positive. I am very thankful of everyone's opinion. Additionally, I forgot to mention my LORs. One is from the Chair of the economics department at my former state school, the the other is the Dean of my UG institutions accounting school, and finally, I am going to send in two recs of former mathematics instructors I have had. One instructor is a Associate Professor and the other is academic that lectures full time at the statistics I am in currently. All letters are gleming!

I agree with you. I don't intend on applying to only top schools. I am going to certainly diversify. There is no doubt that it is going to be difficult to stand out among all the great applications. However, there are a few things going for me. The first being that there is quite a bit of overlap with applicants in the 1 to 30 range. I have no doubt that at least 50% of applicants for 2012 admission are applying to at least 50% of the same schools I am applying. Furthermore, usually only 60% of applicants have graduate degrees and of this group, how many have a MS in computational statistics? Very few. I have seen most having either a MBA. I know many students with great GPAs that try to get a MS in statistics or mathematics, but believe me, it is not that easy for them. In fact, when I told a accounting faculty at a top institution of my background he was impressed. Additionally, I know how to use R, SAS, SQL, and Latex. I have used Stata, but I am not going to list it. With that being said, I still agree with the assessment of everyone. I am going to only apply to 5 to 6 top schools (1 to 10 rank), maybe even less, and about 10 to 15 (10 to 30 rank). That is my strategy.

Again, thank you everyone for the information and opinions. I am curious, what do you mean by this? Do you mean that I will be competitive at top schools because there is a spectrum of poor grades or do you mean I am not competitive because of my grades? I am confused on which one you are referring to, can you elaborate a bit?

Also, how many schools should I apply to? Which schools do you recommend? I have a few ideas based on research interests, but the rankings are so different across the board that I am open to suggestions from experienced graduate students. I apologize for the double post and any errors.

Do you think I have a shot at 1 to 15 rank school? I am looking to apply to MIT, UCLA, LSE, Stanford, and UCB. I have seen some students in their program with two masters that are generally older. The coursework I have amounts to about 2 years worth of work. The degrees I have are from schools in the Top 20 overall rank.

I forgot to mention the most important part! I had posted a previous profile of mine and this is a updated profile. I just want to get an idea what my chances are at a top 20 program. Thank you in advance!

Education/Background Top 5 UG Accounting Program B.S. Accounting (3.3 GPA) B.A. Mathematics (3.6 GPA) Cumulative GPA: 3.41 Practice GMAT: 720-740 (I will take in 3 months) Calc 1 (B), Calc 2 (B+), Calc 3 (A), Linear Algebara (A), Differentail Equations (A) Calc Based Probability Theory (B+), Calc Based Statistics Theory (B+), Discrete Mathematics (A-), Abstract Algebra (A-), UG Real Analysis 1 (B). State School Coursework in Economics Cumulative GPA: 3.75 Mathematical Econ (A-), Intermediate Macro (A-), Intermediate Micro (A), UG Econometrics (A), Graduate Macro (A-), Graduate Econometrics (A), Graduate Micro (B). Top 20 Graduate Program from Top Public School in California M.S. Computational Statistics Cumulative GPA: 3.85 Expariment Design (B+), Non-linear Optimization (A-), Intro Computation Statistics and programming (A), Graduate Probability (A), Graduate Statistics (A-), Graduate Regression Analysis (A-), Statistical Models in Finance (A-), Graduate Introduction to SAS programming (A). Research Interest: Capital Markets (Reading Surveys and Papers) TA Experience: 3 years (2 years at UG level and 1 year at Graduate level) Work Experience: Summer graduate intern at federal agency within Operations Research division Age: 29 at time of admission Computer Code: SAS, R, and SQL

Yeah, no worries at all, just want to get some advice on where to apply. I want to get a idea where I can best fit in. Ideally, I want to get into a program in the neighborhood of 30 to 50 ranked programs, but I am also aiming for some other low ranked and some higher ranked. Is this realistic at all? In terms of getting in with funding?

Not puffing out chest, just want to give a clear picture of profile. I may have made a mistake, but in no way was I trying to brag. Anyways, just want a good idea where to apply.

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