How hard is it to get into a grad school for statistics if my undergrad grades are mediocre

How hard is it to get into a grad school for statistics if my undergrad grades are mediocre

I don't know about stats, but I majored in math and my undergrad advisor literally told me I wasn't good enough to go a good grad school. I had all A's and B's (except for a bio class) and did a decent course load including grad level classes in measure theory and algebraic topology.

god damnit

Why would any grad school want to accept you? Have you done anything encouraging aside from grades? I don't know what you expected to happen.

It's not too hard to stay in-house if you just cozy up to a professor and start doing research before finishing your degree.

Going to another college with anything below a 3.5? Good fucking luck.

Well...he's right. I had a 4.0 and a AMS publication out under a summer undergrad research grant I won from the univerisity.

I didn't listen to my professors, applied to top 5 schools only and got rejected from all of them.

I really wish I took the PhD position my undergrad adviser offered me or at least applied to shitty grad-schools, but that's now filled by someone smarter than me anyway.

That's the problem with attending shitty universities for your undergrad, you think you're hot shit just because you're a god in your own shitty pond, but no one in the real ocean gives an inkling of a fuck about you.

You blame your institution, but there's likely more to the story.

Did you get a high GRE score? Were you first author? How many years of research did you do? Could your advisers have given you lukewarm recommendations?

>How hard is it to get into a grad school for statistics if my undergrad grades are mediocre
If you understood statistics, you could probably research this yourself, OP.


lol
I'm a tiny bit drunk.

>applied to top 5 schools only

this is the problem

Yes that's the problem.

My advisor actually recommended that applied to top universities and I wish I hadn't listened to him. That's one of the only pieces of advice I'm confident on giving: consider applying to top universities only as an extra, don't actually count on getting in.

>Did you get a high GRE score?
Yes.
Were you first author?
First, three total.
>How many years of research did you do?
One, but that doesn't include other industry internships I had on my CV.
>Could your advisers have given you lukewarm recommendations?
I was pretty much golden-boy tier in their eyes despite being ugrad.

This user gets it. The poeple who get into top 5 are either true fucking geniuses or people like > and/or those who have contacts in the department. I was really fucking stupid now I'm pretty much losing a semester of my life at best.

>My advisor actually recommended that applied to top universities and I wish I hadn't listened to him.
Our professors come from different times, it was a LOT less competative a few decades ago.

Apply for masters.

I have a friend who was decent in undergrad but not stellar. She got into a masters stat program at an Ivy league school. Then, she got the DoE to pay for a PhD at some state school.

Like many of these other anons, my brother was the cream of the crop at our shitty undergrad institute and ended up getting rejected from all Math PhD programs except for one at a state engineering school.

What do you mean by cream of the crop, and just how shitty of an undergrad school are we talking about here?

Top fucking kek

Just to give a different perspective:

I had a 3.2 in math and physics from an undergrad that's great in general but not great in either of those subjects. I had a bunch of undergrad research but no publications.

I got into some decent math PhD programs. Not top 10 or anything but around the top 30. So realistically you can go somewhere worth going even if it's not your dream school.

Above GPA cutoffs like 9/10 grad schools really only care about the GREs. GPA is easily gamed and an unreliable metric, and the GRE is more predictive.

This wasn't me, but clarifying: the SUBJECT tests, not the general GRE. If you're applying in a STEM field the general GRE won't help you because it's pretty meaningless, but if you score below ~165/170 it would be a pretty bad sign.

Also (at least in math) you can find a few US schools that don't even consider the GRE (general or subject test) at all, so you're not sunk if you bomb it.

who /puremathematics/ @cambridge for graduate?

How hard is it to get into? Any tips for international students?

What is your plan now?

My grades are mediocre. I have a publication, good letters of recommendation, but I plan to move into a closely related area for a PhD. Worked a few years and now going back to school as a post-bac student to improve my GPA, take pre-req courses in the new field and obtain more research experience. Using this to increase my chances of getting into a good school

As in best in his class: >3.9 gpa. It is a private liberal arts school. The teachers are good, and the program is nice, but no national reputation or anything.

Oh also, he got a pretty shite GRE score so there's that. Try to not do that.

Also, make sure to apply to schools of all levels of prestige. My dum dum bro didn't apply to any medium range schools where he probably belonged. The hope now is to transfer after masters.

I'm sending out CVs everywhere hoping someone will bite, if I can find a job I'll just hide the fact that I'm planning on returning to academia at some point.

>going back to school as a post-bac student
You're the biggest fucking retard I've seen posting on Veeky Forums in weeks.

getting accepted isn't your biggest problem

you will fail badly

Mine did too, mate. She actually seemed disappointed in my school choices, and they were mostly in the top 15. It's important to keep in mind that things are much more competitive than in the past.

I'm going to apply in the fall for pure math and you fucks are making me nervous.

There's nothing wrong with that. Especially if he doesn't like his original degree and wants to improve his chances of getting into a decent grad program

That's not true either, the general GRE is heavily weighted. At least it is in chemistry. The Chem GRE is also a test that can be gamed.

How? I have tuition assistance so I'm going back for free. It's a prestigious university and I already am in the mix of scheming which professors to pursue additional research projects with. This will lead to more research experience, letters of recommendation and fulfilling pre-req requirements for admissions into my new field. I've been studying this summer for the courses I'm taking ahead of time to ensure I do very well. This is a resume booster. also, what said.

just don't apply to only HYPMS or something and you will be fine. be realistic

What are my chances of going to grad school when I am getting undergrad at cal poly pomona for computer engineering? I don't care about going to an elite school.

What about Berkeley? Too elite?

>It's as good as all of those schools (and better than Yale), but they do tend to accept larger incoming classes.

Stats departments are typically easier to get into than mathematics departments. Or at least, the applications on gradcafe/mathematicsgre are less impressive than the pure mathematics applications.

If you're still in undergrad, try to cozy up to a professor and do research with them. I avoided doing so, and I was unable to get into a good PhD program because my letters of recommendation were weak. I'm opting to get a master's (funded thankfully) and to reapply in a year after doing some research and getting to know professors better. I'm losing about a year of progress (as in time spent, not in what I've learned) by doing this and I truly regret not interacting with professors more often.

Especially since your grades are mediocre, your letters of recommendation will be your main selling point to admissions programs. Don't underestimate them; there's a guy in my department who I would call mediocre, but due to his very strong recommendation letters, he was accepted to a top 30 program; not fantastic, but still good.

Hold on. So is this a phD or master's program?

Because the gap is massive. All these kids that 1) are applying to STEM phD programs straight out of undergrad had better be golden boys with multiple pubs because STEM phD programs even in garbage-bin unis are hardcore.

Master's programs basically exist for either professional advancement or people who fucked up in undergrad and don't mind doing some mind-numbing job to pay for a graduate degree.

Why is Veeky Forums so academically ignorant? you fucks are an embarassment

I applied to 12 graduate schools for pure math in the USA, one of which was Berkeley, and I was accepted to 2(one was from the waitlist). Not surprising is that the two that I did get accepted were the "lowest ranked" schools that I applied to. Berkeley is pretty hard to get an acceptance. If you really want to go to grad school, make sure you applied to a large range of programs. You might get lucky, or you might get screwed over without a backup.

I have a 3.6 gpa, I have a solid recommendation from an algebraic topologist, and am doing research this summer with a renowned topologist in knot theory, should get a good letter from him (got an A in his topology class), and am setting up plans for some research with a renowned algebraist. If I get good letters from all three, with some graduate classes would I be able to do a top 25 school?

So I'm getting out of this thread that I'm pretty much screwed out of ever going to grad school cause I have bad undergrad gpa? Shit, I should have given more fucks in my jewelry class.

I'd have thought so. I come from a much less impressive background then you and still got accepted to a top 50 worldwide school for physics.

elitest cunts. Don't listen to them. I am getting mediocre grades too but I am planning to get masters and then PHD in mathematics. It's all about motivation.