Transfer student at a T100 aiming for Ivies and MIT [MA resident, 3.98 college GPA, statistics / math / CS major]

[kino93403]

@tsbna44

They are the traditional, I want to go to a a big name, even if academics weren’t as strong. They couldn’t get in out of HS and it bothers them.

Pretty much.

[kino93403]

@MACXC1009

What about NC State? Great stats program. Or Duke.

Not sure why I’d apply to NC State if I’m already at a school of equal prestige. I’m definitely applying to Duke though

[tsbna44]

Short of one or two fieid, you are way over calculating the impact of prestige.

In fact from some big names there’s more competition.

You can likely do great right where you are.

Good luck in your chase. But realize, in the last CDS, Duke admitted less than 5%.

[DadTwoGirls]

@kino93403

I’m not sure that I’d actually want to get a master’s degree when I could head straight into the workforce out of undergrad.

Of the people I know who did get a master’s degree, most started a job immediately or at least relatively soon after getting their bachelor’s degree. Then they worked for at least a year and in many cases longer than a year before deciding whether or not to go back to university for a master’s degree. Given how expensive university has become, and given the good job opportunities available with a bachelor’s degree in some combination of mathematics and computer science, if I were to do it over again I might have also skipped the master’s degree.

I also know quite a few people with bachelor’s or master’s degree from U. Mass in either CS or mathematics. They will often work alongside graduates from MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Rutgers, one of the IIT’s (in India), and a very wide range of other universities and no one cares where anyone got their degree.

@kino93403

I think the quality of student at a T25 is higher than at my current school,

The strongest graduates who I have worked with from U.Mass or Rutgers or one of the IIT’s are just as strong as the strongest graduates from MIT or Stanford. At MIT you will have a higher percentage of the students who are academically very strong and academically very driven. However, you might not have a larger number of super strong students simply because for example MIT is smaller than U.Mass or many other public universities.

@kino93403

I’m worried that I’ll fail the resume screen next year too unless I transfer to a top school.

Having already had some internship experience is likely to improve your chances to get other internships in the future. As one example, one daughter the summer after her freshman year of university just got a job, almost any job. The summer after her sophomore year got a research internship which was interesting, but not exactly what she wanted. During her junior year of university she got a research position that was what she wanted. In the summer after her junior year of university she got to continue this research with a very good internship doing pretty much exactly what she wanted.

As you get more experience, this is likely to make it easier to get more opportunities. This assumes that your employer each time around will give you a good reference, or invite you to come back for another internship.

[merc81]

Why the attention to UMass in this topic? Has the OP stated that they attend this school? If the OP does attend UMass, its seems fortunate that it was accessible to them with what appears to have been a 53rd percentile HS class standing. And, for additional academic depth, taking some statistics courses at a T-25 school, Amherst College, may be an option.

[tsbna44]

@DadTwoGirls

Having already had some internship experience is likely to improve your chances to get other internships in the future.

100% - experience begets experience - period, end of story.

My kid had 19 interviews and 5 offers by xmas as an engineer, 6 counting his intern employer that came late

My daughter had 7 offers in DC for the Fall semester last year, 5 paid. Why? She interned for our state the summer b4.

We live in Nashville. She has two friends at Vandy - both did research (no internships) and can’t find jobs after graduation. One of the girl’s boyfriends when to UTK and has had two internships and is headed to Seattle this next summer to work for one of the big software names.

Once you get experience, Harvard or Hofsta, gaining success is that much easier!!

[MACXC1009]

Totally, someone I know went to a small, not highly-ranked state school for undergrad, got into a big state grad program for statistics, had ivy league offers for jobs, and is now a well-known and respected researcher in the field of statistics.

[kino93403]

It is extraordinarily difficult nowadays to get into a top PhD program from a low-ranked undergrad. Just 3 current Harvard mathematics grad students came from a non-T25 school. Three!

It’s also very difficult to get a job in academia at a top university unless you did a PhD at a top university too. One of my professors, a guy in his early 30’s, did his undergrad at Cornell and his PhD at Duke, had good research output, and yet is only a professor at my school.

[ucbalumnus]

@kino93403

It is extraordinarily difficult nowadays to get into a top PhD program from a low-ranked undergrad. Just 3 current Harvard mathematics grad students came from a non-T25 school. Three!

Are you intending to go on to PhD study in statistics or math?

If so, then you want to try to figure out which schools have the higher reputation in your major from the point of view of PhD programs, rather than better USNWR overall ranking.

Also, tenure track faculty jobs are highly competitive to get into, since there are far more PhD graduates than there are tenure track faculty job openings.

[merc81]

When normalized for school size, colleges such as Harvey Mudd, Reed and Swarthmore tend to excel in ultimate PhD productivity in mathematics. Students with international origins also may be well represented in U.S. graduate programs in mathematics.