hello all, i recently took GRE and got 1260. v = 590, Q = 670. i would like to study bio stat/ stat for my masters program. if any of you are doing masters/phd in bio stat/ stat and know about schools with good assistantship opportunity, could you please post here. i will appreciate your help. thank you.

Would be good to retake GRE. Q=670 seems not so much promising to be competitive in biostatistics in good schools. Many other competitors come with perfect 800. No offense. Good Luck!

hey harris, thanks for the note. I agree that 670 is low score in quant. I am not aiming at top schools. average schools will do for me. for me assistantship opportunity is more important. if you know anything about it, please let me know. thanks.

try pennsylvannia state univ

I am not sure if SUNY has biostats but check it out, it's an average school i think, n' their other bio. related programs are pretty good.. the GRE score is not the only thing that determines your admission... how about the percentile? how was that? i agree the quatitative is not so impressive ..... i think for us international students the verbal score doesn't matter that much but they expect us to score higher in quant. atleast in the 80th percentile i think.... well i am victim of the same low GREs here, but i applied anyways we'll see what happens..
good luck to u !!

All I know is, in most cases, it's only at 93% even if you get an 800 on Maths. If you get a 700 on verbal, for example, that probably is 99%.

i got 750 but it was only 80 percentile

lets see. i have few schools in mind. I will also go through the penn state webpage. thanks guys. i appreciate your input.

I also think 670 is too low. Especially for a program in Statistics. Do you have a good GPA? That might help..

Hey Harris
Definitely your score in quantitative is lower. Congratulation! You have a good score in verbal. What about your GRE essay and TOEFL scores. I think followings are the major criteria most of the graduate student recruiting committee looks.

1) If you are international student, your TOEFL score: If it is >600 that is good for both TA and RA. Some universities asks TSE for TA
2) GRE: Verbal: >400, Quantative >700 and essay > 3.5
3) Recommendation letter, and who are the recommender
4) University: If your previous university is US University, you have great chance. If your university is from Nepal, they look from which university you are. Tribhuvan University is mostly well known in the world.
5) What is your GPA or percentage: if it is >3.5 or 70% that’s good.
6) How frequently you are in contact with the department advisor and professor under whom you want to work- it’s very important for getting admission for MS or PhD. If the professor wants you, GRE and TOEFL are no matter; he can admit you even if you don’t have TOEFL and GRE.
7) Your Statement of Purpose. How concise is your SOP, what is your goal, how much your SOP tells about your goal, did you get any ethical problem during your work or study and what approaches you considered.
8) Your academic work experience: Not very important, but if you have its positive
9) Your extracurricular activities: Not very important, but if you have its positive

About university, I would say you apply in at least 6 universities. Four universities above the ranking 100 and two within 100. Go to http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/natudoc/tier1/t1natudoc_brief.php to see recent ranking of US universities.

My suggestion for you is first write at least 50 department advisors and 50 professors who are working in the field of your interest and look how positive their responses are. Be in frequent contacts with the professors who positively responded you and do accordingly what they want.

I appreciate your effort to explain things in detail. Though, it's not me looking for admission. It's somebody Mr. Asterik *.... :-)

thanks ushawashan,

I think i should go for stat and busineess combo or economics and stat combo. i know my quant is very low for economics program and my undergrad degree in not in economics either. my background is computer. but i am not so good at it and want to change my major. i know there are plenty guys out there in economics program, could you guys put some of your experience here. i will appreciate it.

TRY Clarkson (Clarkson University, NY) dude it has good bio-statistical research. I know a guy who goes there. Its an expensive uni but if u get funding things will be good.

let me sak one thing
ihave corresponded about 20 yniversities. All of them are positive and say "I strongly encourage you to apply". Do you guys think I will get admitted or they saying so to increase the application pool and for the application fee. Any one having the same feeling??????

sorry typo
yniversities=universities
ihave= I have