Hi! Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I’m a fourth-year undergraduate student at UChicago deciding between five different offers by April 15th, which is this Tuesday. I made some very rough cost estimates, including both tuition and living expenses, in parentheses:
- MS in Statistics at UChicago ($83,976)
- Master’s in Data Science at Harvard ($119,419)
- Master’s in Statistical Science at Duke ($199,862)
- MA in Statistics at Berkeley ($71,198)
- MS in Statistics with a subplan in data science at Stanford ($142,125)
My top priorities are getting as rigorous and rewarding a statistics education as possible and good post-graduate job opportunities in the industry, especially in statistics and data science. I am still uncertain about my specific career path, but I expect to work in a quantitative position in private industry or at a non-profit (e.g., statistician, data analyst, data scientist, or something else). However, I am also factoring in costs, and I would have to take out federal loans after my college fund with ≈$31k runs out, which means my loan burden would be super different between the five schools.
To make my decision, I need to answer two big questions:
- Which school makes the most sense if money was no object? Essentially, which of the five schools meets my education and job opportunity priorities the most?
- Considering that money is an issue and that the job market is very uncertain at the moment, which school is most practical to maximize my educational experience and opportunity without taking too many risks? For example, my estimated federal loan burden at Stanford would be ≈$111k but just ≈$40k at Berkeley, which is a massive difference. And that difference will be even larger due to interest, which is currently 8.08 percent for Direct Unsubsidized Loans and 9.08 percent for Direct PLUS Loans according to the Student Aid website. But statistics graduates conventionally have high starting salaries, so what loan amounts are reasonable to optimize the tradeoff between getting the best opportunities and avoiding being saddled with potentially life-ruining debt?
Also, if you have any advice on getting master’s funding, I would super appreciate it too! I know that you are typically expected to pay for your master’s degree on your own, but I know that plenty of external scholarships exist. It’s just hard to track them down and know which applications are most viable. I also know that universities offer assistantships, but I’ve heard conflicting information about whether those are offered to PhD or master’s students depending on the school, so please let me know if you have any university-specific knowledge on the availability and competitiveness of these positions.
As you can probably tell, I’m very nervous about making such a big decision within the next three days, so thank you so much for any guidance you can provide!
Comments
In the current political environment I think minimizing debt burden is ideal
Online MS in Data Science that I’m in at Boston University is $25k total. It’s also part-time, so you can work as you go and finish in as little as 4 semesters.
Not stating this to be facetious, but student loans aren’t play money, they will have to be paid back and not even a data scientist role will offset the costs sustainably.
Data scientist roles that pay above $150-200k are usually for those with PhDs in Data Science or a relevant field, so you may want to go a more affordable route and apply for PhD programs when you finish or apply for PhD programs next cycle.
I don’t know your major but can you work for a couple of years and apply for phd programs ( I know it’s a long commitment but you can work in academia or industry) and you won’t have to take debt.
Those are all good programs. It’s a large amount of debt to take on, so honestly I think it’s reasonable to make the decision based on cost if other aspects of the programs and locations are acceptable to you. Do any of them offer the opportunity to take on RA or TAships to offset expenses a bit?
I would not recommend anyone take on over 100k in debt for a masters degree. On no planet is a Berkeley degree worth less than half of a degree from Duke. That’s obscene.
Lol, none of these.
Berkley seems like the right choice on that premium alone
If I had to pick doing a masters at one of these excellent programs, I would pick U Chicago. They have an overall good stats and math program, and the new IMSI statistics institute is there, so you could potentially be involved in a few long or short programs, which would help out with networking in the future.
Congrats on your acceptances, OP.
You need to decide whether you’re going into stats or DS. Although related, these are 2 different fields and programs should not be compared to each other. I’ve seen stats people going into DS, the other way – not so much.
Assuming you’re going into stats and are concerned about money, Berkeley seems to be an obvious choice: they have a good department (in fact one of the best in the nation) and the cost is lower.
If you’re even remotely interesting in research, you need to go through faculty directories and enter your picks of people you’d like to work with into your options.
Keep in mind that the majority of jobs in “true” stats expect you to have a PhD, so you’re opportunities with master’s will be limited here.
Good luck!
I’d go with Berkeley. They have a great program and a valuable brand name. I understand from your comments that you’re not sure about doing a PhD, but if you ever want to do one, having Berkeley on your CV will be a plus (although this is true for any program on your list, maybe a bit less if you stay at UChicago).
If money were no object I’d probably go with Stanford because of the flexibility of their program, offering both statistics and data science. But it’s not worth an extra 70k compared to Berkeley.
You missed the best option. Industrial Engineering at Georgia Tech.
As someone who graduated from my master’s degree last year, I think minimizing debt is important because the job market is not great and anecdotally it seems like entry-level salaries in data science are going down now that the market is oversaturated with data science grads. I was lucky enough to have a job lined up before I graduated but a significant percentage of students in my program were not able to find a job in the field (and this was a master’s degree program at an Ivy). I love my job and I don’t want to discourage you from doing your master’s in statistics and/or data science, I just want you to be aware of the realities of the job market (which may or may not improve by the time you graduate).
> Also, if you have any advice on getting master’s funding, I would super appreciate it too! I know that you are typically expected to pay for your master’s degree on your own, but I know that plenty of external scholarships exist.
No, you’re not. Especially in STEM. I would expect a departmental waiver and I would never, ever consider paying fully out of pocket for a masters.