r/biostatistics

Hello everyone, I'm thinking about making a career pivot into Biostatistics and was wondering what level of schooling is required. With an MS in Biostatistics would I be able to land a position, and if so what type of position in what sort of workplace?
Is PhD the only way to "guarantee" (there are of course no guarantees) that you find a position as a Biostatistician in the US? I just keep hearing how competitive the job market is.

I am a sophomore at WSU, majoring in economics. I am really enjoying my stats classes lately and am interested in the possibility of doing a bio stats masters after my undergrad. Could I get into a good masters program if I kept my major but took a lot of supplemental stats and data-analytics courses? What do good masters programs actually look for?

Hi, im starting college and ive beeen completely stuck with this decision for weeks.

I knew I wanted to be a statician because I took an AP statistics class in high school I loved. But only recently have I found out that my college has counted that credit as the same as their biostats class! I realize that all the statistics work I learned to do related on solving real world, scientific and such problems.

I am minoring in programming no matter what I do. I have found I enjoy programming. But IT sounds so gross to me. I do not like the sound of being to heavily focused on sales or other biusness things. But my problem lies under the fact I have no experience in that enviroment, so I have no idea if I would be fine with it, or if my gut is right and I would hate it.

I have always loved science classes and took many ones of different feilds. Biology was good, I liked chemestry because it was mathy, and intro to astronomy and geology was fun. However, the problem here with going into biostats is I don't know if I would enjoy working for pharma, seeing as they have a bad reputation. But again, I have no experience, so I don't know. I also am worried of lower play, and the fact that it seems getting a job as a biostatiscian would be harder.

Can I gradtuate as a biostatiscian, but still go for data analyitics jobs? (Remember I will have a minor in programming). I am hoping that perhaps my degree could allow me to try both in my lifetime, but I worry having an emphasis in biostats will make it harder for me to compete with those who graduate focused in buisness.

I hate biostatistics on the USMLE. It was very difficult concept because of all the statistics and calculations. I can memorize biochemical pathways and physiology and other disease process. But it was not easy to keep track of all the formulas for biostats. So I created this worksheet that simplified everything. it was the best thing ever. if you struggle with biostats, you can just use this one page cheat sheet and memorize it for the test. Good luck

smashusmlereviews.com

Hello all, I have a stable job in a different field. I am debating a biostatiatics PhD because of personal interest and hopefully a possible increase in income (currently making about 70k will go up to 100k where it will peak for the rest of my career with some small inflation bumps within 8 years). My alternative options are to continue my job as present or to apply for statistics PhDs as well.

Is the longterm job market outlook for biostats PhDs good enough for me to risk leaving my current position?

My undergrad major was in mathematics and economics. I have taken all the usual math prerequisites for a biostats phd including all calculus courses, linear algebra, probability and statistics 1, real analysis, differential equations and a few other pure math courses.

I ended with a 3.8 GPA.

Is this switch likely to be worth it?

I’m trying to get into a competitive PhD in Biostats but my dream is to work in public health/survival analysis or clinical trials. Should I be taking bio classes to be competitive? Or is it better to take more math? Thanks in advance!

I’ve been thinking about the sample mean from a linear algebra perspective.

If y is a data vector and 1 is the vector of all ones, then the average can be seen as the scalar you get when projecting y onto span(1).

So the projection has the form:

y-hat = y-bar · 1

where y-bar is the usual sample average.

I like this because it makes the average feel like the simplest possible least-squares problem: find the constant vector closest to the data vector.

It also connects naturally to ordinary least squares regression, where y gets projected onto the column space of X instead of just the one-dimensional space spanned by 1.

Does this seem like a good way to introduce projections/least squares, or would you teach it differently?

I have been looking at biostatistician jobs on linkedin and the vast majority seems to be for Principal statisticians. A few are for Statistician II/Senior Statistician and there seems to be no jobs for Statisticians I or equivalent. For context I have a phd and almost 1 year of experience working as a trial statistician in academia but I'm looking to switch to industry.

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about pursuing a career in biostatistics but have gotten a little scared by the job prospects.
I quite like the idea of working in public health and biostat seems like a purposeful career where you get to solve interesting problems.
I have a Masters degree in Mathematics and have been working the past three years as a data analyst at a contracting company that does work for the government. I'm considering going back to school nearby at NYU or Columbia (haven't looked too far into specific programs, in the early stages) and getting in MS in Biostatistics. My current position doesn't excite me or make me feel like I'm bettering the world in any way. I like the idea of doing research while I'm there as well. I've been seeing posts in this thread about the competitive job market for these positions though and am having some doubts.
Any advice on how my background/plan line up and how to break into the field would be appreciated!!

I'm soon taking an introduction to biology class in the fall and was wondering how much biology I need to know as a biostatistician? I'm a statistics major planning to double major in computer science and minor in public health to round out my skills, but how deep in biology do I need to go? I heard I don't need to know all too much, just understanding certain health context and more, but what type of classes could help me understand the health aspect? Especially if I'm interested in pharma or clinical stuff.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for honest feedback from people actually working in the field, not just general career advice.

I hold a Psychology degree and I'm finishing a health sciences PhD [neuroscience] and a postgraduate specialization in statistics with a health sciences focus (both expected to wrap up within a year). My research has involved applied statistical analysis using R, which is my main tool. Python is basic but functional, Excel is solid. No SAS, no SQL, no GitHub presence yet. I'm based in Argentina and looking for remote roles — not planning to relocate.

I'm genuinely done with academia and looking to transition into something more applied and economically sustainable.

So I've heard about Junior Biostatistician or Statistical Analyst roles in pharma, CROs, or health-adjacent organizations.

What I want to know:

1. Is this a realistic path for someone coming from a health sciences PhD without prior industry or clinical trials experience?
2. How much does the lack of SAS specifically hurt at entry level? Is R enough to get a foot in the door, or is it a dealbreaker?
3. For those who made a similar transition — what was the actual bottleneck? What do you wish you'd known?
4. Any honest takes on remote hiring for non-US candidates in this field?

Thanks in advance

I'm working on a clinical bioinformatics project and would like some advice on the best clustering strategy for this:

We have RNA seq data that has patient with or without toxicity. The toxicity group is confirmed. However, some labeled as unknown might have or not have toxicity. And some no toxicity patients might be hidden positive.

I want to cluster the patients to compare both outcomes. Should I go through the additional metadata to try to assign the correct label (time-consuming)? Or is there a better approach?

What clustering algorithm would be the best for my case?

I’ve been given a fourth and final round interview with stakeholders. I already underwent a technical interview and a thorough interview the previous round that lasted almost two hours, with stat managers. This one is now going to be a technical interview with stakeholders. Any idea what I can expect? It’s not for a specific TA.