That would be nice. But I’m not from a great school and don’t have a lot of published research (co-authored a few papers where I wasn’t the main contributor). I thought maybe that would be a better choice in a few years with a better CV.
Point taken about selection though! I’m thinking I could network with academics while working on implementing papers, etc.
Do you think the selection situation is different for foreigners? Do you know if the same is true about European schools? The 3-year average for PhDs in Europe really looks more attractive to me.
Also would really appreciate if you could tell me more about how these programs select people who aren’t 4.0 students from a top school with famous recommendations. Is practice important, should you know a lot about current SOtA, do you need to show math proficiency?