I'm an international student planning to apply to Statistics PhD programs in the US, and I'm trying to figure out how to be strategic about which universities to apply to, given my limited budget.

The application fee for UC schools is $155 for international students, which is almost a quarter of the average monthly salary where I'm from. So applying to several universities can get quite expensive.

I was looking at the admissions statistics for UCSB's Statistics PhD program, and last year they admitted just 13 out of 273 applicants (around 4.8%). I understand that PhD admissions are competitive, but those odds make me wonder whether it's worth spending that much money applying, especially when there's so much uncertainty involved.

I'm not necessarily looking for a way to maximize my chances of getting into a top-ranked program.…