Advice for stats PhD

[Stratocumulus]

Hi all,

I hope to apply to statistics PhD programs and am lost in the process. Any advice is deeply appreciated!

A little about me : I did a pure math undergrad in my home country (the college was among the best for math in the country). In the middle I became more interested in the applied side and took a lot of such and many courses in the CS department as electives. The noteworthy courses I've taken would be
Pure Math : Real Analysis, Complex Analysis, Multivariable calculus, ODE, Topology, Algebra-I & II, Measure Theory.
Applied/CS : Dynamical systems, Stochastic models, Machine Learning, Data Science, Graduate Algorithms, Big Data, Optimization.

My GPA (converted to US scale) is 3.45 / 4. Most of the above courses were A+/A, but unfortunately due to covid I fell ill in a bad time and received B in complex, Algebra-II, Measure.

After my undergrad, I'm presently doing my MS in CS with focus on ML at a university (among the best for ML) in the USA. I've taken a couple statistics courses and most of the remaining courses I've done are ML with focus on theory. Here my GPA after the first academic year is 4.22/4.33.

I want to apply to (Fall 24) statistics PhD programs mostly in the USA. I've been stuck on few lines and advice would be deeply appreciated

1. What kind of places can I target and how to categorize them into : far reach / reach / match / safe
2. What should my SOP mostly consist of, as in how much do I talk about my courses, how much about research, etc
3. Would it be better if I somehow indicate the reason (covid) for the disastrous GPA in those few courses? If yes, how do I go about doing it? (a bit more about me: my GPA was pretty mediocre in my freshman and sophomore years. In my 5, 7, 8th semester I had QPA of approx 3.8/4.0; my 6th semester QPA is 3.2/4.0)

Please let me know if any other details would help in providing more apt advice.

Thanks!


PS :
In GRE general I received 170 in (Q) and 157 in (V). I'm yet to take the math subject test.
I've done some reading projects on Stochastic processes during my undergrad. During my masters I'm doing research in ML theory.