graduate-applications

[fierce sigil]

Welcome, this channel is for users to discuss the process of graduate school applications, whether PhD or Masters, as well as related applications like postgrad, fellowships, and grants. Please do not discuss applications to undergraduate programs here. "Chancing" conversations and other potentially toxic modes of discussion are not allowed in this channel. Please be respectful and uplifting of your peers, this channel is a space for people to work together and provide helpful information and input to each other.

[runic tulip]

First

[tepid forum]

👀

gonna be applying for phds [looking at functional analysis specifically] in NA (mainly US maybe one or two Canada) & UK

[worn lance]

Good luck

[tepid forum]

thank

i'm still quite ignorant wrt US universities so may ask stupid questions here

[molten frigate]

I might apply to US + elsewhere PhDs by next year

[molten frigate]

so same

[raw quail]

I'm in the US and I'm still ignorant about US universities

So don't worry, we've all got silly questions.

[molten frigate]

actually how's the situation for international students, what kinda stuff should I look out for, what's to be expected

like obvs I'd need TOEFL and there's a bunch of stuff about student visas I guess?

[molten frigate]

but how does this affect stipends etc if at all

[tepid forum]

Are intls taxed more or less?

[tepid forum]

That's reassuring

[sterile bone]

Why does it feel like universities make it impossible to find out how much they're actually paying grad students

I have not been able to find a straight answer on how much a stipend is for several unis

[tepid forum]

one university I looked at emphasised that living in that city was really cheap on the funding page

not sus at all

i cant remember if it gave a figure

[sterile bone]

A stipend can look really bad if not compared against the cost of living of the city the university is in

but I can't find figures at all for some unis

which is really frustrating

[molten frigate]

worse for them if students start comparing stipends as a shortlisting factor ig

[raw quail]

Yeah that's exactly why lol

Same reason talking about salaries is discouraged by some companies

[sterile bone]

Do you usually know what your stipend will be after you get accepted? Like at what point will I know, if I want to start looking for apartments

Alright cool

[upper jacinth]

what does that mean

[tepid forum]

I haven't been considering funding that much cos of the top ups you can get

I think I'll just see what I get if I get anything (hopefully I do otherwise it's industry for me lol), good deals would defo be tiebreakers

[tepid forum]

At least if I do a PhD before being pushed into industry I have 4-5 years to build more applicable skills than I have atm

[ornate gazelle]

@sterile bone which places are you trying to find stipends for?

[sterile bone]

when I wrote that I think I was looking at ucsd, northeastern and uiowa but in general it seems hard to find stipends

there's the phdstipends website but it seems inconsistent

[ornate gazelle]

https://grad.ucsd.edu/_files/financial-support/employment-files/student-pay-rates/Student Academic Title Rates 2021-2022 Updated 06172022.pdf seems relevant for UCSD

[sterile bone]

seems sus

I think they're including tuition

[ornate gazelle]

https://math.uiowa.edu/graduate-program/admissions/financial-support is for 2021-2022, but this https://grad.uiowa.edu/sites/grad.uiowa.edu/files/2021-05/03-17-21 COGS 2021-23 CBA (pdf).pdf suggests that UIowa basically pays the min (some places, certain departments pay more than the min stipend). So expect next year to be about 20,500-20,600?

The "academic year" rate is assuming full time I think

So likely you'll be paid half of that at a 50% appointment

Which feels a bit low tbh. Maybe ask Max

Northeastern I am having more trouble finding

[hearty radish]

The only school that I've seen that releases all stipend info (minus design and arch) in a readable format is CMU

https://www.cmu.edu/stugov/gsa/campus-advocacy/stipend-report-2021-2022.html

[torpid echo]

Columbia has it listed pretty easily

Because it lists it for all of GSAS

[vale oar]

Given that in an SOP, it is (at least from what I've heard) a good idea to mention the research of a professor you're interested in working with, is it a bad idea to mention that you are interested in working in a specific area that is adjacent to their research if you only have topical understandings of both fields?

On one hand, I feel like this shows initiative by identifying a subfield you're interested in working with and trying to tie that into the existing framework that is the professor's current research. On the other hand, I fear that the lack of deeper-than-surface-level understanding of the fields will be very quickly noticed by the people reading the essay.

[For context, the reason I am wanting to declare this specific interest is because I don't want to just be like "uhh your program focuses on things that I'm probably interested in."]

[fierce sigil]

I think it's fine, but just don't elaborate on it a ton

@vale oar

you should say what you are authentically interested in learning and that will come through if you are honest about what you know and don't try to claim things you don't know

say why you're interested in that subfield, based on things you do know. don't try to look like you know stuff in it.

when i was applying, i would say stuff like "i think this topic sounds really cool because i know it shares machinery with x thing i studied before, and the results look like those in y thing i studied before, and i'd be excited to combine those ideas"

something maybe a little more cohesive than that but you get the idea

[tepid forum]

Another thing I've got mixed opinions on: yay or nay to contacting profs you plan to put on your SoP to express interest and ask if they're planning on taking on students?

[molten frigate]

sure, you need to know whether they can actually take you as a student and if you don't, it can get weird if they're asked during the admissions process or something

[tepid forum]

I'm mainly worried that I can't actually say anything substantive lol, like for UK apps I can ask to discuss possible topics but for the US that's a bit preemptive

[fierce sigil]

I didn't contact anyone but I know some people who were happy they did

You can just say "hey, I'm applying to this program, my research interests are this and this and i'm interested in your work. are you planning on taking students soon?"

doesn't have to be substantive

you can say one or two things about background but keep it concise

[worn lance]

There isn't a researcher alive who doesn't want to talk to an interested person about their work!

Show interest and they will be very glad to put time aside

[sterile bone]

I've been doing this

Good responses so far

Found out one person is planning on retiring soon too

I just said smth like "Hi, i'm X and I'm finishing up my undergrad at Y, I was wondering if you're taking phd students next year because i'm interested in applying to university name and working with you as i'm interested in [their field, generally]"

[tepid forum]

Alright I'll start sending them off

[raven sun]

Oh no

Why am I in this

[half meadow]

You don't have to be. Anyone who doesn't want to talk about applications is definitely welcome to mute and ignore the channel.

[tepid forum]

what should I put as the subject header btw?

overthinking it a bit

[sterile bone]

I just put "prospective graduate student inquiry"

Something like that is fine I think

[sterile bone]

Aren't we all

[tepid forum]

how does this look as a template?

then will tweak the research interests to fit the prof

[worn lance]

Looks fairly good. Maybe also suggest that you meet to discuss more, but this is up to you

I found I got a lot out of zoom meeting with potential supos

[tepid forum]

i've debated including that line, the problem comes down to social anxiety lol

like if I agree to a call and all they say is "so what did you want to talk about" and expected me to have more knowledge of their research than I do or something

idk

[worn lance]

I know how you feel, I'm also quite socially anxious and video calls exhaust me

In my experience while it is useful to have a few questions ready, the people I talked to haven't expected me to be terribly knowledgeable about their research

I'd say it's worth the trouble

[tepid forum]

Aaaaa I'll go for it lol

I just don't want to seem like a complete plonker then they just chuck my app in the bin when they get it

[fierce sigil]

Hmmm

I would probably not suggest to meet before admissions happen

If they want to that's totally fine (and if you do ask, it's not a faux pas or anything, don't worry about that)

Maybe it's okay

First impressions are a big deal as usual, and you're basically saying "I want their first impression of me to be a sorta messy zoom call instead of my carefully curated application" which is totally fine if you are confident that you can talk with someone like that (social anxiety doesn't mean you can't be a good fit for this - it's about how talkative you can be when you actually get into the space and settled a tiny bit) but I think a lot of people would prefer not to have that be the first impression they give

[tepid forum]

yeah can't disagree with this, will keep it out

[tepid forum]

first email sent :ooooooo

[tepid forum]

I guess this is a positive lmao, not quite what I was looking for though

[tepid forum]

this is what I sent, should I reword it in future?

[sterile bone]

That's kinda sad that it's a generic response

Fairly generic*

[fierce sigil]

Well, the last sentence makes it pretty clear that they're looking for students I guess!

[worn lance]

A little dismissive, but perhaps they're just busy.

[molten frigate]

sometimes you can't give much more than the generic response though

you don't know the person, maybe nothing in the details you've given about your interests resonates w them etc

better than nothing probably

[sterile bone]

I didn't give out much more info than George and got back really enthusiastic responses from a few professors

Not from everyone tho of course

I'd say keep trying

[raw quail]

did you end up emailing two professors from the same school?

at all?

I wonder if that requires any special care

[sterile bone]

Yea I did. I tried phrasing my email so that it won't come off like I specifically emailed them

Like, that I will.definitely work with them if I go to the school

Actually one of the profs told me they're very open about like, students having multiple advisors and talking a lot with people in the department

[fierce sigil]

Just dont be like "you are the person im working with if i come here one hundo percent!!"

Otherwise it's fine

[raw quail]

what happens if I send this verbatim tho

[fierce sigil]

They put you in the crank folder

[raw quail]

It's not like super offensive for the email to have a more casual tone right?

[fierce sigil]

No

But like

use proper grammar and punctuation please

[raw quail]

I think my conclusion after talking to some people is that I'll go for semiformal and if that offends someone I probably won't want to work with them anyways.

[raw quail]

Hello Professor [Prof name],

My name is [My name], and I'm a senior mathematics major at [my college]. I was planning on applying to the [prof college] mathematics graduate program for Fall 2023. My interests are mainly applications of model theory to combinatorics and algebra. Your research in [prof's research] is particularly interesting to me, and so I was wondering if you were planning on taking on graduate students for the next year.

Best,
[My name]

[fallow breach]

looks fine

[tepid forum]

I pretty much gave their exact research interests but I don't know anything in particular

[tepid forum]

got a better response with that email from someone else, they said "So I encourage you to apply to <university>. Please let me know if you do it." :oo

[vale oar]

The purpose of the Doctoral Comprehensive Examination (known in the department as ``Comps'') ...
Well now I have a conundrum. Do I refer to the exams as "Comps" in my SOP to sound hip and in-the-know, or will it make me look silly

[raw quail]

I'm confused

why would you refer to them at all?

[vale oar]

I will likely reference them when mentioning that the classes I've so far taken set me up well for taking most of the Comps upon entry.

[fierce sigil]

Do whatever is shortest to save space

No one will notice this either way

[tepid forum]

Won't that be clear from your transcript anyway

[tepid forum]

how many schools are people thinking of applying to?

it looks like I'll be applying to ~13-15 when including my UK apps and I'm wondering if that's too much. doesn't seem above average when I look on like mathgre but in a lot of non-subject-specific talk people talk about applying to about half as many

[fierce sigil]

10-15 is a standard number

[tepid forum]

yeah I don't really have specific research interests rn

there's as vague as "functional analysis/harmonic analysis" so there's quite a wide range I can apply to, I've ended up with 8 US choices

I think I definitely need to do this for the more famous profs

[fierce sigil]

You don't need to get too crazy with that stuff. Dont say stuff where you risk looking like you're posturing too much / risk not knowing what you're talking about, cause it will throw stuff you do know about into question

[tepid forum]

Yeah I'm stuck between not appearing too ignorant and humiliating myself, I'm just thinking for more famous profs (I don't think any of them are super famous), I can't be too generic

[tepid forum]

2 years??

i'm 2/3 on replies rn but I only sent the third a day or two ago, I have about 10-11 more queued

can postdocs supervise?

also the thing I'm worried about talking to profs atm is it feels a little bit pre-emptive, I'll definitely get in touch in more detail if I get accepted so I know what kind of summer reading I can do

i've only really known what I wanted to do research wise for 2 or 3 months

though applying in the US for phds has been in my mind since high school

wdym?

yeah I'll have 2

one for bachelors and one for masters (only 4 yrs overall cos bscs are 3 yrs in uk)

i'm lucky in that I would be able to go home and stay with parents if I didn't get summer support I think

yee it's something I'll sort out once I've got acceptances I think

do universities generally pay for travel to/from?

[sterile bone]

lots

[tepid forum]

oh tickets from US to UK would usually be more than that oof

I'll sort it out

[sterile bone]

there are at least 10 that I know of here + probably a lot more that I don't

[tepid forum]

i have savings to pay any small shortfalls

i did think about NSW

but i think sydney cost of living is high?

this doesn't sound too much different from my impressions of the US? (in terms of pay/cost of living)

I think tossing up cost of living stuff will come after I have offers, and if I have none then lol

[fierce sigil]

This is not true at many schools

Most programs do one of two things

They either provide funding for 12 months of the year, or they provide it for 9 months of the year and then grad students will teach a summer class or get funding from their advisor for the summer

My school is the latter (NYU) and I didnt get any funding at all during the summer this time around. Next summer i'll be with an advisor and I'll likely start getting it

But I really didnt need any summer funding

I saved plenty during the year and had no issue during the summer

I would say that pretty much anywhere you are except for at like, ucla, a phd stipend is going to be very livable on your own. Luxurious? No.

[tepid forum]

i am very frugal generally

I can splash on computers and accessories but not much else

[sterile bone]

some departments will fund/partially fund equipment for you

[tepid forum]

I would only fly home for Xmas but idk if I'd be able to financially

hopefully I'd have people I can spend the day with if not

[fierce sigil]

Flights to and from the uk are very cheap at least from the east coast, if you buy them at the right times

[sterile bone]

[tepid forum]

cheap like?

[fierce sigil]

400-500 bucks round trip?

Ive seen

[tepid forum]

that sounds extraordinarily cheap

is that on like the very edge

[fierce sigil]

Thats from new York

And also like

At the best times for booking

Otherwise I would say 700 is more reasonable

Lol

Yeah

[hearty radish]

From Pittsburgh, it's $700 for the month of December right now, and Pittsburgh is further west, so $500-700 is like a pretty good estimate

[tepid forum]

i would probably book the flights right after accepting the offer

yeah I feel then it'd cost a few $100 to then get to wherever I need to be and cancel the saving lol

yeah that too

yeah I'd apply as soon as I knew where I was going so hopefully there wouldn't be a problem

there's people getting visas in the past month to my masters uni because their offers were confirmed late which seems bonkers given term starts at the beginning of october lol

[raw quail]

successfully edited my grad school list to only have schools where GRE is optional

[eager kite]

lol same, I think all of mine except one won't even take scores

[raw quail]

yeah, just had to replace UCI

if I have a question about the applications process to a specific school should I ask the grad advisor that I'm interested in working with or the department itself?

[raw quail]

part of the problem is I'm unsure if I should even apply to the math program there

I might have to apply to the philosophy program

[tepid forum]

i actually only found 2 that i wanted to apply to that I couldn't cos of GRE (ucla and A&M)

glad I didn't have to do it

[raw quail]

hmmm if you're legitimately unable to take the GRE most schools afaik are pretty understanding of that

and will waive it for you

[tepid forum]

i'm not, I could fly out to take it

but the cost wouldn't make sense to apply to 1 or 2

I think I have enough options anyway

[raw quail]

I think having to fly out to take it counts as legitimately unable

[tepid forum]

I was expecting to have to since there's like 1 centre in the UK with super limited places

and i didn't realise how early I needed to be

but I didn't need it anyway

[fierce sigil]

loool schools requiring gre are gonna get totally fucked over

like

imagine how many excellent applicants are not going to apply to these schools

[raw quail]

Glad you think I'm an excellent applicant

[tepid forum]

Ngl it must save a lot of time reading applications

Since I'd imagine the top schools just toss apps with a GRE score below a minimum?

[fierce sigil]

Similarly, math departments could just decide to admit the best of the first 50 applicants on a randomized list if they like. Requiring the GRE does not mean you weed out worse applicants, it means you weed out likely a large proportion of the best ones. The school would be silly to want that.

[tepid forum]

i had just heard it's something that some do

A&M blanked me

I could try another contact email

i doubt UCLA would since they want both

[sterile bone]

@tepid forum try emailing sarah Witherspoon

[tepid forum]

sure why not

[tepid forum]

might apply there instead of OSU if I get a positive answer since they have loads of ppl in analysis

[sterile bone]

She's very nice and also the dept head rn

I should also email her

For gre stuff

[tepid forum]

she said she's not sure and told me to email Maurice Rojas fwiw

she replied extremely quickly lol

[sterile bone]

Oh

That's good to know

Can you dm me their address

[tepid forum]

dm'd but it's a generic email lol

I'll post what they say on here

my (hopefully) essay supervisor next year has coauthors at A&M so hopefully that'll work in my favour

[dry umbra]

woah new channel, nice

[torpid echo]

Ummm I just applied without a GRE?

[sleek siren]

why am I allowed to see this now

[hot wadi]

lmao

same question

[jovial field]

visibility of this channel is tied to the advanced role.

[half meadow]

It's now visible to everyone.

Posting is restricted like the other advanced channels.

[tepid forum]

Opening the floodgates lol

[flint falcon]

flood
more like a spring dis prolly dying in a month

[rapid dawn]

I wonder how much the GRE correlates with mathematical ability

My guess would be approximately epsilon

Like it's gotta have some positive correlation but that correlation has also gotta be so minor

Like at the point where it's not humanly possible to give it consideration without giving it too much consideration

[steel badge]

Based on what I heard of the practice of using gre in most schools, passing some sort of low threshold on gre correlates with mathematical ability, but past that it doesnt which is why they only use the former as a "metric"

[tepid forum]

i think a very very high or very very low result could be indicative

but I doubt in the middle it indicates a huge amount

[tepid forum]

doubt that

going to be very lively jan-march

[raw quail]

why jan-march lol?

grad apps are due at latest by january in general, right?

[tepid forum]

decisions around that time?

i think some come through dec and april (if you're wlisted for the latter) but I thought most of them are jan-mar

[raw quail]

oh I guess

idk I don't think there's gonna be a lot of decisions talk

[tepid forum]

the MathGRE [the forum] sweat threads seem to be more active around decisions than pre

we'll see 👀

[raw quail]

huh interesting

[steel badge]

I would prefer to minimize decisions talk here because that brings unnecessary stress for everyone involved

[tepid forum]

oh rip

[hearty radish]

Decisions talk can be very bleak. decisions come in waves, and it’s usually pretty stressful if people got decisions from one place and others haven’t heard anything from that place yet, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything negative

[rapid dawn]

that threshold seems like it would have to be pretty low

like the gre does require some amount of mathematical ability/knowledge but it's main source of difficulty comes from having 2.5 minutes per question

[rapid dawn]

damn you're saying we shouldn't be mathematicsgre.com 2?

[steel badge]

mathematicsgre.com is one of the two websites that is considered banned here

the other one is left as an exercise to the reader

[rapid dawn]

||chegg?||

[half meadow]

leftasanexerciseforthereader.com?

[old geode]

7\

[molten frigate]

probably just because it's an awful site in general

it's like exactly what this channel isn't intended to be

[ornate gazelle]

I don't want you to be responsible for people developing long term blood pressure problems @broken shore

[hot wadi]

let me guess is it that forum where everyones has perfect stats

[delicate kite]

I have the age old question of how much would my grades obstruct me (< 3 gpa) if I score good in GRE maths

[raw quail]

I'm speaking out of my ass, but I would imagine that gpa is drastically more important than gre general or subject

Or rather I should say a worse gpa score outweighs a good gre score

With rampant grade inflation I'm not sure how much a "good" gpa matters, but a "bad" gpa will draw attention

[delicate kite]

Man, I wish I had inflated gpa. The grading system at my uni was horrible. It's like too strict but it varied greatly depending on the teacher
We had only 6 students so, almost every professor would say no grade curving. You get what you get.

Plus, no provision for grade improvement, you'll need to completely redo the course. Redoing 2-3 courses if they are pre-requisite for anything
Meant that you have a set back for a whole goddamn year!

[raw quail]

Only 6 students at your uni

[delicate kite]

As in, in my batch. Although, even altogether it would be less than 50

It wasn't like a big university. It's more of a college; we had only the 4 basic science departments

[tepid forum]

oh is this *r*d c*f*

i will be keeping away from it i think

[tepid forum]

they might use the GRE subj to contextualise your gpa

but i've seen profiles of people with lower 3.xs still do quite well

[sterile bone]

Yea cuz the material needed to ace the gre is 99% stuff.you.learn in your first year

[tepid forum]

a lot of it is done in school over here

the calculus part at least

[sterile bone]

You need like

Linalg, multivar and babhy diffeq

And calculus ofc

[half meadow]

It sounds like it is designed to be more predictive for fields other than mathematics itself that apply a lot of those topics as background tools.

[sterile bone]

Thing is it sometimes involves "special topics" which can be pretty much anything

And I don't think any other degree requires it

[molten frigate]

yeah doesn't the math GRE have a ton of things you don't need in applied fields

[molten frigate]

@ numbpy, I'd say that this as well as your recommendation letters matter at least as much as GPA if not more

take that with a grain of salt though since I'm not in the US

so I don't have any concrete evidence for it, I'm just extrapolating from my perception of local academic culture

[tepid forum]

not sure if a ton, the stuff on there seemed fairly fundamental

[tepid forum]

yeah I gathered recommendation letters dwarf anything else

but a very very low mGRE might still look bad

[molten frigate]

is the mGRE really necessary anyway? I feel like taking it would be really hard for international students

that's actually one of my main worries since I'm considering applying to US grad schools sometime by next year

unless there's a way to take it at home? which seems to be the case

[raw quail]

Most schools are willing to waive it if it's not feasible for you to take it.

[tepid forum]

i'm praying A&M will lol

still waiting for reply

[delicate kite]

In most places general gre is completely waived while gre maths is optional. I am just giving it cause I want it to make up for my low grades if that happens

[molten frigate]

I see

[tepid forum]

This might be partly bcs of COVID though

I think like Harvard and UCLA have made it compulsory

[molten frigate]

they get a ridiculous amount of applicants ig

need to weed out somehow

[molten frigate]

true, but it's been long since the lockdowns and travel restrictions so time will tell if unis will make it mandatory again or just decide the mGRE is overrated as a measure of aptitude for grad studies

[fair needle]

schools like cmu get a fuuuuckton of applicants, and not only don't allow you to submit any GRE scores, but they have zero application fee (which application fees are also cited as a weedout bc they get so many applicants)

if they can do it, so can Harvard and ucla

[raw quail]

Just to verify, if someone signs off an email with their first name is it acceptable to refer to them as such moving forwards?

[hot wadi]

do u need to be a math major to do grad school

[hearty radish]

Usually, yes. If you have taken adequate courseload for the undergrad math curriculum, you might be okay. This is essentially at least knowledge of real analysis, algebra, topology, etc.

[molten frigate]

a masters' first might be a good option for non-math majors

[daring temple]

i dont do this

[fair needle]

i only refer to one of my professors by their first name, and that's because he explicitly gave permission

[raw quail]

lol I refer to all my professors by their first name

LAC moment

[daring temple]

isnt that the whole tihing with ur weirdo college

Yeah sorry I refer to certain profs by name too, but I would not allow myself to do that just because they started signing their emails as such

[inner grove]

It also has things you don't need in pure fields

[rapid dawn]

how big of a deal would it be if there was a pronoun mismatch in my rec letters. Like if two professors used they/them for me but the last used he/him. There's one professor who I'm slightly nervous about coming out to even though I'm like 99% sure they'll take it well just in the off chance they don't

"pronoun mismatch somehow impacts my chances of getting in" and "coming out to the professor somehow leads to a worse letter" both seem like very unlikely possibilities, but I'm wondering if one is still a tiny bit less likely or if I'm just overthinking the whole thing

[hearty radish]

There isn’t going to be an issue with it I don’t think

[rapid dawn]

(lmfao accidentally said "for him" instead of "for me" so it looked like I was being extremely transphobic to myself)

[hearty radish]

I know some of my letter writers didn’t end up using my preferred pronouns, and I wasn’t really asked about it or anything

The most that ended up happening is that my gender wasn’t on my university profile bc I declined to state it on my application

[rapid dawn]

based

[raw quail]

how did you find this out?

did they tell you or were you able to look at your letters at some point?

[hearty radish]

It wasn’t in malice, it was more along the lines of not being out to many people in undergrad

[raw quail]

Oh I see

[hearty radish]

It’s funny bc it’s a required field I never updated on my profile, so I don’t think cmu admin knows my gender still.. I should check on it

But regardless, I think you’re okay @rapid dawn

[raw quail]

what would you give as the trigger to being able to switch then?

[rapid dawn]

yeah generally I only switch to calling professors by their first name until (a) I know them well and am confident I am on very good terms with them and (b) I see that they're signing their emails to me as such. Both conditions are required.

Like I still call the professor I know the best Prof. Lastname since that's how he signs his emails.

Despite having worked with him more than any other professor in the department (including others who I do call by their first name), and knowing I am on very good terms with him.

also even the professors who I do generally call by their first name I'll still often call Prof. Lastname in emails, particularly when asking about things like rec letters, etc

[daring temple]

if i’m getting informal with it ill just call them “professor”

[delicate kite]

CMU math is pretty weird ngl. They don't have any usual maths fields like analysis, algebra. Mostly discrete and some applied math. I don't think many people apply there. CMU's CS is most famous and the department of philosophy

[hearty radish]

I am not sure what’s considered a lot of applicants in a year, but there were well over 500 this past cycle at cmu

So that might be the result of the free application

[fair needle]

no algebra but quite a bit of analysis

theyve got basically everything except algebra, really

[delicate kite]

I mean, since it has zero application fees I would also apply but these are the only areas in which they work on. 2 of them are applied and rest is discrete maths or logic

[fair needle]

saying 2 of these are applied is a very very conservative definition of applied

they've still got basically everything except algebra

[delicate kite]

There's literally no number theory

[hearty radish]

Oh I’m not saying that cmu doesn’t have a broad scope of math, they definitely don’t have a very large program

[delicate kite]

Agreed

[hearty radish]

cmu only has one number theorist, and she’s a teaching postdoc

[fair needle]

that's algebra, for sufficiently broad definitions of algebra :^)

[hearty radish]

So you can’t exactly say they have one

I wouldn’t apply to cmu unless you are in analysis/logic and have some idea of where you want to be in those fields

[fair needle]

i just realized i came off slightly smug in that message. i meant to come across jokingly, sorry

[delicate kite]

wtf does that even mean lmao. That's like completely ignoring analytic number theory. RH is a part of analytic NT

[fair needle]

it was supposed to be very lighthearted

[delicate kite]

No worries, it was just a weird opinion

[fair needle]

it's not mine

cmu's department has always been a huge outlier

it weirdly never places as high as it actually is in rankings, and people forget about it a lot

[hearty radish]

But in general, if anyone here is interested in CMU’s grad program and has any questions, feel free to dm me or ping me here

[fair needle]

how do i get in

[delicate kite]

Are you from cmu?

[hearty radish]

Yes

Granted first year

[delicate kite]

Niice, ug?

[hearty radish]

phd

[delicate kite]

under which proff

[hearty radish]

Likely Slepçev or Fonseca, but it’s too early for me to have an advisor

[tepid forum]

i mirror whatever they call themselves

in the opening I call them professor x then if they reply with their first name I'll just do that

also since this is popping off a bit, does anyone have opinions on where's good for functional analysis/non-PDE harmonic analysis?

waterloo was one I overlooked for a while that looks good

[fluid totem]

How does one even decide on research interests (just to help narrow down my list of schools and look for professors etc) when I can barely understand most of the papers being churned out by the departments

[eager kite]

I think schools really only expect you to have a general domain you'd like to study, i.e. analysis, algebra, topology, etc.

You definitely do not need to understand papers from the profs, understand the vague description of their research interests will be enough for now

If you're worried about not knowing what you're interested in, you should apply to a couple schools with large departments that study most things

[fluid totem]

that helps a lot. A lot of my initial grad school advice was from my sister who was not in a stem field so I guess the expectations are just different lol. Thanks!

[molten frigate]

even most profs barely understand the abstracts of papers in their own field, that's how it is with math

it definitely helps if you can narrow down your interests to something even slightly specific like "algebraic geometry" or "PDEs" or whatever

but don't fuss too much over it if you don't understand exactly what their research group does

[inner grove]

I think it's better to find a social group/advisor that you get along with and go along with that

Rather than pre-defining "I'm this!!" before getting too into research

[twilit lichen]

I'm worried a prof is deliberately spreading rumors about me to sabotage my career, should I report it even tho I can't get evidence? (she's keeping the rumors to word-of-mouth, obviously)
she likely has no malicious intent: she's just very narrow-minded and prescriptivist, thinking that ppl like me shouldn't do math

[undone yacht]

no, do not report

[twilit lichen]

but it's bullying

[undone yacht]

just move on?

[twilit lichen]

I do have email evidence of a previous attempt to gaslight tho

[undone yacht]

there is no context, is this your phd advisor?

[twilit lichen]

no

[undone yacht]

so why does it matter?

[twilit lichen]

justice

she needs to answer for her ignorance and narrow-mindedness

[undone yacht]

good luck with that

(no it will not affect them at all if you report some hearsay and badly worded email)

[twilit lichen]

but if she won't let me into her puny undergrad thesis program, I'll just use that time to publish a big-boy math paper (about stuff I'm self-studying outside of class), proving that she's the delusional one
I guess I'll report her then

[undone yacht]

I think you need to work on your interpersonal skills. If you want to destroy any chances at your current institution, go ahead.

[twilit lichen]

I'll already be out of the institution by then; I still get a bachelor's degree even without the thesis

[twilit lichen]

no, she needs to stop being garbage (she actually publically defended a nsfw-offender prof once; that prof got fired anyway, so I'm not the only one)

[crimson valve]

this is not an appropriate thing to discuss here really, id suggest keeping it out of the channel.

[knotty marsh]

Do admissions committees view projects done in outside fields (say physics/applied math) as a plus ?

Like if you're applying for a pure math phD that has no/minimal relation to the fields.

[undone yacht]

Don't know about other places, but when I have been a part admission it is a plus (if it is a proper journal, and not like mdpi etc)

[knotty marsh]

I see, so if it's not worth publishing like most MS thesis stuff, it doesn't really affect the odds does it?

MS thesis stuff as in reproducing computational results from papers, varying parameters slightly etc

[undone yacht]

To me (my personal opinion) is that a low-level journal paper means nothing, but a good journal paper then it can be a big plus depending on what it is. But I have no idea how admissions works in the US for example, so somebody else would know better 🙂

(I am an assistant prof in Sweden)

[rapid dawn]

I was actually talking to my prof about this just the other day and he said it pretty much doesn't count in the slightest

[stark summit]

Is it ok to write about non-mathematical things in a statement of purpose?

in particular

i'm involved in math student government, the math faculty council, I run two of the math clubs, I was a math orientation leader and i won leader of the year, I've participated in our math peer mentorship program and I've organized/run review sessions for like... 4 of our first/second year math courses

none of this is strictly about my math research

but all of it feels relevant; I'm heavily involved in mentorship and creating a community for math students

[fierce sigil]

Yeah thats all great to mention, if there's a diversity/outreach statement I'd allocate it there

But if not, then if you can fit it in the statement of purpose and make an argument for why its a selling point it cant hurt

But if you're fighting for space, don't sacrifice stuff of mathematical substance for this. Either way, keep it concise.

Especially if you can point to why this prepares you to teach/mentor

[stark summit]

I don't know what I want to put in terms of mathematical content 😔 that part feels extremely hard to me

[delicate kite]

Man, I haven't done shit in my uni. This makes me feel like I am not even in the competition

[stark summit]

No senior thesis, I did a research term, I’ve done a few topics/grad courses but no readings courses, I’m interested in a wild amount of areas of math so idk what to write about

[stark summit]

I’m a very social outgoing person and my strengths are much more interpersonal than mathematical — I’ve made an incredibly strong effort to get involved in math at my school, and since our math faculty is so big we have lots of opportunities

[delicate kite]

I guess so, we did have like maths club but that's all. We didn't even have faculties for few fields and between that an doing 6 courses per semester was a weird place to be at. Plus, I was very interested in ML so I didn't study like very hard for maths. So, now I have neither properly done ML nor maths

[dapper raptor]

this is a feeling I get on the regular in this server

[stark summit]

For my research it’s kind of clear to me what I can write about - at least I think so, I can talk about what I did and what was interesting about it - but idk what to say about a course

[past plume]

Definitely

[raw quail]

how should I reply to a professor replying to me reaching out about being a graduate advisor

like obviously I should thank them, but is there anything else I should do, it feels like a thanks is insufficient for a full email

[fallow breach]

well, did they say they would be interesting in working with you?

and are you committed yet to that?

(committed being used loosely, I mean committed to giving it a shot)

[raw quail]

they were kinda vague

[fallow breach]

youre a first year right?

[raw quail]

I'm a senior UG

[fallow breach]

yeah, makes sense. advisors often dont want to commit to working with students pre-quals

[raw quail]

I am glad to hear of your interest in logic and Notre Dame. In principle I am taking graduate students. My main appointment is in philosophy, but I am also affiliated with mathematics and can have graduate students in mathematics.

[fallow breach]

oh that's a little strange

[raw quail]

this was the relevant part of his reply to me I guess

[fallow breach]

your potential advisor is mostly interested in philosophy?

[raw quail]

ehhh

kinda

it's Hamkins, so he studies mostly math stuff but it's got more philosophy vibes in terms of like what he explores

he's definitely a mathematician but he might be trying to shift into philosophy more

[fallow breach]

Yeah, maybe its worth looking into that more. If he's the reason you want to go to that school that would be important to know

[raw quail]

yeah, so the other part of the email was me asking about the logic program at Notre Dame, which he says you transfer into from either the philosophy or math departments

so I'd probably do that regardless

[fallow breach]

huh. Well, to answer your original question, you pretty much just thank him now. Restate your interest and enthusiasm for the program, etc. The usual

Don't over do it though, obviously

Idk if there is anyone who has ever had these email conversations and not felt awkward

[raw quail]

Thank you for taking the time to reply and answer my questions! I am excited to be applying to Notre Dame this application cycle.

yeah this was my reply thus far

idk when I send emails I'm always of the mind that unless it's super-casual they need to have meat

but on the other hand I hate writing fluff

and so together these urges make me short circuit

[tepid forum]

the two that I've got in touch with so far have told me to tell them when I send the application

so I wsn't gonna reply till then

[half meadow]

To me it sounds like he's saying "the philosophy department pays my salary, but don't let that fool you: I'm a real mathematician too".

[tepid forum]

yeah i dont think it'd be an unusual arrangement

[raw quail]

oh I didn't think about that reading; that's probably more hopeful

[half meadow]

... while at the same time also hinting, "you'd need to be able to enjoy or at least tolerate occasional musings about what it all means; otherwise I'm probably not the best choice of advisor".

[fair needle]

wtf

since when was hamkins at notre dame

we're talking joel hamkins yes?

[raw quail]

Yeah

This is his first year there

[fair needle]

i had no clue

this is huge

if i end up doing inner model theory, it won't be a good choice, but if not then i might apply

[tepid forum]

oh it's the mathoverflow guy

[raw quail]

yeah lol

atm he's probably the top on my list of who I want to work under tbh

[half meadow]

It's the multiverse guy.

[daring temple]

jdh is really cool

good choice tox

sounds similar to how the CMU PAL stuff works

[tepid forum]

has anyone had a look at Berkeley's "personal history statement" thing (I think other UCs have it too)

wondering what kind of stuff ppl are gonna write (also having a google around)

[raw quail]

Oh I know this is late but Hamkins does the geology stuff too, which is related so it's not bad in that case either, right?

[fair needle]

yaya he does set theory ik

[raw quail]

this seems like a meaningless thing lmfao

[fair needle]

if i want to go in this direction it'd be a good fit

[tepid forum]

i'm writing about how I came to do a bachelors in math then have a paragraph in the end "I recognise that [demonstrate awareness of social justice issues]"

i don't think anything huge worth writing about happened in my bachelors since I always felt I'd do a phd if I did well enough

[tepid forum]

with the [...] basically being that not everyone has an environment conducive to self-study and some people are actively discouraged (my parents basically just left me to do whatever in my free time)

[half meadow]

Hmm, that sounds like you're essentially apologizing for yourself. UCB has a bit of a reputation for being over-the-top left skewed (depending on who you ask, of course), but do they really expect applicants to engage in an objective comparative analysis of how much they deserve to be admitted compared to other hypothetical applicants? In a reasonable world it ought to be enough to explain why you think you would be a successful PhD candidate, and leave it to the readers to make whichever allowances for the hardship of others they consider appropriate.

[tepid forum]

I will print screen the wording of it

i have nothing to say about the last 3 bullets though lol

[half meadow]

Wow. Yeah, that pretty much obliterates my point ...

[tepid forum]

i feel like it's a bit of a political litmus test though yes

[half meadow]

Agreed.

[tepid forum]

the two examples I came across didn't address the second bullet at all though so idk what that's about

or any of them but the first really

[undone yacht]

this is probably like these things for TT positions. just make it standard and bland. you will not get a position because this part of the application is great, but you certainly can lose a position if it is bad (extreme in either way)

[fair needle]

all u have to tell them is ur not a shitty person

i genuinely think that's literally it

[tepid forum]

in either way?

my intention is to just show awareness of the lingo and basic issues really

[undone yacht]

extreme SJW or fascist 😛

[tepid forum]

i can't see how the former would damage your application unless it was just clear you were taking the piss

but idrk

I've never made any job applications just university apps

I don't intend on worrying much about it, I've written about a page and I think I'll call it

[smoky jetty]

How do I look for REUs?

I'm interested in Algorithms, Algebra, Discrete Math, and Cryptography (probably in that order)

I have no idea how to tell which ones are good other than "ah Harvard is a good school I'm sure their REU is good"

I know certain schools are more popular in some fields than others (iirc UChicago is big in analysis?????) but I have no idea how to tell which programs do what

I am a junior right now, I 100% want to get my PhD in either algorithms or something algebraic (or some combination if such a thing exists) and I've heard that if you can do an REU at a top uni and do well, that's really beneficial to grad school apps

[daring temple]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U-27BeHMSJCWumbNByal2tHyYo9wRVud9WoRE70E47Y/edit#gid=0

[smoky jetty]

oh shit the deadline for some of these is in Jan

damn

[daring temple]

there arent that many out for S23

[granite pasture]

There are a few resources that sort reus by subject.As far as quality there are a few "perstigious" reus. But apply to anything that looks intresting. Once you write one app its easy to write more. and cost nothing. THEN ONCE you get in somewhere worry about which ones are the good ones.

[granite pasture]

also there is an nsa reu and this is the only one that isnt actually due in early 2023 as far as im aware, and is instead due in a few months, so if that ones intresting prepare to apply. They do the stuff you listed to my understanding

NSA* not NSF sorry LOL

[raw quail]

there seems to be a loose inverse relation between well-known REUs and well-known unis

probably bc less well known unis are more willing to go out of there way to attract people with special programs

[granite pasture]

ALso its things like great mentors that really drive these programs success

[turbid pike]

Hey guys

Don’t know if this is appropriate

But I’m trying to apply for Spirit of Ramanujan

and I want to improve my application for the grant

https://spiritoframanujan.com

[gritty ruin]

What I would say about the 2nd bullet point, is surely you or someone around you has faced some difficulties personally (e.g. due to race, gender, sexual orientation, autism, adhd, anxiety etc). Talk about this.

[tepid forum]

for personal experience I said a bit about apathy and anti-intellectualism but I did talk about those things too

i think i could embellish the stuff I said about myself more but idk

I have too much of a conscience about misrepresenting these things

[gritty ruin]

Maybe highlight difficulties that you have observed that have faced your peers a bit

For example representation of women in mathematics

[tepid forum]

yeah I wrote a bit about that, maybe I should flesh it out

I tried to cover a bit of everything, maybe I should focus on just one or two things

[gritty ruin]

Either way, you have quite a while left to work on this

Almost 3 months

And also, you don't necessarily have to flesh it out that much

Personally, I didn't even mention anything about the last 2 bullet points if I remember correctly

Because as someone going into model theory, the 4th bullet point is really not relevant

And if you don't think you'll be a leader in these groups, or haven't been, then it's fine

For the 3rd bullet point, you can only really write stuff about it if you've done active outreach stuff. Which if you have, write about it. If you haven't, but want to include it, you've still got a couple of months to do it and add it.

And I think everyone can talk about the first 2 bullet points

[gritty ruin]

Also out of interest, how long is your statement of purpose / personal statement?

[tepid forum]

I am going for 1000 words for statement of purpose

My personal history is going to be about 700-750

[molten frigate]

what do you want to improve specifically

[turbid pike]

I want to improve my capability for research

[molten frigate]

... for the application?

I mean in the CV you just give a more or less objective outline of what you've done and in the personal statement you should put your motivations, and there perhaps mention any research you've done

[turbid pike]

Just generally. I want to know what subjects I should study. I’m halfway through Lang and Munkres, and started hartshorne a couple weeks ago, and I still don’t think I have enough to read most papers

what subjects could I study that are closer to research

[crimson valve]

This is not an appropriate place to ask about that application, the general channels are better for those. This channel is primarily for grad apps and maybe some stuff like reus

[turbid pike]

Sorry, I figured that a grant application would make sense here. I suppose not. I’ll try discussion

[tepid forum]

the topic does say grant apps too

[sterile bone]

the implication most likely being that of research grants or similar

being lumped in with postgrad and fellowship apps

[gritty ruin]

Sounds reasonable. Also, in the box where it asks how much money you'll have available to fund yourself, if you don't have funding from someone else, put 0

[tepid forum]

where's that on the form?

the funding part of the form I saw was for US citizens (which i'm not) so skipped it

[gritty ruin]

I can't even remember, I did this like a year ago so it's kind of half-remembered

It might have changed a bit since last year

And if you're not a US citizen, you'll probably have J1 or F1 visa status

[tepid forum]

Fair enough

Think it's F1

[turbid pike]

This is a research grant

I thought

[sand hare]

Has anyone here done a postgrad in Maths without doing an undergrad in it?

[gritty flower]

hey there, I'm currently taking up MS in mathematics, but my background is in Computer Science. I'm still on the very early stages though, and the university has required me to take up some bridging courses before I can proceed to the core courses.

[undone yacht]

I studied engineering physics, and did a PhD in numerical analysis (linear algebra)

[sand hare]

Thanks, I’m considering applying for some maths masters courses with my undergrad in CS + Electronics. Just trying to gauge how easy it was to get accepted to good unis / courses and how your experiences have been so far while learning?

[raw quail]

My understanding is that a lot of this depends on your coursework more than your labeled major

[rapid dawn]

is there a LaTeX theme that automatically matches the guidelines for the NSF fellowship

like has the correct margins, font, font size, etc so I can be absolutely certain my application doesn't just get yeeted away

[fierce sigil]

Uhh

You should check their requirements

Last year they very explicitly required word processing software, and you really can't get around that

Using LaTeX just isn't gonna work

Or at least, it wouldn't have last year @rapid dawn

(yes, this is very annoying)

[rapid dawn]

Oh

I didn't even think they might not allow TeX

[sonic compass]

sadly the number of gradschools that care about accounting for latex with their archaic sorting junk is not high :(

[rapid dawn]

Well I'd be submitting a pdf

[tepid forum]

all of the forms I've seen are just pdf uploads thank god

[fierce sigil]

It's just the dumb NSF app

[main marlin]

How does European 10 point scale GPA get evaluated at US universities?

Does 9/10 correspond to 3.6/4 for example?

[tepid forum]

you should enter it as it appears on your transcript without trying to translate it

[main marlin]

Yes, but I'm trying to understand my chances

[tepid forum]

ahhh fair enough

i doubt it gets considered the same way, 70% in the UK is a First which is way better than a 2.8/4 GPA (though some conversions seem overexcited comparing it to a 4.0)

[main nebula]

yeah I've always assumed this was super ambitious bc normally around 25-30% of people get firsts and I assume 4.0 gpa is way way less common

[tepid forum]

Would imagine it's more comparable to a 3.7-3.8 but honestly no idea lol (no idea how they treat it though)

[crimson valve]

I am thinking of applying to places in prague due to

https://ncgandtprague.wordpress.com/ncgt-seminar/

anyone living there or schooling there who can tell me what the culture is like

and also just in general how the czech republic treats lgbtq+ people (will i be safe)

[granite pasture]

this literally has to be an intentional method/technique to torture undergrads.

[grand palm]

Do we still need GREs for math grad school ? I know that a lot of schools now have them "optional" but are they "optional" actually ?

[granite pasture]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hmdO7af3-lLvtJQO-szayG6blTvAYBQ1JcYXFZ_6apE/edit?usp=sharing
Google Docs

[grand palm]

Oh, thanks a lot. That's actually helpful

[main marlin]

Do u think grad schools would be nice to me if I have limited research experience?

I’m kinda worried rn

Because I spent most of my undergrad doing swe internships at big n companies to pay off college

And as a result I don’t have as many relevant research experience as I like, only will have 2 sems by time I graduate

[sonic compass]

plenty of folks go to grad school with 0 research experience, let alone experience relevant to the field they'll work in. Just dont expect time in industry to do many favors unless you've gotten great references out of it

[delicate kite]

How helpful is it to email professors before applying to the said PhD program in USA or Canada. My friend in Physics said that a positive reply from professor almost guarantees admission in the uni but I not sure if that's true in maths. Some maths proffs outright say that they can't help with the admission process.
Also, if one does email does is it just "expressing interest in the field" or should I read an article/paper written by them and then say something about it etc.

[fair needle]

I wrote emails to almost every professor at grad schools I applied to last cycle. I think I wrote to 10 or so. I asked each if I could have a Zoom call with them to introduce myself and talka bout their research, and I asked one if I could meet in-person because I happened to be visiting the campus. This was all before apps went out.

4 or so said no to meeting.
4 or so got in a Zoom call with me.
And the person that I wanted to meet in-person with said yes, and I had lunch with him.

None of this guarantees admission, but I absolutely think it helped and is a good idea, particularly if you have a unique application

[fair needle]

i'll go ahead and ping you cause it's been a little while since you psoted

[raw quail]

oh you actually asked to zoom with them

interesting

[fair needle]

yup. woodin said yes, even

[raw quail]

if you don't mind me asking, between those who declined meeting and those who actually met with you how were the places you got accepted into distributed

[raw quail]

oh nice

[fair needle]

I got into zero. the reasons are completely unrelated

I only had two years in college, and finished a bachelor's and master's in this time. So I had a fuckton of grad classes and overall coursework, and a lot of knowledge in the area I wanted to do. But I had nothing else to my application. My graes were good, not great, and I had zero research experience.

the two admissions people/professors I spoke with after i got rejected everywhere said that my application was very strong, but way too fast and no research. My resume was like.. basically empty. Cause all I did was coursework.

and I was just too young

this was precisely the reason I was asking to Zoom. i was coming from a nowhere university, and had a very nontraditional application. niche research area, lots of classes, and weird transcript for other reasons (i took a dozen or so independent reading courses because of limited course offerings.)

so, yes. i did find out later that three of the schools (including my top choice, cmu) i was at the top top of the waitlist.

[raw quail]

oh I see that makes more sense

[fair needle]

i'm only saying this to explain that rejection had nothing to do with asking to Zoom. i'm fully convinced that i wouldve gotten rejected faster had i not done this

in the professors words that i had lunch with,

"the logicians at the universities you apply to will llove you, but the administration will hate you."

[raw quail]

asking to Zoom for no reason seems bold, but if you have a weird app like this it makes more sense

[fair needle]

correct. it does help if you have a paper of theirs in mind, or a topic in mind beforehand

but not necessary. i dint do that for many

[crimson valve]

oh interesting, i have a few potential advisors in mind who ill probs email but idk about zooming]

[fair needle]

and for some, i would ask about some paper they wrote and then only briefly talked about it before going into personal application stuff

you also can't lose, unless you have serious concerns you'll fuck up the zoom call (you won't... its really really hard to do that). the worst case scenario is they say no

:^)

[crimson valve]

i see, this is a good idea ill ask for zoom if i email these potential advisors

[fair needle]

yea. and if you are able to, it's not the worst idea tos ee if you can travel to one of the universities to see if you can meet in-person.

i happened to have a free flight voucher and also had like.. five or six friends that lived on campus, so it made sense for me to go regardless of whether they wanted to meet.

but i of course confirmed it beforehand

[crimson valve]

well thats probably overkill lol, but who knows maybe there is a conference in e.g. texas A&M

[fair needle]

that, too

that's a better call imo

[raw quail]

too bad I've already emailed hamkins

[crimson valve]

email em again :))

[fair needle]

hamkins is a saint do not be worried about him lol

[fair needle]

you could literally just @ him on twitter (on another account, dork) and he'd set up a time to meet with you on Zoom in the replies

absolute king

[crimson valve]

tox u should do this to buzzards.

but on discord

[raw quail]

I'll ping him and say "I LOVE LEAN" and then ask him if he wants to work on Schanuel's conjecture or smth

[torpid echo]

my hero

[left swan]

oh hi Luna I think I know you from twitter

[torpid echo]

wait maybe I do too

[left swan]

Are you the @heademptyset Luna?

I'm going off furry + logic here lol

[fair needle]

yuh

[torpid echo]

oh, I think maybe you were the one that directed the one person to me for findign the thing in the napkin taht was just wrong

[hearty radish]

Math Twitter converges

[left swan]

I've been dragging people on here to twitter

[torpid echo]

I literally can't find the thing, but it was mentioned by someone, it was some like AT computation

[fair needle]

woah chmonkey followed me on twitter dot com. another gold star onto my chmonkey throne

[raw quail]

maybe I can think up some funky computation problem to lure him in on MO

[torpid echo]

I have asked in ivory multiple times if anyone remembers the exact thing

HI KIRBY

[hearty radish]

After asking question: oh and btw Hamkins, can I meet with you on Zoom?

HI CHMONKEY

[torpid echo]

I don't check this channel

is it non-toxic

[hearty radish]

[torpid echo]

or does that come later

[fair needle]

"hamkins i promise the feet tweet was a joke please"

[torpid echo]

when appa are sent and ppl start checking the cursed websites

[crimson valve]

it will be toxic when im waiting for results and constantly venting here

[torpid echo]

aren't you waiting another year?

[crimson valve]

i changed my mind

again

[torpid echo]

br.uh

[left swan]

or for me "please just don't read any of my tweets"

[torpid echo]

cum is the seminal work of body fluids

[left swan]

God my algebra professor from undergrad liked something deranged earlier

[fair needle]

"its for the bit u wouldnt understand"

[hearty radish]

So far two people have messaged me out of concern on Twitter before we interacted in person

[left swan]

Penguin is the prof

[hearty radish]

Luna was one of them

[torpid echo]

lmfao

[fair needle]

love that

[raw quail]

if shamrock can do it why can't I 😭

[torpid echo]

dude I got asked when I visited for my visit day

what the tweet that said like

[left swan]

hate to say it but skill issue

You need to be better at posting and math tox

[torpid echo]

Sex is so cummypilled. I used to be hornycore but now I'm orgasm gang for real.

this

RYC sent this message and I just put it on twitter

[left swan]

I'm ballmaxxing

[hearty radish]

#graduate-applications btw

[crimson valve]

ok this is probably not the right convo for the channel

[left swan]

Oh

[crimson valve]

lol

[left swan]

Right

[torpid echo]

then upper classmen asked me about it when I visited

[crimson valve]

anyhow changing topic

[torpid echo]

no

[fair needle]

i'm in my ballmax arc

[crimson valve]

purdue grad school seems sick

[raw quail]

.pin

[torpid echo]

it's relevant

you can get into good schools

[hearty radish]

LMFAO

[crimson valve]

dont pin in this channel tox lol

remove the pin

[torpid echo]

and have bad twitter presence

[raw quail]

L

[hearty radish]

I started my twitter presence after getting into a good school😎

[crimson valve]

anyone know how it ranks in terms of hard to get into

[hearty radish]

They're stuck with me

[fair needle]

honest question: what are the odds admissions at columbia looked at your twitter @torpid echo

[torpid echo]

Idk anything about Purdue

[hearty radish]

My friend is at Purdue rn I think

[crimson valve]

they have 4 C* algebraists which is a lot lol

[torpid echo]

probably very little, but at the start of the year Johan who I want to work with did say he found my twitter

[crimson valve]

but htey also have like, a lot of nt, AG ,top and model theory

which is all shit i like

[torpid echo]

where is Purdue

[crimson valve]

well except AG

[fair needle]

in the freezer aisle

[raw quail]

who tf is at purdue in model theory?

[fair needle]

they make nice frozen tendies

[torpid echo]

Wisconsin?

[crimson valve]

indiana 😭

[hearty radish]

LMAO

[torpid echo]

HAHA MIDWEST

[crimson valve]

https://www.math.purdue.edu/people/faculty.html#filter

[fair needle]

L bozo

[hearty radish]

I forget Purdue is in Indiana

[crimson valve]

i dont think these ppl are like pure model theory

more like apply model theory to there work

[torpid echo]

I'm chewing on a bottle cap rn

[fair needle]

same

[torpid echo]

It's called stimpacking

[crimson valve]

like they had a class on minimal intersections in AG this yr

[torpid echo]

the cap is metal

[hearty radish]

Chmonkey sharpening teeth

[fair needle]

stimonkey

not sti-monkey

[torpid echo]

honestly moreso I'm just trying to poke a hole through it

[fair needle]

stim-monkey

i hope theres no sti's

[torpid echo]

I'm clean

[raw quail]

holy shit dark kevin

[hearty radish]

Wdym dark kevin

[fair needle]

oh no..

[raw quail]

kevin buzzard

[left swan]

kevin buzzard :/

[hearty radish]

Yeah but what makes gregery dark kevin tho

[fair needle]

https://twitter.com/heademptyset/status/1574646114871087105?s=20&t=08jxd3yPSPJ07SxAf1jNzQ are you proud of me

luna!~ (@heademptyset)

I'm chewing on a bottle cap rn

Twitter · Sep 27, 2022, 6:24 AM

[raw quail]

he's actually a logician

[fair needle]

i'm entering my Poasting arc

[left swan]

I'm gonna meet him irl

[hearty radish]

Tox you should pin "I love lean" on your twitter

[crimson valve]

that guy doesnt do logic tox

did u click the model theory button

lol

[raw quail]

oh fuck

[fair needle]

rip bozo

[raw quail]

I thought the link already was model theory

😭

[hearty radish]

LMAO that makes this even better

[fair needle]

ok thats actually so false worstie

[raw quail]

well whatever

still better than other buzzard

[crimson valve]

lol

[fair needle]

so fudking rue

[crimson valve]

but yeah im def applying methinks

kirby how hard is it to get into the purdue

[raw quail]

love that buzzard's actually in this server

[hearty radish]

I'll ask my friend, I think she's asleep rn, but she applied for NT I think

[raw quail]

love you kevin please don't ruin my career kevin

[crimson valve]

icic

im applying to operator theory bc its very hard to find operator theory research

[torpid echo]

U shood apply to Chmolumbia cuz the school is cool

unless the ppl here don't do what u want kekw

[fair needle]

no inner model theory???

[raw quail]

my freshman year advisor is now the head of purdue math

[crimson valve]

no school in ny has operator tyheory chmonkey

[raw quail]

[torpid echo]

pffft

just come and do nomber theory

[fair needle]

not a real subject

[crimson valve]

arithmetic geo is like

[torpid echo]

jk, don't do that, 3 of the 7 ppl this year do NT

[crimson valve]

my 2nd choice

[fair needle]

where are the mice

[crimson valve]

but i really wanna C*

lmfao

[torpid echo]

I have a feeling next year, they are not gonna be kind to ppl appying for NT

[raw quail]

#1019305288714702851

[hearty radish]

I think you should be fine though John, especially since you do have kind of a niche interest

[crimson valve]

there are some good C* schools thqat i feel like i have to get into

like iowa

htf is iowa gonna reject me lol

[torpid echo]

lmfao

[hearty radish]

Yeah, unless they really don't want C* people

[torpid echo]

all C* is in the midwest I guess

[hearty radish]

Yeah Midwest

[crimson valve]

well texas A&M looks really good too!

it has a huge func anal group

[torpid echo]

Texas

[fair needle]

are we in the midwest

[crimson valve]

toxus

[hearty radish]

No

[torpid echo]

wait Luna r u also at CUM

[fair needle]

no i wish

[hearty radish]

Don't tell someone in Pittsburgh that we're in the midwest

They'll get upset

[fair needle]

is my top choice when i apply

[torpid echo]

Pittsburgh is definitely the east

[fair needle]

i moved here

[torpid echo]

ah

[crimson valve]

central michigan uni was advertising here and they also go by CMU, i was very confused for a bit lol

[fair needle]

in an attempt to

1. escape where i was
2. when i end up applying, i am right around all the set theory i could ever want. gonna try to be somewhat involved before i apply

[raw quail]

Pittsburgh isn't midwest, it's just rust belt

[hearty radish]

Yeah

[left swan]

Pittsburgh is the pitts.

[hearty radish]

It gets thrown into Appalachia with West Virginia sometimes

[fair needle]

pissobrg

[hearty radish]

Real, this city is depressing as hell

[fair needle]

fake news

[torpid echo]

I THOUGHT YOU SAID U LIKED IT

[fair needle]

its fucking

beautiful here

shut ur hoe ass up

[hearty radish]

Bro (gender neutrally) wean hall has no windows

[fair needle]

[torpid echo]

who needs windows

TRUE!

[hearty radish]

My office is on the 7th floor!

[crimson valve]

all the grad student offices are floor 4 or above here

[torpid echo]

I actually have a window tho

[crimson valve]

granted we only have the one building

(for math)

[hearty radish]

Wean looks like the backrooms tbh

Brutalism 😭

[torpid echo]

It's weird because the math building is like small and so the grad offices are a shared place, like cubicles

but it's important enough to not be like "MIller hall"

or someshit

it's literally called "mathematics"

[hearty radish]

aren't UChicago offices kinda

[crimson valve]

wexler building is like

7 stories

stories 4-7 is purely for profs and grad students

basically

[torpid echo]

I wish

[fair needle]

#「graduate-lounge」 ?

[crimson valve]

tru

[shadow bobcat]

Not sure if this is the place but does anyone know what schools to look at for additive combinatorics? I know Cambridge and Oxford are big but I go to a pretty much unknown school in the US so I'm not sure of my chances as an international applicant. There's also UGA and GA Tech who have some good people but I'm not sure outside of that.

[raw quail]

uhh the only person I know who does this stuff is Minh Tran at Notre Dame, but that's like from an applied model theory perspective I think

Tao did this stuff right?

[crimson valve]

do we have anyone in this area in this server?

maybe @ornate gazelle knows something

[raw quail]

I don't think so

but maybe try looking for some interesting papers and then checking out the authors

[crimson valve]

and most fields have like

some kind of database of people in the field

try searching for it

[shadow bobcat]

Hm maybe Tao keeps one since he's involved in the field

[crimson valve]

https://operatoralgebras.org/directory.html

my primary tool in selecting schools to apply to

lol

also try talking to ur profs irl

they usually have a good idea and good reccs

[raw quail]

is additive combinatorics related to harmonic analysis??

wtf?

[shadow bobcat]

Good idea, they do that NYC discrete math reu which seems cool

[shadow bobcat]

I asked my advisor and he actually had no clue but most of his stuff is in enumeration so he said he doesn't really work too much with additive or arithmetic

[crimson valve]

i see

[raw quail]

that's wild

[crimson valve]

anyone at your uni who does some work in additive combo or adjacent field?

[shadow bobcat]

There's two people I'm thinking who might know one who does analytical nt and one who does partition theory though I don't really know the latter well

[crimson valve]

i see, i mean might be good to talk to them regardless

[shadow bobcat]

One of the people who runs the REU does additive combinatorics apparently

Looks like UIUC has 2 professors

[delicate kite]

I was talking to a friend but holy shit that one question somehow spiralled down to CMU and CUM

[hearty radish]

Cum? @raw quail

[raw quail]

cum

uhh what?

[delicate kite]

Thanks for the answer @fair needle. I am kinda between the devil and deep blue see. I was initially interested in ML and so did my dissertation in ML and now it's hard to go into either Maths or CS. So, like I haven't decided the field I wanna work in and have low grades. So, I not sure if I should email to professors as I have do not have much to show but it doesn't hurt to talk to them so why not. But it's probably gonna need some luck to get a decent PhD

[raw quail]

ML = machine learning or mathematical logic?

[hearty radish]

Realizing that ML works either way in the context of that message

I immediately assumed machine learning bc that's where my interests are

[raw quail]

I immediately assumed mathematical logic bc that's where my interests are

[hearty radish]

If you're coming out of a master's program, and you were doing machine learning, I suppose it might be fine to get some industry experience before applying to PhD programs? Idk how that's viewed in particular by admissions committees, but it might only just help you
If you're coming out of a bachelor's and wanting to pursue a PhD, a master's is a good intermediary step either way

[delicate kite]

machine learning

[hearty radish]

Based

[delicate kite]

Tbh I kinda hate the current state of research in ML or I should say Deep Learning cause most fancy stuff is there but holy shit if it isn't a goddamn rat race. My advisor would constantly push me to publish papers or try extending what I have already done. Nothing original so I had no incentive to stay in it.

[delicate kite]

Yeah, I will probably do that if I don't get admission in this admission cycle. I know industry experience is viewed favourably in CS idk how much help will it do for maths PhD

[hearty radish]

I'm mostly interested in variational approaches and gradient flows in ML

There's a good paper on this called machine learning from a continuous viewpoint

[tepid forum]

wow thanks for this

confirms that I've pretty much exhausted UK unis lol since I recognise all the unis

[light lantern]

physical finance or financial physics

[gritty ruin]

According to Gowers it's related to harmonic analysis, analytic number theory, extremal number theory, probability, model theory and theoretical computer science. At least that's the list of related fields he gave when lecturing additive combi last year.

[raw quail]

I've seen the model theory interestingly enough

I didn't really understand it though

[gritty ruin]

Malliaris told me to learn some additive combi for model theory

[raw quail]

oh weird

just like for applications and as a source for examples?

[gritty ruin]

Or at least said that there's some cool stuff developing

(links between the two)

I stumbled across a very minor link as well

Or I think it's minor at least

[raw quail]

http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/talks/o-minimal-method-and-generalized-sum-product-phenomena

this was what I saw

[gritty ruin]

https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.09794

[crimson valve]

nice i got a grada appa fee waiver for notra dame from this name exchange program

gonna see how else i can get some more

[wary pond]

Some schools give need-based fee waivers (aka you make less than a certain amount per year)

[hearty radish]

There are also schools who just give fee waivers if you ask

I know Utah has been like that in the past

[crimson valve]

oh good to know

[hearty radish]

Yeah that's something I wish I knew was a thing when I was applying bc money was tight

[crimson valve]

do i just like, email them or smth?

[hearty radish]

If you're asking about Utah in particular, you send an email to one of the department people, and it's outlined here https://www.math.utah.edu/graduate/GraduateInstructions.php
Idk about other schools, but I'd scour the graduate application website to see if there's anything. It also doesn't hurt to email the graduate program I don't think

[crimson valve]

right i see

[hearty radish]

I just remember during one of the EDI meetings last semester, we were discussing how there are a lot of fee waivers that go unused

Are you applying this cycle? @crimson valve

[crimson valve]

yeah

[hearty radish]

I knew you weren't sure if you were graduating in 3

Ah nice

[crimson valve]

yeah i changed my mind like

4 times

lol

[hearty radish]

3 year gang 😎

[crimson valve]

gonna try to get a bunch of free appa like this, because like, no opportunity cost to apply to these right

[hearty radish]

Yeah exactly

Especially if your interests are still pretty flexible (although I know you're pretty set on C*)

[crimson valve]

yeah i can do a lot of other things too if i dont have a satisfactory C* thing

(specially since C* is kinda rare)

[hearty radish]

Utah is a good place to go too regardless if that's where things end up taking you as well, so might as well apply for free if you can

[crimson valve]

yeah

[raven sun]

Just realized I misread part of a paper and now I need to work a lot harder on my NSF proposal ahhhhh

[raven sun]

like a research paper

:)))

[worthy apex]

When's the NSF application due?

[hearty radish]

oct 21

[worthy apex]

Okay so there's still some time

But I should probably get on it soon

[tepid forum]

I thought abstract harmonic analysis was cool but that's even worse in this regard

C* algebras are extremely common in comparison xd

would've been far easier if i was into algebraic geometry or topology or something

[twin delta]

yeh cool until your doing perturbation theory wthi linear operators

[raw quail]

Oh shit, I forgot that that might be a part of it 💀

[past plume]

I'm writing my statements rn

◉◡◉

There's so much I want to say, its hard to make it coherent

How do I write broader impacts for my research statement

Its not like studying modular forms will have broader societal impacts..

Broader Impacts: The broader impacts criterion encompasses the potential to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes

I've done a lot but like, this is the research statement. I need to make it at least somewhat tangentially related to my research

[past plume]

Actually not that I'm thinking about it, I can actually connect those things to my research

Everything's connected

◉◡◉

Yeah

Thanks

[past plume]

I WROTE A FIRST DRAFT OF MY RESEARCH STATEMENT YAYYY

[main marlin]

Isn't the broader societal impact of funding mathematics research an expected decrease in the number of domestic terrorists

[hearty radish]

I am learning this quickly

[sacred estuary]

Can someone provide more details on this please? I should be aware of what I plan to get myself into.

[dapper raptor]

wait you're telling me it gets worse?

[dapper raptor]

what if I already feel things to be that wayish without even being in grad school

[vivid drift]

A bit of introspection on how you are currently managing the stress might be a good idea.

[dapper raptor]

it's usually fine if I meet my friends regularly, things start to deteriorate if I do everything by myself constantly though

[vivid drift]

Quite good that you have already recognised it.

[dapper raptor]

none of these points seem like something I haven't experienced to some degree already, or well at least something new, but I'm not sure if the intensity will change (if I manage to get in) and I'm already broke anyways, can't get broker than that

[hearty radish]

From my month long experience so far, it goes without saying, but creating a support system of people around you is crucial for keeping mental health in check, at least in my case

Although, I stayed in my home state for undergrad so this is a pretty new thing for me

[rapid dawn]

So the NSF fellowship says you need to use a certain font and you'll get automatically rejected if you don't. How does that interact with stuff like \mathcal

Not that I'd actually use TeX since they apparently want the whole thing done in Word. But for inserting a character like that into word