graduate-applications

[tacit lark]

I'd remove "other" from "other research experience". I'd also remove that you submitted it to discrete mathematics.

[agile shuttle]

Doesnt having a publication in the works play to your favor?

[mossy niche]

my personal recommendation is to remove the hobbies section and your high school activities

[fast mason]

Graduate CVs have no length limit

In most fields

I second removing the hobbies. I would also move any funding further up and flesh out the research experiences more, particularly the goal you were solving and give context on why the problem is impactful

[livid shore]

the funding is old

[livid shore]

Yah I thought this too, now unsure

[livid shore]

for some of them there was no goal

[fast mason]

Make one up lol

[livid shore]

you dont think they will enjoy my hobbies

I think it makes me personable😁

[fast mason]

Personality should probably come from the statement

[livid shore]

I should include a link to my clash royale account

[fast mason]

Yes, that is the exception. In fact it should be at the very top with at least 2 paragraphs describing it

[livid shore]

Skills: Townhall 15 in COC, 15000 trophies in CR

[agile shuttle]

You should add your minecraft account and your Marvel Rivals main

[livid shore]

what if I make the background a transparent picture of my face

as a compromise

[fast mason]

Yes, bonus points if you make the text yellow

[livid shore]

i can remove my hobbies if i can do that

[agile shuttle]

Add some neon colors everywhere

[livid shore]

put hobbies at the top, add ART

and then draw with MS paint

all over the sides of the CV

[agile shuttle]

Add your favorite memes as a section

[fast mason]

Oh, also don’t put “presented by co-author” under the nums talk 😂

[livid shore]

ah but my co-author did indeed present that one

I forgot the date of the talk

as it turns out

[fast mason]

Lol, no need to tell the admissions officers that

[livid shore]

what if they were there

[fast mason]

I was there

[livid shore]

:o

[fast mason]

Can confirm they were not

[livid shore]

are you an admissions officer

[fast mason]

Maybe

[livid shore]

this could be a test

[fast mason]

Not a test trust. Just sell me some alcohol for an underage friend

and you’ll be good to go

[livid shore]

what did you think of my co-authors talk

was he good

[fast mason]

He was quite epic

Probably the smartest one on campus that day

Handsome too

[livid shore]

Instead of including his name in the CV i'll put a picture of his face that hyperlinks to his github

[fast mason]

Great idea. You can overlay it with your own face as the background

[livid shore]

Ill do the same for any mention of Balaban

[agile shuttle]

Lowkey I feel like mods will see this and just strike with the ban hammer on this channel :,)

[livid shore]

Nooo

Sorry for the jokes I use this channel seriously though

They were simply to promote positivity in the channel and avoid gloom and toxicity

[agile shuttle]

Very fair lol

[obsidian raven]

Freshman in undergrad looking ahead

I got a B this semester and will probably finish my first semester with a 3.6 or so

Am I fucked for Grad school

[thin echo]

I sure hope not
I got a B my freshman first semester which gave me a 3.5 and now I have a 3.92 applying for grad school
They better overlook freshman year

[past axle]

just submitted an app and accidentally used the wrong formatting so it’s like 3 sentences past the 2 page limit. Is it worth contacting the dept with the one that’s formatted properly (I.e NOT double spaced) so it isn’t 2+ a little more pages. Literally identical text just single spaced instead of double spaced so it’s not longer than 2 pages.

Or am I overthinking this and nobody will gaf

[spring portal]

I would say it probably would look a little unprofessional going over the limit. I would suggest contacting, they might understand and accept a different file.

[foggy prism]

hard to know lol one can only prayge

[shell kindle]

No

[agile shuttle]

This is also a good gpa. Not to mention that GPA is only one aspect of you as an applicant.

[past axle]

Yeah I called them & they said it’s fine but I was welcome to email it under 2 pages if it was just formatting

[marble zealot]

Do pure math student ever get any of these? I would imagine grants from places like trading firms or the DOD are more likely to go to people on the applied side of things.

[tacit lark]

yes. For jane street you can look at the winners. Some math people win.

[wide cosmos]

The only grad school ive personally seen with a min GPA requirement was UCLA, but there it was 3.5 so you're good

[past axle]

There’s also DOD SMART scholarship, although you’d owe time at the other end

[vestal basin]

Are fellowships always skewed towards students from more ‘prestigious’ universities?

Or does it only attest to the quality of students from those places

Maybe the wrong channel to ask this lol

[tacit lark]

more prestigious universities have better students on average. Im sure there is also some bias too.

[vestal basin]

Yeah fair. I picked the advisor over the university and now idk if I made the wrong choice, even though my advisor is amazing

[marble zealot]

Are these available to second year PhD student?

I think I missed the application deadline for this year for most of these

[tacit lark]

I think both of the ones I sent are.

[marble zealot]

Cool thank you

[foggy prism]

also uc berkeley has a min of 3.0: I hear for some school if u do not meet minimum they do not consider your application. But generally these minimums are so low that it's fine. But gpa should still be high for a good chance at top uni like a 3.9/4.0 (this is very school/location dependent too, so don't take 3.9 literally) for upper years.

[foggy prism]

freshman year does not matter as much. But you should start trying to cook next semester onwards

search for research opportunities

ask your profs

and dont forget to take some bird courses to lessen your load

then u should be set up for a good grad school appli

also sometimes grad courses has less work than undergrad courses so maybe those can be bird too

[glacial cedar]

Yeah i tanked freshman fall too

[thin echo]

Did you apply to phd straight from undergrad or did you get an intermediary degree?

Just wondering

[rose spear]

I'm probably going to apply in 2-3 years time but would like to know If having a high avg general vs math gpa, which is more important. For context I'm an engineering and it ain't looking too hot on the engineering side but math is kind of okay (I messed up on a midterm and got a B+ in Real analysis I)

I should also mention I'm at a Canadian university

[glacial cedar]

You really want high overall. My GPA in math/cs is really high but everything else was not. They don’t give you a place to report “in major” GPA so i had to report it on my resume

[rose spear]

Ah

[rose spear]

My major is engineering so my major gpa would be engineering too. And what counts as really high. I wasn't as serious first year so I ended up with a (7.5/9) I was able to get it up to a 7.67 but I'm worried about calc 3 atm. I can make it up next sem since I'll probably take around 3-5 math courses. I just hope I do well

[glacial cedar]

My in major was 3.9, but my overall was 3.5. But my first semester I got like a 2.6 so you can def recover from your 3.3

[rose spear]

It would be okay ish if my in major was math but it's in eng and I can't double major or even minor (my school is weird about it). I guess I'll just have to grind for the winter and summer and hope the transcript reflect my math grades

[slate birch]

Hello guys, I have CGPA of 3.2 (out of 4); and was looking for graduate unis in europe. My course was BSc Computational Mathematics. I want to pursue in Theoretical CS/ Applied Math

[shell kindle]

Hi Vincent

Unfortunately we don't discuss chances for getting into programs here

If you have questions about the application process like what to put in an essay, what sorts of letters of rec are good, etc..., we are happy to answer those

[lyric whale]

Ok

[tame sundial]

Actually, out of curiosity, what sorts of letters of rec are good?

I only know the basic answer of "professors youve worked closely with in related areas"

[hard pebble]

those who can speak strongly to the effect of "based on my detailed knowledge of this student in these areas, here are specific reasons why I believe they will succeed in your graduate school"

[tame sundial]

Fair enough

In that case, would a letter from an esteemed professor in a somewhat related field be good?

Maybe thats too vague but theres a professor in philosophy who I really enjoy working with and is very well respected in philosophy

[hard pebble]

the problem is to some extent you need their recommendation to carry weight to their colleagues, and so without mathematicians in those departments recognizing them, it will be inherently less useful

[tame sundial]

Fair enough

I doubt my math profs have worked closely with him

[hard pebble]

though if it's really strong, it would probably be a better 3rd letter than "this student did well in my class", since everyone you are competing with can get those

[tame sundial]

Yeah

Currently I've only done research/have research planned with two profs in the math dept

So i may potentially need it though im only going into my 4th semester so idrk

[hard pebble]

that's already quite good

[tame sundial]

Actually the first person in the math dept is a postdoc which is different

Idk why I recalled them as being a prof

[hard pebble]

keep in mind depending on your department, you might run into the same prof you like for more than a few classes

and "hiido took 3 of my classes, did well in all, and I got a real sense of them as a mathematician over that longer time period" is a viable letter

[tame sundial]

The prof im doing algebra research with next semester is someone ive done 2 courses with so far

And im doing a third and very possibly a fourth

[hard pebble]

like most undergrads don't have 3 distinct research experiences

[tame sundial]

True

I did get an A- in the said prof's second class i did with him

Which is kinda unfortunate

But I think he grades harshly so he likely still thinks that's good

[hard pebble]

as one of the cool canadians who uses a pure percent scale, that doesn't seem like a dramatic black mark to me, especially not that far into your UG and with research and more classes with that prof to come

[tame sundial]

True

And I did have an especially rough semester this fall

[hard pebble]

but i'm no admissions committee evaluator

[tame sundial]

So I have plenty of time to demonstrate that it isnt my standard I imagine

(I got a B in topology)

[tame sundial]

I see

[hard pebble]

as is known by the heavens, general topology is lame and boring and only useful to establish technical prerequisites for doing cool geometry and analysis (half-kidding)

[tame sundial]

It was the grad course in it

[hard pebble]

best of luck, at this point i'd say just try not to think so much about it beyond general directions and working closely with profs, enjoy the math and do your best and no seriously enjoy the math

[tame sundial]

I actually had a 97 before the final but then I flunked it for a few reasons

[hard pebble]

(something i wish got through to me back when)

[tame sundial]

Yeah fair enough

[hard pebble]

similar thing happened to me in linear algebra 2, a debatably more important course

[tame sundial]

The stress of trying to get As in my courses last semester was really killing me

[hard pebble]

but then i had 2 years to prove i'm a mediocre geometer instead of a bad one :P

[tame sundial]

And I was questioning if I even wanted to keep doing math

[tame sundial]

Hopefully i can do the same with algebra lol

Pointset im fine with though except for quotient spaces, but the final was almost entirely covering spaces and I had some personal stuff happen at the end of the semester that caused me to not really understand covering spaces

In fact I just was unable to recall very important theorems like the classification of covering spaces or something like that

[hard pebble]

sorry to hear that, I hope you're doing better now

[hard pebble]

i reemphasize this sentiment, and to encourage it I shall go to bed. Have a good one :)

[tame sundial]

I appreciate the help

[hard pebble]

you have legitimate reasons to give yourself slack here, so give it (projecting what younger me felt in your situation)

[tame sundial]

Will do, thank you

[tame sundial]

<@&268886789983436800> exterminate this chud for me posthaste

Probably not malicious but certainly not worth risking

[strange yoke]

Does the time of application affect the chances of getting in or as long as I apply before the deadline it will be the same chance?

[smoky jetty]

same chance

[glacial cedar]

Assuming it’s the same deadline same chance. Some schools have priority and normal deadlines

Those i assume are different chances

[tacit lark]

I have never heard of priority deadline for graduate school

[glacial cedar]

Like 4 of my schools had them

Nvm only 3. UIC, Drexel, and Georgetown

[wind plinth]

some have different deadlines if you want to be considered for TAships

[foggy prism]

i applied to uic and they didnt mention priority deadline for math grad school

[glacial cedar]

Maybe was just for CS?

[tacit lark]

That makes sense for masters degrees

[glacial cedar]

drexel appears to be the only school who uses "priority" as a term. UIC just says "recommended deadline" and "all applicants deadline"

[foggy prism]

oh i see i think thats just for fin aid

[gentle basin]

I think on UCR’s site they described it as a “soft deadline to make sure everything gets submitted before the final hard deadline” or smth?

[cunning nimbus]

boston college has it

oh maybe just for undergrad actually nvm (that would explain why nothing mentioned it on my app)

[brittle bobcat]

Is purposefully applying after graduating bachelor's have any risks? I want to have some research experience with my prof (geometry related) in my 3rd year of uni (England), but considering that good schools have application deadlines when 3rd year just begins, I don't think I will have the time to do research AND get recommendation letters from 2 professors...

[foggy prism]

isnt 4th year like a masters degree? presumably its fine apply for phd when u r doing your masters

[brittle bobcat]

So I'm guessing it's not worth applying to a masters degree by taking a gap year?

[foggy prism]

no maybe its just me not being familiar with england's system : do u apply for a masters or can u just continue at ur original institution right after third year to get a masters without applying for it?

cuz the former idk, but if it is the latter might as well just continue at ur original institution, cuz ull have all ur letter ready for phd appli hopefullly (in my opinion).

[brittle bobcat]

I certainly can continue at my own uni if I apply not too late in the 3rd year. But I want to switch unis, and I may not pursue a phd

[foggy prism]

ah, it probably doesnt hurt to try applying rn if u have the money, thats all the input i could give

cuz u can apply next year too

u could view ur own uni as a safety then

[brittle bobcat]

hmmm, I think it will be weird to ask professors to "update" or write a new letter of recommendation when I finish the 3rd year...

I guess I'll see how it plays out

[foggy prism]

id just ask a different prof rn

i would have the same concerns as u so i wouldnt try it

its prob ok to ask prof to submit the same letter but new letters idk

[brittle bobcat]

yeah. since this is still kind of tangential (I might be able to do some research during my 2nd year after all), I'll have to see how it plays out. If I can't make research done, I'll just apply after bachelors, even if I'm technically "wasting" one year

[foggy prism]

only having 2 research term is fine

u can try going to office hour for a course etc to get a prof to write u a good letter

i also dont have 3 research exp so i just went to a prof who taught a course i took for rec letter

[shell kindle]

Updating letters is very common

[brittle bobcat]

Really? I guess I can apply twice (once in the beginning of my 3rd year and once after graduating) after all 😁

[worthy peak]

I got a better grade than expected in analysis

but also there was a generous curve so probably the average was high

also, somewhat relatedly, is updating transcripts something schools will typically allow people to do

[foggy prism]

i have the same question but different flavor:would school care if idropped a course but on the transcript it says im currently taking it? i filled out applications saying im taking the course, and then the day after i dropped it

[main aspen]

Is it “ok” (in a UK context) to ask broadly what to expect at an interview if you’ve been offered an interview, but without many details?

[muted hemlock]

For a research master's program how important is the supervisor/research fit compared to general prestige and course offerings for someone who plans on pursuing a PhD?

[paper granite]

IMO, for a one or two year masters, where typically the thesis is worth the same as the courses, go with the latter. If they’ve got good courses that interest you, there should also be supervisors who are aligned enough with you. Even if you don’t get on amazingly it’s like 3-9 months or so and you can power through

That’s sort of the camp I’m in for my own masters just now

[dire brook]

Yeah, there's generally some correlation with the course offer

Also it's not very likely you'll get significant results, so imo the name recognition (for rec letters, and more generally to "become part of the community") is very important

[glacial pendant]

did anyone else get emailed by umich asking for their fall grades? im confused bc on their website they state that you can elect to share fall grades should you wish

[foggy prism]

r u that guy from mathematicgre forum?

theres one person there who got it

[scarlet barn]

They shouldnt be able to require this because not every school is running on the same schedule

like my fall transcript isnt even availible yet

[glacial pendant]

ooh ok good to know im not alone lol

[urban raft]

Imo yes

[main aspen]

(The email’s already sent off and I got a response)

[glacial arch]

Anyone applying to UBC math masters

Just curious what others did because their statement of interest wants you to explain your research but then there’s a second field that wants you to once again explain your research

[foggy prism]

there is?

I don't see it

[glacial arch]

i know the first one states to feel free to upload statement of interest instead but the second field just seems wildly redundant

[foggy prism]

the latter is just a list i think

i viewed it as a list

i listed all work exp and research and publications

but then now i see the "describe"

idk id just copy the cv

[glacial arch]

me when im a ubc admissions committee member: "whats a cv?"

[foggy prism]

all my applications have some redundancy so i didn't care much

[glacial arch]

yeah i think thats what im going to do

[glacial arch]

valid im just burnt out rn i think

[foggy prism]

this stuff aint due for weeks u can chill for a bit

[glacial arch]

ubc is due tonight

[foggy prism]

oh wait i thought it due jan

[glacial arch]

nah LOLOLOL

guess they dont know what christmas is in canada either

[foggy prism]

i got it confused with sfu

[glacial arch]

like what are yall gonna do with my application on the 24th and 25th

[foggy prism]

i'm just hoping they dont throw it to the garbage

ibut yeah aint no way they'd be looking at it on 24th and 25th lol

[glacial arch]

me too fr

[foggy prism]

u dont have the "Please provide one example of your scholarly writing, such as a term paper or a substantial scholarly paper. See Need Help? above for Document Upload Guidelines.
File size cannot exceed 10MB. Preferred file format: PDF but can upload: BMP, DOC, DOCX, GIF, JPEG, JPG, RTF, TXT. To allow our system to process your documents, please ensure that your files are not locked via a password or PDF Document Assembly restrictions."??

[glacial arch]

oh fuck

I just realized i accidentally started a phd app instead of masters

i def dont have that tho

[foggy prism]

my masters app have "provide writing sample"

[glacial arch]

yeah its probably on the masters app lololol

[foggy prism]

might get direct entry

[glacial arch]

nah no way

[foggy prism]

maybe if u r domestic

[glacial arch]

wait just realized youre in the musa cord lolol

[foggy prism]

aint from berkeley tho

[glacial arch]

my one plug at ubc is that my faculty mentor for research last summer is tt at ubc now

[glacial arch]

this is crazy work

[foggy prism]

u from berkeley?

[glacial arch]

i go there but im not from berkeley

[foggy prism]

uoft aint so kind to internationals, maybe ubc too

[glacial arch]

yeah we'll see

[foggy prism]

uoft post data on phd admission

as far as i remember its 7% international to 40+% domestic

[glacial arch]

im p sure you're expected to get a masters first in canada tho so if a bunch of us grads are just applying with a bachelors to phd direct admit it makes sense that it'd be shit

[foggy prism]

tho i think in some canadian schools like uoft u r considered for direct phd for ur masters application

[glacial arch]

hmmm gotcha gotcha

i was going to apply to uoft earlier in the cycle but I decided not to

[foggy prism]

8% to 41%

💀

[glacial arch]

thats crazy

but tbf thats about as bad as a lot of programs in the US

so honestly not that crazy

[foggy prism]

cuz its too hard?

[foggy prism]

even ur home school berkeley is 8% to 16%

[glacial arch]

nah i was struggling to articulate why I felt like it would be a super good research fit for me

at least for like the narrative ive been going for in my apps

[foggy prism]

i make up interests for the sake of making them seem like a good fit

[blissful crystal]

yea

[glacial arch]

I have some claim to certain interests legitimately but other things are def a little more adapted

[foggy prism]

o no its so cooked im not getting no email from umich

[foggy prism]

same, and idk my interest man just lemme in and we'll find out

[glacial arch]

exactly LOLOLOL

im just trying to avoid the humiliation ritual of saying something I know nothing about

[blissful crystal]

maybe ur app hasnt been reviewed yet idk. it would be weird that they are only sending them to some people

[glacial arch]

I did submit my app p late

could also be that those are top picks for the program idk

[foggy prism]

maybe they alr ditched my app i submitted early dec i think

[blissful crystal]

naww no way 😂 that would be crazy

i would expect my app to be ditched

im not bad but nothing crazy either

[foggy prism]

my gpa is too low for umich standard

[blissful crystal]

ah 😕 maybe the other stuff u got will clutch up

my gpa is good but i go to an easy ass school lol

[foggy prism]

i also go to an easy ah school

[blissful crystal]

dang 😣 dont worry some schools will surely care more about research experience and letters prob

i think my letters are on the weaker side 😢

but it is what it is

[foggy prism]

prayge that my 3.7 ah gpa will pass some school's filter

[foggy prism]

surely its fine, u got ur research supervisors letter?

[blissful crystal]

ohh 3.7 is chills bro i think ur other stuff can carry

[foggy prism]

💀 but the thing is thats also my major gpa

[blissful crystal]

ya but still no pubs and my other research supervisor letter is lowk probably ass

i mean not bad but js standard mid

[foggy prism]

🫂 we on the same boat

[glacial arch]

I have 3.04 cumulative gpa but 3.85 major gpa

Jumpscare app

[foggy prism]

lowk my prof told me "bro we aint gonna do research, read dis book"

[blissful crystal]

well 😭😭 im sure they mostly care about the major gpa

[blissful crystal]

one of my letters writers did this to me too

[foggy prism]

hate dem mandatory electives lol

[blissful crystal]

and then i almost failed his class this fall

but then i clutched up on the final so its okay now

[blissful crystal]

trueee

i still gotta do a philosophy class or something

[foggy prism]

sucks my money away for courses i don't wanna take

[glacial arch]

I got lucky twice where my profs were like hold up this book sucks let’s work on this problem.

[foggy prism]

i bet thatd make a banger app

[glacial arch]

Despite my low gpa I think my app fits in like a weird pile

[foggy prism]

surely ud get into berkeley with a buncha berkeley prof's recommendation

[glacial arch]

Nah Berkeley is like

Notoriously bad for its undergraduates

[mossy niche]

doesnt berkeley have like this policy of accepting max 1 undergrad from berkeley

or is that just folklore

[foggy prism]

in what way? bad neighborhood?

[glacial arch]

Unless you have like a long term faculty that’s riding hard for you in the adcom they want you to go someplace else

[glacial arch]

I mean most years just no one gets in from cal

IIRC

[foggy prism]

berkeley being berkeleyphobic

is crazy

[mossy niche]

i worked on a project with the one guy who got accepted last cycle

can confirm he is cracked

[glacial arch]

I did know one applied math guy that got into cal phd after doing undergrad there

But I think he went into industry for like 2 years but was doing work with a prof on the side

Same sort of situation

[foggy prism]

one my rec letter writer has been working with a berkeley prof for a long time, whom I found out to be on the admission committee, i'm hoping it'd help but it probably woruldn't help much at all

[foggy prism]

berkeley prof?

[glacial arch]

Yee

[foggy prism]

crazy

don't know anyone who has worked with some prof for 2 years as an undergrad

[glacial arch]

He did it after graduating

Free labor type

[foggy prism]

Ah

[blissful crystal]

i cant even apply to berkeley my gre score is embarrassingly low 😭

[foggy prism]

how many times did u take it

[glacial arch]

I decided to not take it ngl

[foggy prism]

i feel like they have a pity system where the more u take it the easier they get

[glacial arch]

The only school that required it on my list was Cornell

[foggy prism]

so u ditched that?

[blissful crystal]

only twixe

[glacial arch]

Yeee

[blissful crystal]

and i coulsnt even clear 60th

[glacial arch]

Idk I feel like it’s just a waste of time

[foggy prism]

me too, i found it much easier the second time

although who in their right mind is going to do fast calculus computation for phd

[blissful crystal]

it rlly was, i was trying to do research but then i js had to study for the test and idk i didnt study all that well tbh

[glacial arch]

This is why I didn’t take it, I’d rather focus on research exp

[foggy prism]

yeah the whole requiring a gre thing feels kinda dumb

[mossy niche]

i agree

[foggy prism]

for language requirement i can get it, but for subject test

[mossy niche]

otoh its probably why i am a phd student

because my school requires the mgre

so less competition

[blissful crystal]

😭😭😭😭😭

I’m sad cuz i wanted to stay in cali but idk why the cali schools are obsessed with the gre

tragic fr

[foggy prism]

some hidden gems in illinois u should try

[blissful crystal]

which? i already applied for uhhh uiuc and uchicago (lol)

[foggy prism]

like there are some ppl at UIC with exceptional publications

[glacial arch]

While that’s probably true

I think you have to keep standard career outcomes in mind

At least like that’s what my mentors have drilled into me

[foggy prism]

im just aiming for the tenure stuff, idk if working with a notable prof outweighs the uni you go to

get into uoft to catch tsimerman's fame

[glacial arch]

I worry about prestige bias even in that case

Like one of my advisors was practically begging me to apply to UMich even though I felt I was p underqualified in the raw applicant pool.

[foggy prism]

they must've written u a good letter

[glacial arch]

But his reasoning makes sense with the prestige bias in mind

[foggy prism]

yeah idk how much prestige bias is in play rn

does ubc fall into the prestigious category?

[glacial arch]

It’s also his own personal connections too in this instance

I can’t really speak to it tbh

[foggy prism]

im looking at my prof's schools and its harvard harvard berkeley etc

[blissful crystal]

yea i mean i think to get tenure u should rlly be having good advisor from good school

its so hard now

and it gets harder every year

[glacial arch]

Yeah I think that’s the general advice

[blissful crystal]

and for industry exit better prestige is better prob

so all in all

[foggy prism]

i can only sorta ensure the former, never the latter

its so cooked

[blissful crystal]

yea its so rough

[glacial arch]

Like I’m not necessarily wholly prestige chasing in my applications but I think it’s wise to reach as high as you can fathom and allow yourself room to land someplace you’ll still be happy at.

[foggy prism]

about to be a hs math teacher at this rate

[blissful crystal]

yea me too

[glacial arch]

One of my profs was saying that private school math teacher jobs are $$$$

[blissful crystal]

man 😭😭 i gotta figure sumthn out during grad school (if i get in)

[foggy prism]

some uni do have "lecturer" jobs but idk how hard that is

ik someone who got that in my own uni after completing a phd there

[foggy prism]

searched for a couple more prof and the worst i got was stony brook (all others are ivys, mit or berkeley), and that is also really good

[glacial pendant]

did you happen to submit your app pretty early?

i think i submitted mine a week or two early idk

im wondering if theyre just filing through the apps rn, it's just weird cause their website says you can choose to email them your grades instead of the other way around

[foggy prism]

i submitted my app on the 7th but no info so far

[foggy prism]

do u know the specific date?

[glacial pendant]

lemme check one sec

[glacial arch]

I submitted my app on the 14th I think

[foggy prism]

did u get the email?

[glacial pendant]

11/29, but my last LOR was submitted on 12/3 and then i was messaged on 12/22

[glacial arch]

Nah

My last lor was submitted on the 16th tho

[glacial pendant]

this is so agonizing lol i wish this were like undergrad where the release dates were known

[foggy prism]

i urged all my lor writers to submit before dec 1st and im glad they (barely) made the deadline

[foggy prism]

well hope we'll get the email in a week of so

and i'm gonna tell them no

[glacial arch]

I mean I think it’s p regularly like feb-April that schools get released

[glacial pendant]

i think that a lot come out in jan

[tacit lark]

Thats how it works if youre at a reasonably good school

[glacial arch]

It looks like people started hearing back in Jan last year

That’s when they closed the channel

[glacial pendant]

they closed it when people started hearing back? why was that

[blissful crystal]

nope

i submitted probably like 25 minutes before it was due

[glacial arch]

oop

[foggy prism]

i think its when most applications are done. But on the other hand boonn starts in april and ends in may lol

[glacial arch]

i think this channel is only open briefly during the year

[glacial arch]

but its for people to not spiral and compare themselves

if im not mistaken

[glacial pendant]

that's unfortunate, it would be useful to be able to talk about grad app stuff while decisions are coming out, re: interviews and such

[glacial arch]

do most schools interview?

[glacial pendant]

i kind of think as adults it is our responsibility to control the media we consume, etc., so the onus of blocking off this channel doesn't feel like it's on the moderators. but i'd respect it if they chose to 🤷‍♂️

[foggy prism]

yeah itd also be helpful if ppl can help decide schools

[glacial pendant]

no, I don't think so. but i think umich does?

[glacial arch]

on one hand i agree but also i kind of respect it on the other hand

people get so wrapped up in ts lolol

if you guys want to make a discord gc to discuss admits/when decisions come out I wouldn't mind

[glacial pendant]

definitely, i mean i feel like i'm pretty wrapped up in it haha

yeah, perhaps there's a way to decentralize it from the math server idk

[glacial arch]

i was wrapped up in it but then the stress of finals kinda dissipated it

[glacial pendant]

that's good!

now that courses are over and it's winter break i feel like i have a lot of time on my hands to think about this stuff

[glacial arch]

idk im kinda more butthurt that im spending more time finishing apps and emailing profs than i am working on the real project that im actually working on rn

[glacial arch]

yeah it'll probably start getting to me soon also tho

[blissful crystal]

i mean honestly wouldnt it look weird to not send your grades

[glacial pendant]

no i mean like

on their website they say you can choose to email US if you want to share your grades with us

but instead they emailed us

which feels superfluous

[glacial arch]

as soon as I get my grades back i plan on sending it in anyways

[blissful crystal]

ohh

i mean the email technically said "has requested" so i guess it is still just a request

[glacial pendant]

i guess maybe a reason they'd be interestd in my performance is i was taking 3 grad classes in a quarter for the first time?

idk

bruh

[blissful crystal]

wait me too 😂😂

first time taking grad courses altogether too

[glacial pendant]

maybe that's it 🤷‍♂️ i have taken grad classes last year though

i have a pretty strong academic record, so maybe they just wanted to see if i kept it up idk

i wish i had more insight 😭

[blissful crystal]

yea i mean probably js want more info on us, more to judge us on

[unkempt willow]

lock in gng

[blissful crystal]

who are u

[unkempt willow]

take that tag off u dont deserve it😡

[blissful crystal]

[unkempt willow]

@blissful crystal

[blissful crystal]

???????

[foggy prism]

typically when is the deadline to commit? does it usually vary (for a fixed school in a fixed year) based on day you get accepted (like a month after acceptance or somethin like that)?

[shell kindle]

In the US there is a standardized deadline of April 15 iirc that only a few schools stray from

[karmic widget]

Hey I am new here, I am a master's level student in India. I am interested in C* algebra and might be picking it up as my thesis topic.
I am planning next summer's internship in graph C* algebra, are you guys aware of any portals/programs/researchers I can have an eye out for?
Any and all suggestions are appreciated

Sorry if this is not the correct channel, would be great if someone can guide me to the correct channel in that case

[worthy peak]

what is the job market for dynamical systems or optimal control specialists like these days (in and outside academia)

i assume there are still a lot of industry applications

[livid shore]

Pendulum expert

[worthy peak]

also im feeling quite down on my chances again

already submitted my first few applications and idk what to do exactly

(actually that said are you able to update your transcript with december grades)

[shell kindle]

You can email your updated transcript to schools yes

[shell kindle]

There’s a fair amount of optimal control stuff in robotics I think

[worthy peak]

it's my first exposure to the area

[sage harbor]

Is it appropriate to quote papers in your SoP?

[shell kindle]

You can cite a paper and have a list of references if you want

[real vessel]

i got my GRE math subject test score just a few weeks after taking it, and at least one of my four score recipients lists it as received; should I be worried that the other three schools still list on their application portals that they haven't gotten it? i don't see why there should be a discrepancy

[hidden sleet]

I think it takes a bit of time to match up scores on the universities end

[shell kindle]

Why don't you email the grad admissions emails and ask

[blissful crystal]

should this be filled out? usually if they ask for other schools I applied to i list a few schools of similar ranking and move on, but this one is asking "in preferred rank order" which honestly is kinda crazy. Like should I put northwestern first? (This is on the northwestern app)

[past axle]

I have been advised to not fill it out

[mossy niche]

my advisor told me to just be honest or don't fill it out, it doesn't really matter

[visual lagoon]

Maybe also try asking in #advanced-lounge

[foggy prism]

i had one school who said “whats ur ranking of this school among the school u applied to, and i said 1.”. technically for this question the school didnt ask u to list all the schools

there is another school that asked whats schools u r applying too, i entered mostly low ranked school and school that are very good matches

[blissful crystal]

whats the point of asking these types of questions fr

[glacial pendant]

I think I read that they ask that to figure out which schools are “comparable” to them for their own insight

[outer reef]

i think i listed schools with strong groups in areas similar to what i said i was interested in on my SOP

in hopes of conveying that i was broadly aware of the field i indicated i wanted to work on

but idk what the right strategy is

[thin echo]

That seems smart

[hard pebble]

Just got accepted for my #2 choice of phd program. The only caveat is that they want me to accept by January 16th, which is before I even interview for my #1 choice. Any recommendations on what to do? (I will probably email them to ask if I can extend it, but not sure how this will be received)

[rocky dome]

I was in a similar situation (the deadline to accept was before I was to be told if I was given a place). I would thank them and say I'm interested in accepting but I wondered if it might be possible to extend by a few weeks for [...]. I guess here it is a bit awkward because I suppose you don't even know when you should hear back from ur 1st choice?

Sorry to hear though (but congrats on the offer!)

[outer reef]

you could also email your first choice and ask for an update/timeline

or to move the interview sooner? idk

[wind plinth]

people are already hearing back from places?? im guessing you're not in US because whattt

[blissful crystal]

no fr its not even jan yet

[glacial cedar]

yeah I still have 3 schools that arent even due yet

actually no this looks right. My interview last year was early january

[foggy prism]

even then what school comes out in late dec

[wind plinth]

2 for me

[foggy prism]

5 for me

[trail vigil]

is this for a pure math program?

[hard pebble]

yes

in the UK

[foggy prism]

direct phd?

they do that?

[hard pebble]

british masters exist but (compared to where we went to school, since we know each other from UG) cover only like 3rd/4th year material, so most Canadians if applying to UK should apply direct to phd

and only require UG in admissions

[foggy prism]

oh shoot

💀 ive done messed up then

[main aspen]

Where in the UK is giving out offers this early???
Most of the deadlines either haven’t passed, or passed just before Christmas (and I doubt they were doing enough work to make offers since then)

[hard pebble]

UCL

[main aspen]

London L 🙃
But ok yeah I know someone who had an interview with them in early Dec so it figures

[foggy prism]

💀 nvm there is still 8 days until application deadline i can try

although it might be bad to ask prof at this time to submit another recom at this time

[trail vigil]

I did the same thing too dw, just preface it by "I understand if its last minute..." blah blah blah

[urban raft]

Most places would be happy to give an extension of at least a a week or two

[urban raft]

In the case of UCL, a lot of their admissions is through LSGNT, which is notoriously slow, so I don't think they would have any major issues?

I guess the question is funding, if funding is pending you can often just delay for a while lol

If funding is offered then there's a bit more of a rush

But this is a very common situation to be in, and I'm sure they'll understand

(I was also in a very similar situation lol)

[rocky dome]

Lol I wondered this too

[urban raft]

To some extent, giving out early offers means they get better students. Say you know someone is very likely to get an offer from (for the sake of argument) Oxford or Cambridge. Then giving them an offer before end of Jan makes it more likely they'll go and work with you.

[main aspen]

Does it make it more likely?
My second choice giving me an early offer would’ve resulted in a lot of discussions, but I’m not sure it would’ve ended with me going there
But also it can easily end in the situation of like
“I’d rather take my chances, so thanks for the offer but no thanks”
As opposed to “hey, can we push the deadline to decide back?”

[urban raft]

Ig in this hypothetical scenario, if they gave an offer later, then you would not go there at all

[urban raft]

That would require UK unis to do the (in my opinion sensible thing) of letting the department and not the central uni decide on funding

I asked someone at Cambridge about this, he thought the current system isn't great, but there's too much politics for anything to change

[empty oak]

@neat notch hey so if you're trying to get banned you can literally just dm modmail and ask, you don't have to do what you're doing. just saying.

[hidden warren]

anyone know how and why i got pinged?

[soft dagger]

yea i got pinged too

[scarlet barn]

Just applied to northwestern yesterday

[glacial cedar]

Did you change your "why [school]" section of your SOP when applying to the school you went to undergrad for? (besides the normal stuff you change for each school)

[scarlet barn]

I had a unique "why" section for every school

[glacial pendant]

I did not, I edited the professors and lightly edited the areas/subfields I discuss in that section based on that

I also briefly mention DRP but almost every school had that

[scarlet barn]

DRP?

[glacial pendant]

This was primarily due to burnout, if I had more time now, I would edit more, since over winter break i read a lot more about professors’ work

[glacial cedar]

yeah this is what I did. But it feels weird for my alma mater since like I have connections with these profs and feel like I should say thats a big reason for applying there too

[glacial pendant]

Directed reading program, where undergrads are mentored by grad students

I have an interest in pedagogy so it was relevant to me

[glacial pendant]

Honestly, I feel like probably much of the decision for whether you get into your Alma mater is probably non-application based

[scarlet barn]

I see

[glacial pendant]

Considering that at least one person on the committee probably knows u as a student or researcher very well

[scarlet barn]

I tried to find things on the schools website that stood out to me as well as some of the recent work that the people I want to work with have been doing

[glacial pendant]

This is great, btw — I hope that extra effort pays off! I know the Uminnesota admissions director commented on stack exchange saying that students who express genuine interest are placed higher

[scarlet barn]

I didnt go into detail about it but I mentioned how what they were doing tied into what I wanted to do

[glacial pendant]

That’s a great idea, since you avoid going into the weeds and potentially saying smth wrong but also emphasize the relevance of your work

[scarlet barn]

I mean I have some hurdles I need to jump lol. Like my gpa and um.... maybe one or two C's (in upper math)

I need everything to flawless if I can

[glacial pendant]

I suppose we all have our application weaknesses, but I hope that you putting in the legwork for the application itself helps overcome that!

I took a quarter off and didn’t mention it at all in my application, so I too have some potentially suspicious stuff going on in my transcript

[scarlet barn]

Thanks

[scarlet barn]

I hate that you even have to think about that counting against you :,)

Like sometimes you need a break

BUT

BUT

[glacial pendant]

It’s crazy to think that some decisions are coming out in the next few weeks 😭

[scarlet barn]

The app season is over!

Well not entirely

I am still applying for post bachs

if I can find them

[glacial pendant]

Yeah it sucks that there is a potential prejudice about this, but I feel content with what I did and grateful that it’s over for me!

Ooh good luck!!

[glacial cedar]

There was one school (i forget which) that I applied to that let you submit a small essay explaining any gaps in your application

I think it was maybe UMD?

[scarlet barn]

UMD?

[glacial cedar]

University of Maryland

[glacial pendant]

I feel like I kind of come off a little whiny if I talk about it, because taking that quarter off wrecked my ability to take advanced graduate courses since grad courses occur in “series”

[scarlet barn]

oooh

[glacial pendant]

So like I took measure theory but then couldn’t do functional 1 or 2, and thus can’t take PDE this year

[glacial pendant]

Omg I applied there too!

[scarlet barn]

I almost did

but they didnt give me a feewaiver :(

[glacial cedar]

Its hard to find the balance between explaining and making excuses. I struggled with that a bit because I had a huge time commitment from being an athlete, so I didn't do undergraduate research (doing it now during MS)

[glacial pendant]

Wait also your bio isn’t a reference to the false proof of the four color theorem by Kempe, is it?

[scarlet barn]

I only applied for places that I could get a free application to

[scarlet barn]

naurp

[glacial pendant]

Yeah, I tried to talk briefly about challenges in my personal statement then go into more detail about how I grew from them and why I think that’s relevant to adcoms

[scarlet barn]

wait my bio? Or like my status?

[glacial pendant]

About me! The 10 years thing

[scarlet barn]

My status was because i was taking differential topology this semester and I was a child and a half

[glacial pendant]

It took 11 years for Kempe’s proof to be shown wrong

[scarlet barn]

It's an Eisten quote I believe?

[glacial pendant]

OMG I took diff geo this quarter and it was rough for me

[scarlet barn]

I could be wrong about that

[scarlet barn]

Okay so like smooth manifolds and functions are fine

But

VECTOR FIELDS

😭 🔫

[glacial pendant]

Every vector field on compact manifold admits a flow from R ‼️

[scarlet barn]

Like I still need to go back over the theory because it was just so like WHAT IS GOING ON????

[scarlet barn]

okay but it's so cool how many applications it has!

[glacial pendant]

That was a crazy class for me and I do wish I didn’t take it because it was way too hard for my level of mental stability LOL, but oh my gosh was it so interesting

Yeah I marvel at how useful compactness is in diff geo, also how nice Lie groups are

[scarlet barn]

Like I opened Wald's GR book and the diffeomorphism group associated with the vector fields was the first thing that came up!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so hyped

[glacial pendant]

Omg I love when stuff synthesizes nicely likr that

[scarlet barn]

I legit want to sit in on my schools GR class this semester

[glacial pendant]

I play quizbowl and diff geo comes up so often so it’s very exciting to be able to use that knowledge in a silly way

Sard’s theorem guarantees that this function evaluates to zero—BUZZ LEBESGUE MEASURE

[glacial pendant]

Oohhh

I’m considering sitting in on a gradient flows class

[scarlet barn]

I think part of my struggle with diff top was out of analysis and algebra, analysis is my weaker muscle and so I need to exercise it a bit more lol

[glacial pendant]

Yeah, for me the linear algebra and multivariable calc was tough—I was always pretty weak at those

Seeing the Jacobian so many times freaked me out 😭

[glacial cedar]

shoot I just noticed a big error in my SOP. Should I reach out to schools with an updated version? What should I do?

its only a one sentence change so I hope that its not a huge deal but it is a technical error

[glacial pendant]

I would find it hard to imagine any school would reject you for trying to update your SOP, so I don’t think there’s a risk, but I would see maybe what your advisor thinks?

[wind plinth]

2 more for me, jan 10 and 15

[glacial cedar]

Jan 5 and 15 for me

[smoky jetty]

post bach for math?

that's a thing?

[mossy niche]

yes

[wind plinth]

i knew a guy doin one at my school, seems rare but definitely a thing haha

[inner grove]

Yeah, it's not super common. It can be a good thing, as it's shorter than a MS, usually costs less, and can get you a letter if you're just missing one

[inner grove]

https://math.tufts.edu/academics/graduate-programs/post-baccalaureate-certificate

Here is one example, that I am not necessarily advocating for, but just linking

A good case of a post-bacc in math would be doing a degree in engineering or physics, but wanting to switch over to math

[mossy niche]

you get the PhD stipend if you do the northwestern postbacc

[scarlet barn]

I wanna get into the post back so badly for north western

Does anyone know where to find these btw?

[vestal harness]

I'm an ug. I got 75% in my UofT graduate course (Quantum Mechanics). Is it a poor performance when being reviewed by PhD math program committees?

[scarlet barn]

They wont care as much about quantum mechanics. However, better performance in the follow up could potentially help?

[vestal harness]

Thanks.
I was afraid as I had gotten 75% previously in another grad pure math course.

[scarlet barn]

what class was it? and how is your overal gpa if I may ask?

[vestal harness]

Infinite Dimensional Analysis and Differential Geometry

No gpa

[scarlet barn]

Ic ic and had you had any topology before hand?

[vestal harness]

Nah

[scarlet barn]

It is really helpful. Like having a very strong graphs of point set topology, metric spaces, and analysis helps with geometry. Have you had differential topology?

[blissful crystal]

whats the intended target student for these programs

[lone vessel]

was mentioned here

[blissful crystal]

like if i have a few grad courses but nothing crazy is that chills

ahh i see

[mossy niche]

northwestern takes a decent amount of math students

usually from schools that arent known for math

[vestal harness]

Nah.j
Just brushed through these topics...not taken in a formal setting.

[blissful crystal]

its the causeway program?

[mossy niche]

yes

[gentle basin]

me when im trying to submit my application but it says “the 12 jan deadline has passed” despite (a) the deadline being today the 5th and (b) the actual deadline not having passed

[foggy prism]

system forgot a year has passed

[coral fjord]

anyone have any idea when interview invites go out usually?

[main aspen]

Where in the world?

[coral fjord]

America

[scarlet barn]

Does anyone know any winter programs I could apply to for 2026 in canada?

Also completely different question

does anyone know how hard it is to get into cambridge part III?

[paper granite]

It’s a pretty competitive programme, but like, just apply

It’s impossible if you don’t

[main aspen]

There's stats online

[paper granite]

None of us are on the admissions team so we can’t really tell you more than that

[scarlet barn]

I've looked and I've heard different things about how hard it is to get in

[scarlet barn]

Fair enough

[main aspen]

Here's the hard numbers

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/admission_statistics_for_part_ii_4

[scarlet barn]

At least it isnt like

5%

like most of these look near 30-50% of applicants

[main aspen]

It seems to be similar to undergrad admissions recently (ie 1/3 get offers, 1/2 of those attend)
Although I suspect the bottleneck is more funding or choosing to go elsewhere than offer requirements

[scarlet barn]

I just saw that the deadline for funding is in 2 days and I wouldnt be able to ask reccomenders in enough time :,)

[main aspen]

Yeah at this point it's a little late in the cycle in the UK to only just be deciding now to do postgrad stuff

[dire brook]

I've heard you should be in the top 5-10% of your cohort (obviously uni dependent).

It's obviously competitive, but also they do take like 200 outside students

[main aspen]

It's also interesting to see the internal statistics
But those ones largely line up with what I'd expect (ie, pretty much any maths student making a good faith application gets in)

[scarlet barn]

and I oop :,)

[rocky dome]

Unless you are at cambridge i guess

[main aspen]

Cambridge is automatic progression for top 30%, recommended progression for the next 10(ish)% formally
Tbh a lot of this (and a lot of weirdness of part iii in general) probably comes from the fact that in ye olden days it (well, its direct predecessor) wasn’t really a masters in the sense we’d understand it today, and iirc there weren’t even a meaningful amount of people from outside Cambridge doing it until like the 80s or 90s

[rocky dome]

Interesting hm

[blissful crystal]

surely this is only for top schools

[spring isle]

Is there some kind of masterlist or resource dedicated to US students looking to find fully funded research opportunities overseas? I’m interested in math specifically, preferably a Master’s instead of a PhD.

I found 3 opportunities through ProFellow. I looked at pathways to science and found nothing.

[wheat grove]

im a bit nervous, how high is the gpa requirement usually for grad schools

i had a pretty bad last sem, and it messed up my gpa (no Cs or anything, just not great)

my overall GPA is aroung 3.65 and my major GPA is like 3.78 (on a 4.0 scale, where A and A+ are weighed the same)

[spring portal]

Most schools I know enforce a cut-off of 3.0 or 3.5, so 3.65 is not the end of the world. If your other parts of applications are good, you will be fine.

[void horizon]

could be much lower for certain master's programs (mine has a minimum 2.5 GPA requirement)

[wheat grove]

alright, thats good to hear

im not hoping to get into anywhere particularily great, I dont think Im good enough for that

my reach is U of T but I doubt ill get in lol

[spring portal]

one can hope

[wheat grove]

yeah

honestly if I could do it again id probably go easier

i was taking like 4 math courses a semester lmfao

and a bunch of crosslisted courses I didnt need to at once

[spring portal]

my reach is EPFL, but as a non-EU i dont know if i have a shot

[wheat grove]

good luck

[spring portal]

and to you too

[wheat grove]

thanks

I hope my referenece letters and personal statement will help me out

i feel like i have decent research experience, even though I didnt get any publications out of it

the professors seemed to think they went well

[spring portal]

if you are a domestic applicant you are likely going somewhere for sure

[wheat grove]

yeah

im applying to canadian schools in canada lol

i dont really wanna leave the country

[spring portal]

makes sense

canada has some solid places too

i applied to UofT but i doubt i am getting in

[foggy prism]

domestic?

dom have a really good shot

[spring portal]

international

[foggy prism]

yeah its otherwise more selective than some top schools in the us

[spring portal]

[lofty plover]

wat i didnt know mathematical stats was this popular

[main aspen]

Mathematical stats is the “I would prefer to do stats/probability” option

[lofty plover]

How does it have more than all of pure math/applied math

[blissful crystal]

quant finance

i imagine

[livid shore]

My main recommender who has also been advising me on my applications never told me that I should email professors about potentially working with them, or that I'm applying

but I've been seeing/hearing about a lot of other people doing that before/while they apply

and I am wondering if I should also? or not?

[mossy niche]

no

you are american

[livid shore]

Indeed I am

[main aspen]

It’s a thing that happens in Europe because you’re generally applying to work with a specific person (or a couple of people cosupervising you)

[glacial arch]

idk I've had multiple faculty tell me to write emails to faculty that I want to work with

[tacit lark]

Doesnt hurt but i dont think it helps much.

[marsh zealot]

I wouldn't be surprised if the response rates for those types of emails are worse than the actual acceptance rates lol

[glacial arch]

ive gotten a p fair number of positive responses

[lone vessel]

it depends on the faculty and area. i know at least within cs many professors have explicit instructions on their website regarding whether/how students should reach out, but it’s usually not required since admissions are typically made by committee

[blissful crystal]

the problem is unless those profs r part of the adcom they probably dont have any say on whats going on

or only a very slight say

[foggy prism]

but if there are that many positive response, by pure chance theres probably some that are on the adcom

it couldnt hurt

[blissful crystal]

naw ya it def cant hurt

[glacial pendant]

someone on gradcafe got uchicago acceptance 👀

[smoky jetty]

lmao this dude checking gradcafe

[glacial pendant]

well.

im not sure what the purpose of that message was

[foggy prism]

we do be desperate

[smoky jetty]

Don't check gradcafe

Or the math grad one

Useless sites

[blissful crystal]

i not getting into there so i wont be checking fr

[foggy prism]

not for acceptance rates but for decision dates they seems fairly useful. Like mathematicgre forum etc

also for mathematicsgre forum in particular you can look at others stats

ive found it helpful

[subtle geode]

if I said I had submitted somewhere (of notable prestige) in my SOP and the manuscript ended up getting rejected, albeit with positive feedback, how bad does it look?

[foggy prism]

they rejected your SOP? thats a thing? what does that mean?

OH submitted preprint

nvm

why not say it's as a preprint

[subtle geode]

well said it was a preprint submitted to [x]

[foggy prism]

Ah, did you submit to other journals?

[subtle geode]

well not yet

but i assume that if the letters of rec (two of which talk about the preprint) can verify the quality of the work then it shouldn't be too bad right

[foggy prism]

i feel like you should ask your professors (rec letters writers) since they prob have some exp as committee member probably.

i dont even know if you check your preprint at all

idk how "submitted to [x], rejected" will look on an application

me personally, i put "preprint" rather than "submitted but rejected"

[subtle geode]

well i already put submitted

like i already submitted my applications

and the preprint was rejected after i submitted my application

[foggy prism]

oh then it doesn't matter, just dont tell them lol

unless they ask

[burnt umbra]

for the cambridge part iii, is it typical to apply to grad schools during that fall or have an offer for grad schools before attending part iii?

[wide cosmos]

You would have to defer admission no? Because all of the grad apps ive seen were for the 2026/27 academic year, so it would coincide with part iii

idt it's possible to apply two years in advance, so I think you have to apply while in part iii, and you won't have necessarily completed the program/gotten results yet

[burnt umbra]

yeah, I guess I was just wondering if it would be worth it to apply again or defer admission

But that's also dependent on if I get into part iii

[muted furnace]

I think i've met ppl with both situations

[primal pollen]

One of the universities im applying to (Bonn) ask for an example of academic work such as a bachelors thesis as part of the application documents if available. I have not yet completed my bachelors thesis because my programme doesnt require it to be done for another month or so: would it be fine to upload a draft or should I just not upload it at all? I'm not entirely sure how much weight this holds in my application

[paper granite]

Im pretty sure I just uploaded my very rough draft last year, with a page at the front explaining exactly what youve just said. (Mine wasnt due until like march or something)

It could be any other completed work youre proud of though

[wheat grove]

thank god

im an absolute idiot

who cant add

my gpa is actually like 3.8 we chilling

[primal pollen]

awesome, thank you

[primal pollen]

i have nothing else 😭

[median sage]

The only thing that matters is that you have handed in all the documents before the beginning of the lecture period of the semester you want to study in

[primal pollen]

what do you mean?

[median sage]

In my case, I got into Bonn this semester. For that I handed in my complete degree on the 28th September and the absolute deadline was the 30th. The lectures period started on the first of october

[primal pollen]

Oh I see, congratulations

But thats to be done once youve received an offer right?

[median sage]

So... if collected your degree before the 30th of March, you will be fine.

[primal pollen]

Well I graduate in June, but I should have everything long before the semester begins

[median sage]

The one in the master application forum? Yeah, you don't have to add in the academic work by that point

[primal pollen]

Yeah I'm applying for masters

they did mention the thesis explicitly, which is why I was wondering

id rather put up a draft than put up nothing at all but I was just curious how much weight it holds in my application

compared to the main material such as transcripts and reference letters

[median sage]

These (probably) aren't read by any math professors

[primal pollen]

But I think ill just follow Nope's advice and put up a draft with a warning that it is a draft

[primal pollen]

yeah thats probably the case

[median sage]

Just pure german bureaucracy to check for formal requirements

[primal pollen]

I see I see

Ok thats reassuring then thank you

[median sage]

By the application stage I had a bunch of credits point missing anyways and I just gave them the current average at that point and a mention of thesis being in the works.

Really they only care about

1. It being plausible that you can finish within the deadlines.
2. You don't fall over the local grade of a 2.7

(That's a GPA of <3, if the minimum GPA for getting your degree is 2)

[blissful crystal]

is bonn a strong masters for us phd apps after too?

[primal pollen]

Yeah I read something about open admissions, but I've heard they tend be selective when considering international applicants considering the subjectivity in comparing foreign requirements to german ones

[median sage]

after too?

[blissful crystal]

my bad my question is is Bonn considered a strong masters for US Phds too

[median sage]

It is a really strong place overall, but especially so if you do algebraic geometry and also decent spot for topology

[blissful crystal]

i also read this, but i think u can find the explicit requirements somewhere. like classes they have expected u to have taken and stuff

i guess u can just compare it with your degree to see if you "qualify"

[primal pollen]

https://www.mathematics.uni-bonn.de/studium/medienordner-studium-1/dateien/dokumente/bscmath-vorlesungsinhalte-en.pdf yeah they have this on their website

[blissful crystal]

ur US phd wont last as long if u do a masters would it not

3-4 years

y would it still be 5 years if youve taken 2 years worth of courses

[median sage]

I meet some people who are now doing several bachelor level courses during their masters, because of local differences in what the degrees cover. I don't think they are too careful tbh

[glacial cedar]

U sure? Qwertytrewqs username is terry tao and why would they lie

[glacial cedar]

Most schools don’t transfer masters credits (from what I’ve heard)

[median sage]

That's more like a recommended background

Several of the listed modules are even taken by master students

[primal pollen]

Yeah I'm not too worried about the academic requirements regardless, theyre fortunately very clear about what they want

[blissful crystal]

so do u just take algebra I all over again

no way that makes sense

[primal pollen]

although some of the courses listed on there are absurd imo

[median sage]

Which ones caught your eyes?

[primal pollen]

topology 2 was a little shocking ive never heard of higher homotopy groups being included in an undergrad curriculum

[median sage]

I am not sure anyone in the program has that list covered. But if you already "specialized" you will have covered the baseline + several of the fancier courses in the list.

These are vague guidelines for what the course should cover. They won't cover much on higher homotopy groups

Stuff like steenrod algebras and adams spectral sequence to compute higher homotopy groups is part of the masters level of curriculum

[primal pollen]

Yeah that makes more sense

[median sage]

(Altho, apparently Schwede is including at least the former in the current alg top I)

The documentation is a fever dream, if you read too much into it

Imo, the bigger priority should be to improve your ball throwing and chugging skills

[blissful crystal]

do you need to know much german?

[median sage]

For the program? No. All courses you want to take (even the advanced bachelor ones) are in english.

For living, not really. But there is a ton of international students over here and most don't speak a lick of german and manage fine.

Altho, if you want to find work you will have a hard time without speaking german. Tutor work at the university is also a bit unlikely, since most available options for new master students are beginner (and hence german speaking) courses

[blissful crystal]

ohh very good info thank u

[foggy prism]

dont reveal my secret

[thorn vortex]

I have question related to continued fraction because soon I’m going to begin my bachelor thesis is it ok if I send you private message or channel here where I could send you a message. Sorry for pinging you! Or someone else who has background regarding this topic and krylov complexity

[hasty island]

This is not the correct channel for this.

[thorn vortex]

can you tell me which channel is the good one

[fresh kindle]

<@&268886789983436800> spam

[worthy peak]

feeling very down

my application to the msc program at my current school got voided bc one of my recommenders didnt submit their letter in time (tbf it only sent letters after submitting the main application and i submitted late)

also my chances overall are not great, my grades arent there

i guess if my origjnal plan was msc math -> phd in states, not necessarily in math

maybe applying to direct phd next year (6 year undergrad lol) ill have okay chances

[hexed ibex]

When you get in you’ll be able to take quals

If someone studied at all during masters he should be able to pass those

which will cut about a year of phd

[foggy prism]

for europe application ive been told you should talk to the prof you are interested in working with. But the dude is at IAS rn for a year: should i email their IAS email or their institution email

💀 the only 3 emails ive sent to us/europe prof who did not respond are all at IAS rn idk if it is a coincidence

[tacit lark]

You can copy one just in case

Not a big deal

[wind plinth]

submitted my last app 😤

[gentle basin]

p sure my only remaining apps are masters apps 😃

[rose spear]

I just realised I could have asked for help writing my CV here and cover letter seeing as I have 0.5 experience with either

[smoky jetty]

yea feel free to ask me for CV feedback

I've done a bit of that here

[past plume]

Yeah,its always good to have other eyes look at your materials

[rose spear]

Ive already submitted, but I can share for future research positions

[final yarrow]

what masters programs in europe would be recommended for someone going into algebra/representation theory? i'm already applying to cambridge, oxford and bonn and have made applications to american phds but was wondering if there are any good masters programs i've missed

[past torrent]

i saw that modping please dont delete it

[indigo gorge]

a ghost!

[indigo gorge]

smh I scrolled up and reacted to this modping instinctively

[quaint chasm]

@late rose pls dont delete modpings, ghost pings only serve to confuse us

[late rose]

no someone is spamming some pictures and I ping you but after he deletes pictures so I delete my ping

sorry

[dusky drift]

All good you'll know next time

[quaint chasm]

they were deleted bc i banned them. its still good to keep the ping so mods dont get confused what youre reporting

[glacial cedar]

How common would you say interviews are for TCS in the US

I’m nervous that not getting one this week means not likely to get an acceptance

[tacit lark]

They are reasonably common, but some places/faculty dont do them.

[tacit lark]

This is ridiculous. My earliest interviews were in late january or early february and ik many people that didnt get interviews or acceptances until much later than that.

[main aspen]

Not necessarily ridiculous
If you’re applying to Europe places, or know people who are, a lot of them are starting to give out interviews either last week or in the next couple

[tacit lark]

Good to clarify that my comment is for US schools. Also, from previous convos ik Sknoll is applying to at least some US schools.

[main aspen]

(Ik, my point is more like
“Because other places are doing it, it is not unreasonable to at least ask if the US typically does it that way”)

[glacial cedar]

Yeah i only applied in US. Just was nervous cuz i got my interview last year the first week of January and my girlfriend got her first today

[main aspen]

While it’s all Europe, the same principal holds of like
I’m getting interviews for places my friends applied while they’re not yet and vice versa, and that means nothing at this point

[wind plinth]

im not gonna start worrying until the end of March. if i havent heard anything from anyone by then, my back-up plan'll kick in

[paper granite]

Yeah I’m the same, I know that some places I’ve applied haven’t even started looking at applications ever mind sending out interviews

Until like mid February, march there’s no point worrying

[rotund hill]

How common is it to stay at the same university for a masters/ PhD? Im at a university in Australia, with a math department that i think is pretty good. I know alot of the people, and half the department does research in my interest(Algebraic Geometry). Should i be looking elsewhere though?

[pearl isle]

i think this depends on the university

the undergrad i went to basically never accepts their undergrads back for a phd without at least doing a masters somewhere else first (this is the US so masters isn't a requirement for a PhD)

I was kinda bitter abt that

in fact i was very bitter abt that

but i know some universities it's quite common (eg I've heard uChicago generally has no qualms about it, especially for their undergrads that do their reu. Though could be wrong abt that)

so you really have to ask around

[rotund hill]

Yep, that makes sense.

Australia has a bit of a weird system; we have 3 year bachelors, and you can choose to add on a honours year to made it equivalent to the standard US/EU 4 year degree.

If you want a PhD, you need either Honours, or a Masters.

I definitely see my university commonly lets people come back, I can see nearly all the staff actually graduated from my particular university. Maybe half have gone and done postgraduate degrees elsewhere, then came back.

[pearl isle]

Well looking at peoples’ previous degrees is probably your best answer.

[mossy niche]

ive heard that you should aim for 95%+ on your honours thesis for consideration into the t20 us schools, but im not sure whether staying at your university is easier.

[paper granite]

At my UG it was really common, a lot of the PhD students did their UG there. The concern I guess is that you do less networking/see fewer perspectives etc. but like I think its fine

[urban raft]

In the UK in general it's very common

[dapper sluice]

Hi guys im new here, currently applying to applied math phds on a gap year and waiting on results. Does anyone have any advice on how to spend the downtime? I have research I can work on but I'm tired of working for free now that my applications are submitted, I have been trying to read more non-math in general, but also worry that abstaining from math during this period will hurt me in the future when i start my program. if any1 has any advice i'd really appreciate it 🙏

[twin sedge]

You are doing a gap year ,enjoy it

[cosmic magnet]

I think it's also common for universities to accept students back for Masters programs but not PhD's unless they're quite 'exceptional' in their own right. Also, welcome back Lukas👋

[tardy basin]

how do you write a personal statement for a course-based masters?

this is for my alma mater, it's a safety. there are no profs here in the subject i want to work in so i can't talk about my research interests. my long-term goal is be a university lecturer, so a course-based program will work for me

[undone yacht]

"university lecturer, so a course-based program will work for me" where in the world would this be true?

[tardy basin]

wdym? there are lecturers at my university with just a masters, and breadth is more important than depth for teaching

[undone yacht]

ok. never happens at any university i know of.

[tardy basin]

ok cool

does anyone have experience applying for course-based programs? i find it hard to motivate my statement.

[agile dust]

Washington phd results I think should be out in the next two weeks

[glacial pendant]

What’s the reasoning on this lol not that i doubt u just curious

[agile dust]

i have a hunch

[foggy prism]

i have the same hunch for berkeley🙏

[pearl isle]

Yoo lol. I gave up on logging off I’m back to being terminally online.

[wide cosmos]

browsing gradcafe just to feel something

[pearl isle]

I will be applying again in the summer

And then I will return to mathematicsgre.com

[inner grove]

You can say you see it as a stepping-stone to prepare you for a career in research or teaching

[spring isle]

Any advice for explaining a career change in a personal statement? I started in math as an undergraduate, went to art school for a Master’s, and now I want to go back to math for a second Master’s.

(the truth behind the career change is not super compelling - I applied to art school for emotional and subjective reasons related to my personal life, not because I identify as an artist)

[lofty plover]

I was surprised in my uni that all TAs were phd students

At least for courses i take

[undone yacht]

ta:s are not lecturers

[lofty plover]

I am aware

Nvm

[undone yacht]

most of my TA:s are MSc students, I usually only get 1-2 PhD students per course

[lofty plover]

Interesting

Yeah i thought msc students would be TAs here but everyone is a phd

[inner grove]

👀

That was fast lol

[agile dust]

So scared

But also excited!!!

[hidden sleet]

I'm just trying not to think about it

[woven plover]

But they make you repeat the master's portion in the US PhD, so it is a waste of time?

Or is it easy to get transfer credits

[worthy peak]

shouldnt be hard to get transfer credits

[wind plinth]

ive heard this isn't the case, unfortunately

[worthy peak]

:/

i'll see what i can do

[mossy niche]

its not about getting the transfer credits, its about passing the quals

you dont have to "repeat" the master part of the phd if you pass the quals

[rose tide]

Has anyone heard of the PhD math program at Rutgers Newark?

They only listed 14 people on the faculty page, and they don’t seem to accept students when I look up students for each faculty member.

[tacit lark]

No ive only heard of new Brunswick

[foggy prism]

whats the master part of the phd that will be on quals? isnt the quals all undergrad stuff?

[mossy niche]

depends on the institution, usually it covers the graduate stuff

analysis, algebra, topology

[glacial cedar]

By the qual do you mean the second year exam? (Where you switch from a student to a candidate)

Because for my school, that’s all grad topics

[mossy niche]

no, i mean the first year preliminary exam that tests on the first year grad courses

the candidacy exam should not really test that material

[foggy prism]

oh i thought most of them would be graduation requirement for undergrad to care if u r a pure math major (although its sometimes crosslisted). Ig it makes sense if someone didnt take some courses.

If its graduate stuff, how does the school expect you to take it first year, doesn't that mean ud have to learn all in like one or two semester

like why wouldn't passing the relevant course be sufficient...

[mossy niche]

usually the only course comparable in a meaningful sense to the undergrad versions are algebra and complex analysis

[pearl isle]

you skip the quals (well hopefully, if u learned something in your masters...) + you are required to graduate in 4 usually if you come in with a masters already

[blissful crystal]

i mean it depends on the school but at least at my school, which isnt even rlly a good school, the analysis quals test on measure theory and functional analysis, the algebra quals on on sylow thms, modules, and Galois theory, and then the topology on alg top and diff top

so unless u did all that in ur undergrad courses then thats good but i dont think thats normal tbf

[glacial cedar]

I know of someone who graduated in 3 years 9 months but maybe he didn’t have a PhD before

[foggy prism]

huh i did do all that except topology but the department recently added topology as a requirement to graduate (i think) which dont apply to me lmao. cuz pretty sure measure theory, sylow, module, galois are requirement at my uni. Now that i look at whats posted here maybe that is not normal . I have to take 40 courses and only 10 required elective so Id pretty much complete all the available math courses .

[blissful crystal]

ye i think in the US depending on ur school obv the requirements to graduate r pretty low

[pearl isle]

• It is common for these things to be in undergrad classes but not at the level required for the quals

Eg undergrad vs grad algebra

[blissful crystal]

ye they are usually js harder in all capacities

[foggy prism]

or that makes sense too, although i think at my school theres just one. It is the class where grad student must take if they fail the qual.

ig itd be pretty school dependent

[visual lagoon]

I think Sylow's theorems and Galois theory are relatively standard in the US, but I definitely did not have to take any measure theory, functional analysis, topology, etc. just to graduate (Ivy League school). Of course the people who were looking to apply to graduate school tended to take more than the bare minimum haha.

[mossy niche]

you could get a math degree from my school without ever taking analysis or algebra (t10 us school btw)

[foggy prism]

as in you can graduate without any analysis and algebra, or is it that u have to take one or the other, but not both. Either way this sounds kinda crazy 💀

[mossy niche]

neither

imagine having a math degree and the most you ever did was a non proof based probability course

[foggy prism]

at that point just put on the UG acceptance letter: do you wish to pay the full 4 year tuition rn to graduate immediately at the time you accept the offer ?

[gentle basin]

my school doesn't require ODE or PDE for its applied math degree

[cosmic magnet]

What school is this even💀

[mossy niche]

i feel like there is a reasonable amount of applied math you can do without doing diffeqs

[trail vigil]

Is this for a pure math degree?

[mossy niche]

yes

[wind plinth]

my undergraduate institution didnt even OFFER analysis

[blissful crystal]

i mean half the math majors at my school didnt know what analysis or algebra was, unless u were talking about college algebra

gotta do way more than the minimum to be competitive

[trail vigil]

What proof based courses did you have to do then?

[mossy niche]

i mean the minimum requirement is one second course in linear algebra

[lone vessel]

yeah at my school u can do a pure math degree with only one proof-based course covering single variable calculus

[rose tide]

I have a question: if I told the department that I won’t require any tuition waiver or living stipend, and also I can fill in teaching positions for free, will I have a much better chance of getting admitted?

Some schools are in-state and their graduate instate tuitions are very cheap. Plus I live nearby so I won’t need any stipend. I can work very light hours to cover the cost.

[main marlin]

any german masters school which don't require an LOR?

or any other school which don't require an LOR?

[worthy peak]

how soon should i expect to hear back from admissions to canadian unis

[worthy peak]

TUM

[worthy peak]

is it unrealistic to expect a result in late february

[shell kindle]

Many places have union contracts that may make this tricky

[main aspen]

“Oh no the union doesn’t want rich people pricing people out of PhDs even more than they already are”

[shell kindle]

While money is an immediate limitation, you also quickly run into advising capacity limitations

[main aspen]

(And eventually “number of teaching position” limitations in places where teaching forms a non-trivial part of a phd’s payment)

[woven plover]

💀 I thought my university was bad for not requiring topology in a math major

[tame sundial]

Topology generally isnt a super important topic to know for math that early on

Don't get me wrong its super useful but algebra and analysis are pretty much necessary

[woven plover]

Without algebra, analysis, and topology, I think you might as well be a physics major

[tame sundial]

I mean yeah

Not all people studying math are doing research

Some of em are just doing it supplementarily to physics or cs

[foggy prism]

I tried to search that for UofT, it seems like from user reported datas like late jan to early feb for acceptances seems reasonable (like most us unis). although it also seems like they might ghost u if you are not accepted

and also idk if this is generally true for canadian uni or not

what particular uni do you have in mind?

[trail vigil]

I took these classes because of my physics interests lmfaooo

I agree with the sentiment tho. A pure math degree with no analysis or algebra is insane to me

[wind plinth]

actually my undergrad school doesn't even have a mathematics major anymore 💀

[unique jasper]

How do you apply to a phd in france? Say you want to specialize in probability theory

I've read that you need to have a research idea. But say you did a masters in pde or something else. Would you instead do an M2 in probability or self study papers so you have something to talk before contacting a potential advisor?

[foggy prism]

I have the same question too.

[trail vigil]

Have people ever heard of a 10 minute oral interview for PhD?

Where there is no research presentation

[mossy niche]

yeah i did one

[trail vigil]

What's the purpose of that type of interview?

Especially since 10 minutes isnt enough to have any indepth conversation

[mossy niche]

to see if you actually have any interest in taking the offer

[trail vigil]

Is there anything to look out for? It legitimately is my #1 school, and I want to convey that without being superficial

[mossy niche]

then just say that

[foggy prism]

admission process speedrun interview%

[dire brook]

Afaik in most cases you apply to a supervisor (and then you apply to the region's doctoral school "with your supervisor")
Something to keep in mind is that often French students do summer research at the end of their M2 which is then extended into a PhD

[tight viper]

anyone know when decisions usually come out for phds for the upcoming fall?

[main aspen]

Where in the world?

[tight viper]

oh u.s.

[main aspen]

Any time between like now and 2-3 months from now

[tight viper]

ah okay thank you