Page 1 of 1

What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 7:37 pm
by Bl250604
Hi,

I'm class of 2019, and am looking for some advice for grad schools. I have a 3.4/4 at a well respected, but, unfortunately small liberal arts college. Due to a long medical issue (entire sophomore year, and first semester junior year), my grades slipped, which I will note in my applications. My math GPA is a 3.1, but after next semester (I have an independent study, analysis and another easier course), it should be around a 3.3, and overall, 3.5.

Outside of the classroom, however, I am doing quite well. In terms of research, as of now, I am giving a presentation, and poster at JMM in January, and my advisor and I are on track for publication in the Spring. For the Spring, my second research project will result in a conference, and a co-authored paper. Additionally, I was apart of an REU last summer, and will most likely be apart of the same one this upcoming Summer.

So, this leaves me with the question of, what am I qualified for? My list, as of now (and it will change as my grades hopefully improve, as my health improves) is:
REACH

UNC
NC-STATE
EMORY
RPI
U. DELAWARE
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
NORTHEASTERN
TUFTS
UMD
ILLINOIS
VANDERBILT

MIDDLE

GEORGE MASON
GEORGE WASHINGTON
LEHIGH
BRYN MAWR
DREXEL
STEVENS
UCONN
WESLEYAN

LESS COMPETITIVE (IF THAT'S A THING)

NEW HAMPSHIRE
CLEMSON
MICHIGAN STATE
UNC- CHARLOTTE
UNC- GREENSBORO

All feedback is much appreciated, and please be honest, nothing will offend me. Any tips, or schools which I missed would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, and sorry for the long rant!

-B

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 8:30 pm
by DDswife
I am sorry about your medical issues. Are you doing OK now?

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 9:49 pm
by Bl250604
DDswife wrote:I am sorry about your medical issues. Are you doing OK now?
Thank you! Finally, it’s been 20 months or so of doctors and medication, but doing better now. On the up and up!

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:25 am
by DDswife
Cool! Hope that you keep getting better.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:45 pm
by Bl250604
DDswife wrote:Cool! Hope that you keep getting better.
Thanks! Does the list of schools look okay? Happy new year!

Ben

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:01 pm
by DDswife
Sorry, I don’t know anything about any of these schools or about applying to them. I just come over here because I want to learn more Math. But I guess that someone else will help you soon.

Happy New Year to you too.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:30 pm
by djysyed
DDswife wrote:Sorry, I don’t know anything about any of these schools or about applying to them. I just come over here because I want to learn more Math. But I guess that someone else will help you soon.

Happy New Year to you too.
The purpose of this site is for students to support one another during the application process so there isn't much math here. The two sites people often use for connecting with the general math community are Reddit and Art of Problem Solving.

To OP, how did you determine which schools are reach and non-reach? Some of your "less competitive schools" are ranked higher than a few of your "reach" schools by USNews.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:43 pm
by Bl250604
djysyed wrote:
DDswife wrote:Sorry, I don’t know anything about any of these schools or about applying to them. I just come over here because I want to learn more Math. But I guess that someone else will help you soon.

Happy New Year to you too.
The purpose of this site is for students to support one another during the application process so there isn't much math here. The two sites people often use for connecting with the general math community are Reddit and Art of Problem Solving.

To OP, how did you determine which schools are reach and non-reach? Some of your "less competitive schools" are ranked higher than a few of your "reach" schools by USNews.

Hi,
I used Peterson’s for the acceptance rate, and also used some of my professors who served on admissions boards for PhD programs at some of the schools I am looking at.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:49 pm
by Bl250604
djysyed wrote:
DDswife wrote:Sorry, I don’t know anything about any of these schools or about applying to them. I just come over here because I want to learn more Math. But I guess that someone else will help you soon.

Happy New Year to you too.
The purpose of this site is for students to support one another during the application process so there isn't much math here. The two sites people often use for connecting with the general math community are Reddit and Art of Problem Solving.

To OP, how did you determine which schools are reach and non-reach? Some of your "less competitive schools" are ranked higher than a few of your "reach" schools by USNews.
I also looked at the 2016, 2017 applicant profiles on this site, and looked at similar applicants to see which schools they got accepted to.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:57 pm
by djysyed
Bl250604 wrote: I also looked at the 2016, 2017 applicant profiles on this site, and looked at similar applicants to see which schools they got accepted to.
Interesting... USNews is the more accepted ranking. I'd recommend checking it out

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 5:00 pm
by DDswife
djysyed wrote:The purpose of this site is for students to support one another during the application process so there isn't much math here. The two sites people often use for connecting with the general math community are Reddit and Art of Problem Solving.
Thanks for the links. Will check them out. There is more Math than you think over here, though. And MGRE is part of the purpose of this website. At least, this is the name of it... I ust ignore whatever messages I don’t care about, and I help if I can.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:51 pm
by kieroda
It's hard to give advice not knowing what you're interested in. If you don't know, that's fine though, but it is definitely harder since there are so many schools out there.

I'll also echo what djysyed wrote, and say that I don't think your ordering is very accurate. In particular, Michigan State is quite a good school, and probably more competitive than than all of your "Middle" schools. I'm not saying that the US News rankings are particularly accurate either, especially with regards to specific areas of math, but they can give a general idea and are a good place to look to find more schools.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 7:44 pm
by Bl250604
I like algebra, and topology, mainly. Group theory, and ring theory are two topics which I really enjoy. I think the next step is to reorder the list using different rankings. Thanks!

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 7:55 pm
by kieroda
One suggestion off the top of my head is SUNY Binghamton. They have a lot of algebraic topology and group theory, and are a good, but somewhat less competitive school.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 11:52 pm
by Bl250604
kieroda wrote:One suggestion off the top of my head is SUNY Binghamton. They have a lot of algebraic topology and group theory, and are a good, but somewhat less competitive school.
Thank you! Does the non-competitive list look okay? I will add Binghamton to that list. I am concerned about not having any “safety” type options which I would be happy at.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 11:10 am
by Bl250604
bump, do people think my "less-competitive" list is okay? I am getting concerned about not having any safety schools...

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 6:08 pm
by Bayesian1701
Bl250604 wrote:
I also looked at the 2016, 2017 applicant profiles on this site, and looked at similar applicants to see which schools they got accepted to.
You could also try https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/ to search for more admissions results which sometimes have GPAs and GRE scores. It won't be as complete as the profiles on this site, but you may get a feel for overall selectivity and information on how quickly you will hear back. I am a stats person so I have no clue if the list is good though. It does seem long though. Try cutting it down to programs that have multiple professors (the more the better) in the subfield you are interested in and that you would actually want to attend if you haven't already. You could theoretically get rejected for a less competitive program if your research interests don't really match any professors.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:21 pm
by Bl250604
Bayesian1701 wrote:
Bl250604 wrote:
I also looked at the 2016, 2017 applicant profiles on this site, and looked at similar applicants to see which schools they got accepted to.
You could also try https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/ to search for more admissions results which sometimes have GPAs and GRE scores. It won't be as complete as the profiles on this site, but you may get a feel for overall selectivity and information on how quickly you will hear back. I am a stats person so I have no clue if the list is good though. It does seem long though. Try cutting it down to programs that have multiple professors (the more the better) in the subfield you are interested in and that you would actually want to attend if you haven't already. You could theoretically get rejected for a less competitive program if your research interests don't really match any professors.
Thanks! I actually also have done a good bit of statistics work (presented and gave a poster at JMM), and we are working on publication. Additionally, I am a research assistant for another stats project this semester. Do think that these 2 research experiences, in addition to taking our most advanced stats courses, are enough to make me a decent applicant to stat PhD programs? Also, my research advisor for statistics is a young guy who graduated from PSU with his PhD in stat, and will write me a letter of rec, as well.

Thanks!

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 1:03 am
by Bayesian1701
Bl250604 wrote:
Bayesian1701 wrote:
Bl250604 wrote:
I also looked at the 2016, 2017 applicant profiles on this site, and looked at similar applicants to see which schools they got accepted to.
You could also try https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/ to search for more admissions results which sometimes have GPAs and GRE scores. It won't be as complete as the profiles on this site, but you may get a feel for overall selectivity and information on how quickly you will hear back. I am a stats person so I have no clue if the list is good though. It does seem long though. Try cutting it down to programs that have multiple professors (the more the better) in the subfield you are interested in and that you would actually want to attend if you haven't already. You could theoretically get rejected for a less competitive program if your research interests don't really match any professors.
Thanks! I actually also have done a good bit of statistics work (presented and gave a poster at JMM), and we are working on publication. Additionally, I am a research assistant for another stats project this semester. Do think that these 2 research experiences, in addition to taking our most advanced stats courses, are enough to make me a decent applicant to stat PhD programs? Also, my research advisor for statistics is a young guy who graduated from PSU with his PhD in stat, and will write me a letter of rec, as well.

Thanks!
Research experience outside of an REU in stats seems to be very rare. I have a lot of research experience (over 2.5 years) as well. Stats programs are also going to be less picky about math grades compared to math. The main math classes stats programs care about is real analysis, probability theory, and mathematical statistics. Calculus and linear algebra are important but not as much as the other courses I listed. Your research experience should help a lot. The gradcafe math/stat subforum is pretty active with statistics people https://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/48- ... tatistics/. If you unsure if you want to go into math or stats mix up your applications 50-50. Also, Texas A&M stats had a free application that required no official transcripts or GRE scores this year. If they do that again definitely consider applying because it is free and uses mathprograms.org which might be easy to apply to. State schools tend to have the highest acceptance rate for domestic students assuming they aren't a top program. If you design a list right you should be able to get in. I would look into Kansas State, Virginia Tech, Mizzou, Texas A&M, North Carolina State, North Carolina Chapel Hill, Baylor, and Michigan for stats programs.

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 7:35 am
by Bl250604
Thank you so much for all the great information! UNC, NCSU and VT are all tops on my list. That was some very very helpful info, thank you very much!

In regards to prob and stat, and analysis, I did well in those and in mathematical statistics as well.

My guess is I will go 50-50 and apply to some tier 2, and then tier 3 programs for math, and stat as well.

Thanks so much!

Re: What kind of schools should I be looking at?

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 8:18 pm
by FreddieBiddleBooty
This is a bit late to say stuff, but also I think, despite your GPA (which you may be able to raise considerably before graduating?), you should focus on research and getting to know your professors. I don't think I'm the only one who has a feeling that research experience and letters of recommendation are probably the two most important aspects of your application.

That being said, if you can accomplish these two things and produce some quality research, you'd have a good shot just about anywhere - especially if your advisors can say great things about you. Good luck!