Boston College PhD Program

[texasmath]

Hi everyone, I want to know if anyone here has any information on the Boston College math program. I have applied to many pure math PhD programs and have an interest in topology/algebra. I've been told that the BC program, while not well known, has grown in size/quality/other metrics quite a bit over the past 5-10 years. Does anyone agree with this opinion? To what other PhD programs would Boston College's program be comparable? Thanks in advance.

[pyfgcr]

Hi everyone, I want to know if anyone here has any information on the Boston College math program. I have applied to many pure math PhD programs and have an interest in topology/algebra. I've been told that the BC program, while not well known, has grown in size/quality/other metrics quite a bit over the past 5-10 years. Does anyone agree with this opinion? To what other PhD programs would Boston College's program be comparable? Thanks in advance.

The PhD program has certainly grown in size/quality/other metrics over the past 5-10 years, insofar as it did not exist before then -- the first PhD was granted in 2013, and I think the first year with more than one was 2016.

The research profile of the faculty has certainly improved dramatically in this period (and the run-up), and they have been very successful in junior hiring the last few years. My impression is that the department is clustered in a few areas (e.g. there is a lot of algebraic geometry and low dimensional topology), so make sure there are possible advisors with interests in line with yours. It's possible that this situation has also gotten a bit better.

Given that it's such a new program and I am not too familiar with it, I can't say much about who's comparable. You could look up the graduates so far using the Math Genealogy Project and try to see where they all are.

[yon3da]

Hi everyone, I want to know if anyone here has any information on the Boston College math program. I have applied to many pure math PhD programs and have an interest in topology/algebra. I've been told that the BC program, while not well known, has grown in size/quality/other metrics quite a bit over the past 5-10 years. Does anyone agree with this opinion? To what other PhD programs would Boston College's program be comparable? Thanks in advance.

I heard the same thing from some extremely reputable mathematicians. It is definitely a great program and I assume it will only rise in prestige in the future. Also if you are interested in teaching, they have a strong focus on training good teaching professors. Good luck!