Fall 2020 Sweat Thread

[Integreat]

Just a hypothetical question, suppose you got rejected by all schools (which is not happening in your case), what would you do next?
...
Most of the schools I applied to are quite competitive and have already given out some offers or waitlists (UCLA, Uwash, etc). I did applied to some safe schools (eg. Iowa, Arizona) but it seems that too many people also consider these to be safe schools.

I offered some advice to nicole2, hopefully that helps you too. In any case, I don't think UW has given any offers yet. At least, I haven't heard of anything for pure math, only applied math. There is still hope -- it's very early to hear back yet!

[AugmentedSeventh]

I got waitlisted a couple days back. They said "We will possibly be making further decisions on admissions to our program in February."

Did they tell you that you are waitlisted after you sent them an email?

No, I haven't reached out to any of the places I applied to! They just sent me an email.

Ah okay. So I am guessing anyone who hasn't got a response from Northwestern can safely assume that they have been rejected?

[PhilippMainlander]

Sometimes I get scared guys. I made a 640 on the math subject gre and graduated from a Group II university, and I'm applying to universities in the range of [75,33] on the US News Ranking. I really want to get into a GROUP I university, but I feel like my GRE is subpar compared to the competition. I have done research (discrete mathematics) with a professor for 3 years and we have been making nontrivial progress. My professor is well known in his mathematical subfield, but sometimes I get scared by my math subject GRE score.


Can anyone give me any opinions that aren't. "Lol you scored before 50%, your chances at a GROUP I university are over".

[yeonK]

I saw someone on gradcafe heard back from Columbia APAM for applied math. Anyone else hear anything?

I got accepted to Columbia APAM phd program yesterday. I was lucky. Hope the others have a good news too soon.

[MMDE]

I saw someone on gradcafe heard back from Columbia APAM for applied math. Anyone else hear anything?

I got accepted to Columbia APAM phd program yesterday. I was lucky. Hope the others have a good news too soon.

Congrats! Was that you on gradcafe? And when did you apply if you don't mind me asking.

[yeonK]

I saw someone on gradcafe heard back from Columbia APAM for applied math. Anyone else hear anything?

I got accepted to Columbia APAM phd program yesterday. I was lucky. Hope the others have a good news too soon.

Congrats! Was that you on gradcafe? And when did you apply if you don't mind me asking.

No, it wasn't me. I didn't post anything on that site. And I submitted my application on 15th of December.

[MMDE]

I got accepted to Columbia APAM phd program yesterday. I was lucky. Hope the others have a good news too soon.

Congrats! Was that you on gradcafe? And when did you apply if you don't mind me asking.

No, it wasn't me. I didn't post anything on that site. And I submitted my application on 15th of December.

Oh okay, it looks like Columbia may have sent out all their first round offers then, guessing that means a rejection for me .

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

BTW, anyone here able to give a description of what typical strong applicants of a top 20, 50, 70 looks like?

Such a good question. Not an expert at all (and a current applicant myself), but this is how I think of it. Assuming the candidate is American, since the international competition for US schools is not something I know very well, here's how I'd frame it.

Criteria Group 1

• i strong letters of recommendation
• j percentile on the mGRE**
• k graduate-level classes, with promising grades
• l years of professional experience (grading, tutoring, TA)

Criteria Group 2

• significant conference presentation
• REU (with a result/paper/manuscript to point to)
• research experience at home institution (possibly expository, but with a result/paper/manuscript to point to)
• significant award beyond institution (Goldwater, IMO, Putnam)
• very high GPA (relative to institution)

Top 70

• Group 1
  • i >= 1
  • j >= 40
  • k >= 3
  • l >= 0
• Group 2
  • Pick 3 (counting multiplicity)

Top 50

• Group 1
  • i >= 2
  • j >= 50
  • k >= 5
  • l >= 1
• Group 2
  • Pick 5 (counting multiplicity)

Top 20

• Group 1
  • i >= 3
  • j >= 60
  • k >= 7
  • l >= 2
• Group 2
  • Pick 7 (counting multiplicity)

**mGRE is much harder to predict, since some top schools do not even require it. I'm basing my wild guesses on averages.

These estimates are pure speculation and only based on gradcafe and mGRE forum observational averages. Thoughts welcome on fine-tuning the stats and the profile-itemization procedure.

I think the issue with using this kind of metric is that someone might have a lot of one category and not much one, and still get accepted. For instance, somebody who went to a small liberal arts college and was not able to take many graduate-level courses would not be at a disadvantage if their letters were all extremely strong and from well-known researchers. People on the adcoms consider all of the factors, not to mention that failing in one of the group 1 categories (especially i or j) would be a virtually instant rejection at top schools.

Also, I feel like you are way overestimating how much of group 2 is necessary for those criteria to have an effect on a candidate's success. Separating the candidates into these two groups is not particularly enlightening either. For instance, two or three solid publications is probably enough to get into a top 20 university, provided that the group 1 criteria are satisfied decently. After all, it is relatively rare for any math applicants to have a journal publication. Or, one significant award might be all it really takes. I feel like the group 2 categories indicate the types of things which will lead to a significantly better outcome for candidates who lag behind in one or more of the group 1 categories. It's pretty rare from my observation for anybody to fall reasonably under group 2, and certainly there are group 2 candidates who would get rejected from top 20 schools anyways if their letters of recommendation for instance were all weak, or if their mGRE was below a 50th percentile.

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

Sometimes I get scared guys. I made a 640 on the math subject gre and graduated from a Group II university, and I'm applying to universities in the range of [75,33] on the US News Ranking. I really want to get into a GROUP I university, but I feel like my GRE is subpar compared to the competition. I have done research (discrete mathematics) with a professor for 3 years and we have been making nontrivial progress. My professor is well known in his mathematical subfield, but sometimes I get scared by my math subject GRE score.


Can anyone give me any opinions that aren't. "Lol you scored before 50%, your chances at a GROUP I university are over".

I have talked to multiple professors at top 20 universities, whether they have experience on admission committees or not. From what I can gather, the mGRE really is an indication for how well you have mastered your undergraduate material, and in some cases, it is also used to predict one's future success on Ph.D. qualification exams. If you have a sub-50th percentile score, your best bet is for one of your letter writers to explain that this is not reflective of your ability to succeed in mathematics and/or for you to address that somewhere else in your application (e.g. in your SOP, additional information section, etc.)

I don't think your success in your research will make up for a poor mGRE score. After all, to the adcoms, it doesn't really matter how well you will succeed in research if you can't even pass your quals. At the same time, I only feel like such a score could be an instant reject for say, the top 20-30 schools. Above that, you might be fine even without explaining, but again, if you can explain it well (e.g. I didn't take abstract algebra before taking the exam, I do not do well on multiple choice tests and my grades in classes reflect this, etc.), you could be good regardless. The main thing is that you explain this well, and convince the adcoms that your mGRE score is not reflective of your background preparation.

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

Well, if you check the gradcafe posts of the last year, you'll see that there are only 3 acceptances from MIT, followed by many rejections two weeks later. Considering that only small amount of people post in gradcafe, I think MIT sent out all acceptances (which shouldn't be many anyway), and the rest of us will get our rejections at sometime in the next weeks.

While this is rare, surely there are some people who will be accepted later, since people might reject MIT, right?

For reference, I'm not applying to MIT. Just saying that everyone else here shouldn't give up hope entirely. I know that a lot of schools tend to accept their top applicants, then accept a few others as people reject. But again, I also have not read up on how MIT does their admissions.

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

Have anyone heard from Northwestern?

Are you talking about their regular math program or ESAM (Engineering Sciences & Applied Mathematics)? Afaik, no one has heard back from ESAM yet regarding Ph.D. admissions, but for mathematics, yes (some waitlists and acceptances it seems).

[lambert]

Well, if you check the gradcafe posts of the last year, you'll see that there are only 3 acceptances from MIT, followed by many rejections two weeks later. Considering that only small amount of people post in gradcafe, I think MIT sent out all acceptances (which shouldn't be many anyway), and the rest of us will get our rejections at sometime in the next weeks.

While this is rare, surely there are some people who will be accepted later, since people might reject MIT, right?

For reference, I'm not applying to MIT. Just saying that everyone else here shouldn't give up hope entirely. I know that a lot of schools tend to accept their top applicants, then accept a few others as people reject. But again, I also have not read up on how MIT does their admissions.

That's what the waitlist is for. From what I've generally seen in top schools at least, people get their acceptances and waitlists pretty early (as in January). For example Princeton has already 'unofficially' notified the people who got accepted, so has UChicago. Then showers of rejections come for everyone else late January and February; the reason why they don't announce acceptances / waitlists / rejections all at once is probably administrative

Basically if you've seen people get accepted at a top 5 school and you didn't get anything, chalk it up to a rejection. They generally don't do round-twos of applications cause they don't need to.

[SKS2s17fa]

Sometimes I get scared guys. I made a 640 on the math subject gre and graduated from a Group II university, and I'm applying to universities in the range of [75,33] on the US News Ranking. I really want to get into a GROUP I university, but I feel like my GRE is subpar compared to the competition. I have done research (discrete mathematics) with a professor for 3 years and we have been making nontrivial progress. My professor is well known in his mathematical subfield, but sometimes I get scared by my math subject GRE score.


Can anyone give me any opinions that aren't. "Lol you scored before 50%, your chances at a GROUP I university are over".

I have talked to multiple professors at top 20 universities, whether they have experience on admission committees or not. From what I can gather, the mGRE really is an indication for how well you have mastered your undergraduate material, and in some cases, it is also used to predict one's future success on Ph.D. qualification exams. If you have a sub-50th percentile score, your best bet is for one of your letter writers to explain that this is not reflective of your ability to succeed in mathematics and/or for you to address that somewhere else in your application (e.g. in your SOP, additional information section, etc.)

I don't think your success in your research will make up for a poor mGRE score. After all, to the adcoms, it doesn't really matter how well you will succeed in research if you can't even pass your quals. At the same time, I only feel like such a score could be an instant reject for say, the top 20-30 schools. Above that, you might be fine even without explaining, but again, if you can explain it well (e.g. I didn't take abstract algebra before taking the exam, I do not do well on multiple choice tests and my grades in classes reflect this, etc.), you could be good regardless. The main thing is that you explain this well, and convince the adcoms that your mGRE score is not reflective of your background preparation.

It seems like too easy but too broad of the content of mGRE. I am a master student in a top 30 school and have passed the qualifying exam last summer. I believe that the two exams are totally different. While when I take some upper level classes, I think I go to a new realm of math. I have not done any research yet, and I think that the real research is another level of math. Thus I don’t think mGRE is a good indicator of success in math research. (Maybe the admission committees do?)

Also although I have passed the qualifying exam, I still got rejected by UIUC, and I have heard no other results. I see some people got admitted/ rejected from OSU, so perhaps a waitlist for me?

[ponchan]

Sometimes I get scared guys. I made a 640 on the math subject gre and graduated from a Group II university, and I'm applying to universities in the range of [75,33] on the US News Ranking. I really want to get into a GROUP I university, but I feel like my GRE is subpar compared to the competition. I have done research (discrete mathematics) with a professor for 3 years and we have been making nontrivial progress. My professor is well known in his mathematical subfield, but sometimes I get scared by my math subject GRE score.


Can anyone give me any opinions that aren't. "Lol you scored before 50%, your chances at a GROUP I university are over".

Yes, my opinion is that one shouldn't care about “Group I” or whatever because it is meaningless. No one but some students applying to PhD programs care about these things. Here’s an example: there’s a tenured Professor at Chicago who got his PhD at Tufts. Does, say, Stanford attract stronger students on average than Tufts? Absolutely. And that’s why you see more Stanford PhD holders at top universities than Tufts. But schools like Tufts and others even in the top 100 still have some very strong faculty (who collaborate with people at schools like Stanford) and will occasionally get very strong students who wind up just as successful as they would have been had they gone to a “top” school. Ultimately, you are who you are. If you upload a proof of the Tate conjecture to the arxiv (or even something 1/100 as significant) no one will give a shit where you got your PhD. And on the flip side, there are PhD holders from Princeton who have been forced to go into data science boot camps after graduation due to mediocre research. There is no “golden ticket”. Let intellectual curiosity and love for mathematics guide you, because prestige chasing will have diminishing returns.

[wujinya1]

Hey guys, are there any good programs I can still apply to that doesn't require the math gre, except Syracuse? Today is January 22 ...

Do you guys believe I would get into at least one school? I really don't have a plan B. Should I apply to more schools and what would you suggest?

Anything from UCLA?

[nicole2]

Hey guys, are there any good programs I can still apply to that doesn't require the math gre, except Syracuse? Today is January 22 ...

Do you guys believe I would get into at least one school? I really don't have a plan B. Should I apply to more schools and what would you suggest?

Anything from UCLA?

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

Hey guys, are there any good programs I can still apply to that doesn't require the math gre, except Syracuse? Today is January 22 ...

Do you guys believe I would get into at least one school? I really don't have a plan B. Should I apply to more schools and what would you suggest?

Anything from UCLA?

I haven't heard back from UCLA either. There are only two people it looks like who confirmed that they were accepted on this website. I wonder if they were unofficially accepted by someone in the department. After all, UCLA has a very large department.

Well, if you check the gradcafe posts of the last year, you'll see that there are only 3 acceptances from MIT, followed by many rejections two weeks later. Considering that only small amount of people post in gradcafe, I think MIT sent out all acceptances (which shouldn't be many anyway), and the rest of us will get our rejections at sometime in the next weeks.

While this is rare, surely there are some people who will be accepted later, since people might reject MIT, right?

For reference, I'm not applying to MIT. Just saying that everyone else here shouldn't give up hope entirely. I know that a lot of schools tend to accept their top applicants, then accept a few others as people reject. But again, I also have not read up on how MIT does their admissions.

That's what the waitlist is for. From what I've generally seen in top schools at least, people get their acceptances and waitlists pretty early (as in January). For example Princeton has already 'unofficially' notified the people who got accepted, so has UChicago. Then showers of rejections come for everyone else late January and February; the reason why they don't announce acceptances / waitlists / rejections all at once is probably administrative

Basically if you've seen people get accepted at a top 5 school and you didn't get anything, chalk it up to a rejection. They generally don't do round-twos of applications cause they don't need to.

I did a math REU at a major public university last summer, and during the Q&A grad school panel they had there, someone asked a faculty member there how they do admissions. According to her, they have 4 or 5 (I forgot which she said) people on the team who each give scores to the applications in various categories. They tabulate all of the scores in a massive spreadsheet, order the scores from highest to lowest, then accept the very top applicants (probably around 15-20 or something). Then, based off of how many people accept or reject the offer there, they accept a number of the next highest applicants. They keep going down until they've filled up their incoming class, and then send rejections to everybody else. However, I know that not all schools do this.

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

Do you guys believe I would get into at least one school? I really don't have a plan B. Should I apply to more schools and what would you suggest?

Anything from UCLA?

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

Not necessarily. I have heard of people getting acceptances as late as early March, and of course, throughout February. Although, if you receive no acceptances by early March, I would almost certainly assume that you were rejected everywhere, but you should email the schools and ask before you lose hope.

I'm not sure about those schools. Search through prior applicant threads, and there you might get an idea of who got accepted to and rejected from those schools. And if it doesn't appear that many people applied to those schools, then it is probably safe to assume that it is easier to get into them.

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

Sometimes I get scared guys. I made a 640 on the math subject gre and graduated from a Group II university, and I'm applying to universities in the range of [75,33] on the US News Ranking. I really want to get into a GROUP I university, but I feel like my GRE is subpar compared to the competition. I have done research (discrete mathematics) with a professor for 3 years and we have been making nontrivial progress. My professor is well known in his mathematical subfield, but sometimes I get scared by my math subject GRE score.


Can anyone give me any opinions that aren't. "Lol you scored before 50%, your chances at a GROUP I university are over".

I have talked to multiple professors at top 20 universities, whether they have experience on admission committees or not. From what I can gather, the mGRE really is an indication for how well you have mastered your undergraduate material, and in some cases, it is also used to predict one's future success on Ph.D. qualification exams. If you have a sub-50th percentile score, your best bet is for one of your letter writers to explain that this is not reflective of your ability to succeed in mathematics and/or for you to address that somewhere else in your application (e.g. in your SOP, additional information section, etc.)

I don't think your success in your research will make up for a poor mGRE score. After all, to the adcoms, it doesn't really matter how well you will succeed in research if you can't even pass your quals. At the same time, I only feel like such a score could be an instant reject for say, the top 20-30 schools. Above that, you might be fine even without explaining, but again, if you can explain it well (e.g. I didn't take abstract algebra before taking the exam, I do not do well on multiple choice tests and my grades in classes reflect this, etc.), you could be good regardless. The main thing is that you explain this well, and convince the adcoms that your mGRE score is not reflective of your background preparation.

It seems like too easy but too broad of the content of mGRE. I am a master student in a top 30 school and have passed the qualifying exam last summer. I believe that the two exams are totally different. While when I take some upper level classes, I think I go to a new realm of math. I have not done any research yet, and I think that the real research is another level of math. Thus I don’t think mGRE is a good indicator of success in math research. (Maybe the admission committees do?)

Also although I have passed the qualifying exam, I still got rejected by UIUC, and I have heard no other results. I see some people got admitted/ rejected from OSU, so perhaps a waitlist for me?

I agree that the mGRE content is too broad, and also not as accurate in gauging the mathematical abilities of Applied Math candidates such as myself. It's also very much a time crunch to the point where deeper thinkers could struggle. The problems are not that easy; a lot of them involve obscure tricks, and you have to juggle between very different subjects with ease.

You're absolutely correct that the mGRE is not a good indicator of success in mathematical research at all, and every faculty member I have talked to about this has said the same thing. So yeah, I do not believe that adcoms consider it an indication of research ability. Again, they probably use your mGRE score more as an indication of one's preparation, if they even put much thought into it at all. If you have a low mGRE score, it is potentially an indication of poor undergraduate preparation (i.e., you did not learn the material well enough), which means that you might struggle with graduate-level coursework, and even more so with passing your qualification exams. After all, they don't want to waste time and money on you if you cannot pass those and flunk out of graduate school.

[wujinya1]

Do you guys believe I would get into at least one school? I really don't have a plan B. Should I apply to more schools and what would you suggest?

Anything from UCLA?

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

Really, it is very hard to define a safe school... Yes, many professors I talked to consider Iowa to be a safe school, but they recommend it to every student they taught! So I would probably imagine that Iowa is not that safe....

[PhilippMainlander]

Sometimes I get scared guys. I made a 640 on the math subject gre and graduated from a Group II university, and I'm applying to universities in the range of [75,33] on the US News Ranking. I really want to get into a GROUP I university, but I feel like my GRE is subpar compared to the competition. I have done research (discrete mathematics) with a professor for 3 years and we have been making nontrivial progress. My professor is well known in his mathematical subfield, but sometimes I get scared by my math subject GRE score.


Can anyone give me any opinions that aren't. "Lol you scored before 50%, your chances at a GROUP I university are over".

I have talked to multiple professors at top 20 universities, whether they have experience on admission committees or not. From what I can gather, the mGRE really is an indication for how well you have mastered your undergraduate material, and in some cases, it is also used to predict one's future success on Ph.D. qualification exams. If you have a sub-50th percentile score, your best bet is for one of your letter writers to explain that this is not reflective of your ability to succeed in mathematics and/or for you to address that somewhere else in your application (e.g. in your SOP, additional information section, etc.)

I don't think your success in your research will make up for a poor mGRE score. After all, to the adcoms, it doesn't really matter how well you will succeed in research if you can't even pass your quals. At the same time, I only feel like such a score could be an instant reject for say, the top 20-30 schools. Above that, you might be fine even without explaining, but again, if you can explain it well (e.g. I didn't take abstract algebra before taking the exam, I do not do well on multiple choice tests and my grades in classes reflect this, etc.), you could be good regardless. The main thing is that you explain this well, and convince the adcoms that your mGRE score is not reflective of your background preparation.

Understood, but just curious, where do people get the magic 50% number from?

[PhilippMainlander]

Do you guys believe I would get into at least one school? I really don't have a plan B. Should I apply to more schools and what would you suggest?

Anything from UCLA?

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

Curious, Nicole. Why do you have a rejection listed for UIC in your profile? I thought UIC didn't make decisions until after February?

Sometimes I get scared guys. I made a 640 on the math subject gre and graduated from a Group II university, and I'm applying to universities in the range of [75,33] on the US News Ranking. I really want to get into a GROUP I university, but I feel like my GRE is subpar compared to the competition. I have done research (discrete mathematics) with a professor for 3 years and we have been making nontrivial progress. My professor is well known in his mathematical subfield, but sometimes I get scared by my math subject GRE score.


Can anyone give me any opinions that aren't. "Lol you scored before 50%, your chances at a GROUP I university are over".

Yes, my opinion is that one shouldn't care about “Group I” or whatever because it is meaningless. No one but some students applying to PhD programs care about these things. Here’s an example: there’s a tenured Professor at Chicago who got his PhD at Tufts. Does, say, Stanford attract stronger students on average than Tufts? Absolutely. And that’s why you see more Stanford PhD holders at top universities than Tufts. But schools like Tufts and others even in the top 100 still have some very strong faculty (who collaborate with people at schools like Stanford) and will occasionally get very strong students who wind up just as successful as they would have been had they gone to a “top” school. Ultimately, you are who you are. If you upload a proof of the Tate conjecture to the arxiv (or even something 1/100 as significant) no one will give a shit where you got your PhD. And on the flip side, there are PhD holders from Princeton who have been forced to go into data science boot camps after graduation due to mediocre research. There is no “golden ticket”. Let intellectual curiosity and love for mathematics guide you, because prestige chasing will have diminishing returns.

Yeah you are right, Ponchan. Thanks for the opinion, really appreciate it.

[nicole2]

Anything from UCLA?

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

Curious, Nicole. Why do you have a rejection listed for UIC in your profile? I thought UIC didn't make decisions until after February?

My best guess: incomplete application, missing recommendation letter which I was unaware of until I got the rejection.

Seriously it's hard to keep track of all these applications, username passwords etc. I've made an excel sheet just to keep track of each application, login, gre/transcript/letter status. Apparently I thought it was complete. Oh well.

Is it that bad to have math gre <50%?

[nicole2]

Anything from UCLA?

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

Really, it is very hard to define a safe school... Yes, many professors I talked to consider Iowa to be a safe school, but they recommend it to every student they taught! So I would probably imagine that Iowa is not that safe....

That's why I'm applying to Iowa State instead. Their deadline is February 1st.

Edit: If you look at the admissions statistics on their website
https://www.grad.uiowa.edu/graduate-pro ... atics-Ph.D.

It clearly says 110 applied and only 10 admitted.

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

Sometimes I get scared guys. I made a 640 on the math subject gre and graduated from a Group II university, and I'm applying to universities in the range of [75,33] on the US News Ranking. I really want to get into a GROUP I university, but I feel like my GRE is subpar compared to the competition. I have done research (discrete mathematics) with a professor for 3 years and we have been making nontrivial progress. My professor is well known in his mathematical subfield, but sometimes I get scared by my math subject GRE score.


Can anyone give me any opinions that aren't. "Lol you scored before 50%, your chances at a GROUP I university are over".

I have talked to multiple professors at top 20 universities, whether they have experience on admission committees or not. From what I can gather, the mGRE really is an indication for how well you have mastered your undergraduate material, and in some cases, it is also used to predict one's future success on Ph.D. qualification exams. If you have a sub-50th percentile score, your best bet is for one of your letter writers to explain that this is not reflective of your ability to succeed in mathematics and/or for you to address that somewhere else in your application (e.g. in your SOP, additional information section, etc.)

I don't think your success in your research will make up for a poor mGRE score. After all, to the adcoms, it doesn't really matter how well you will succeed in research if you can't even pass your quals. At the same time, I only feel like such a score could be an instant reject for say, the top 20-30 schools. Above that, you might be fine even without explaining, but again, if you can explain it well (e.g. I didn't take abstract algebra before taking the exam, I do not do well on multiple choice tests and my grades in classes reflect this, etc.), you could be good regardless. The main thing is that you explain this well, and convince the adcoms that your mGRE score is not reflective of your background preparation.

Understood, but just curious, where do people get the magic 50% number from?

I mean, I'm just assuming this based off of the fact that this is the median score for test takers. It's kinda arbitrary.

Really, my advice is just for anybody who believes that their score is significantly sub-par for the program in question that they are applying to. In many cases, a 50th percentile or below would be below the expectations. For instance, UCLA's program says that most successful programs get scores around and above the 80th percentile. UC Berkeley's states that applicants below an 80th percentile probably have inadequate preparation for their program. For UPenn's, they say the same but for a 700 (around a 55th-60th percentile). It just depends on the program.

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

Curious, Nicole. Why do you have a rejection listed for UIC in your profile? I thought UIC didn't make decisions until after February?

My best guess: incomplete application, missing recommendation letter which I was unaware of until I got the rejection.

Seriously it's hard to keep track of all these applications, username passwords etc. I've made an excel sheet just to keep track of each application, login, gre/transcript/letter status. Apparently I thought it was complete. Oh well.

Is it that bad to have math gre <50%?

It could be bad. It depends on the school. From what I can gather, it is seen as a red flag for the top programs, but I feel like some programs do not really care about your score.

Also, for incomplete applications, they generally will follow up with you if you are missing something such as an official score report or a recommendation letter. Although, I could imagine that they might not need to do so if the materials they have received so far already warrant a rejection.

[PhilippMainlander]

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

Really, it is very hard to define a safe school... Yes, many professors I talked to consider Iowa to be a safe school, but they recommend it to every student they taught! So I would probably imagine that Iowa is not that safe....

That's why I'm applying to Iowa State instead. Their deadline is February 1st.

Edit: If you look at the admissions statistics on their website
https://www.grad.uiowa.edu/graduate-pro ... atics-Ph.D.

It clearly says 110 applied and only 10 admitted.

Iowa State is a good place. I have heard good things about it, its one of my schools.

I have talked to multiple professors at top 20 universities, whether they have experience on admission committees or not. From what I can gather, the mGRE really is an indication for how well you have mastered your undergraduate material, and in some cases, it is also used to predict one's future success on Ph.D. qualification exams. If you have a sub-50th percentile score, your best bet is for one of your letter writers to explain that this is not reflective of your ability to succeed in mathematics and/or for you to address that somewhere else in your application (e.g. in your SOP, additional information section, etc.)

I don't think your success in your research will make up for a poor mGRE score. After all, to the adcoms, it doesn't really matter how well you will succeed in research if you can't even pass your quals. At the same time, I only feel like such a score could be an instant reject for say, the top 20-30 schools. Above that, you might be fine even without explaining, but again, if you can explain it well (e.g. I didn't take abstract algebra before taking the exam, I do not do well on multiple choice tests and my grades in classes reflect this, etc.), you could be good regardless. The main thing is that you explain this well, and convince the adcoms that your mGRE score is not reflective of your background preparation.

Understood, but just curious, where do people get the magic 50% number from?

I mean, I'm just assuming this based off of the fact that this is the median score for test takers. It's kinda arbitrary.

Really, my advice is just for anybody who believes that their score is significantly sub-par for the program in question that they are applying to. In many cases, a 50th percentile or below would be below the expectations. For instance, UCLA's program says that most successful programs get scores around and above the 80th percentile. UC Berkeley's states that applicants below an 80th percentile probably have inadequate preparation for their program. For UPenn's, they say the same but for a 700 (around a 55th-60th percentile). It just depends on the program.

Yeah that makes sense, its why I avoided T30. Besides certain schools that I know don't care about the math gre very much (EX: UofMN).

[wujinya1]

Nothing so far. Not a single acceptance so far, sweaty palms. Is it really safe to assume that no acceptances before mid-february means rejection everywhere? How hard is it to get into schools like Iowa State and Syracuse?

Really, it is very hard to define a safe school... Yes, many professors I talked to consider Iowa to be a safe school, but they recommend it to every student they taught! So I would probably imagine that Iowa is not that safe....

That's why I'm applying to Iowa State instead. Their deadline is February 1st.

Edit: If you look at the admissions statistics on their website
https://www.grad.uiowa.edu/graduate-pro ... atics-Ph.D.

It clearly says 110 applied and only 10 admitted.

Oh...............so they are two different schools.
I guess I applied to the wrong one.

[nicole2]

Really, it is very hard to define a safe school... Yes, many professors I talked to consider Iowa to be a safe school, but they recommend it to every student they taught! So I would probably imagine that Iowa is not that safe....

That's why I'm applying to Iowa State instead. Their deadline is February 1st.

Edit: If you look at the admissions statistics on their website
https://www.grad.uiowa.edu/graduate-pro ... atics-Ph.D.

It clearly says 110 applied and only 10 admitted.

Oh...............so they are two different schools.
I guess I applied to the wrong one.

There's still time to fix this LOL, by applying to both.

I would say more than likely both University of [state name] and [state name] State University exist in at least half the states in America.

[Lisztrachmaninovfan]

Sorry, accident.

[Oops-ilon]

The next two weeks should have a lot of decisions sent out; best of luck to everyone!

[laplacian]

I can't believe I constantly daydream about an admission mail. This is crazy. I know that once this is over, I'll be happy no matter the outcome (leaving aside the case of no offers), but right now I'm not normal.

[wujinya1]

I can't believe I constantly daydream about an admission mail. This is crazy. I know that once this is over, I'll be happy no matter the outcome (leaving aside the case of no offers), but right now I'm not normal.

Same here... I just hope that I will get at least one admission this week so I can stop worrying about it

[davis7e]

If anybody is looking for a very last minute safety school, then toss an app at Central Michigan University. I believe the deadline is Feb 15 although they have been known to accept people with late applications and I remember the app fee being relatively cheap. Some of the professors are very good and it wouldn't be the end of the world to stay for two years, gain some teaching experience as an instructor of record and perhaps transfer into another program afterward (one can earn a masters while in the PhD program by completing a couple of manageable requirements). There is a decent record of of success with students leaving the program and entering into stronger programs. Best of luck!

[ahhhhmeh]

I can't believe I constantly daydream about an admission mail. This is crazy. I know that once this is over, I'll be happy no matter the outcome (leaving aside the case of no offers), but right now I'm not normal.

Well I laugh at myself for even applying to NYU, UBC, and Stony Brooks thinking “if they let you in then they must have an open door policy” but realistically I’m gonna have to try next year.

If anyone has heard from those places congrats and plz let us know! The admissions won’t say anything.

[AugmentedSeventh]

I can't believe I constantly daydream about an admission mail. This is crazy. I know that once this is over, I'll be happy no matter the outcome (leaving aside the case of no offers), but right now I'm not normal.

Well I laugh at myself for even applying to NYU, UBC, and Stony Brooks thinking “if they let you in then they must have an open door policy” but realistically I’m gonna have to try next year.

If anyone has heard from those places congrats and plz let us know! The admissions won’t say anything.

Stony Brook tends to do their admissions fairly late, sometime in February or even March. I wouldn't worry about hearing back from them for a while.

[PhilippMainlander]

Anyone heard any news from Emory?

[Oops-ilon]

I haven't. It looks like in past years they have sent some decisions in late January. but most in February. I know they have a very small program that is pretty competitive, so I'd be ecstatic to get accepted there.

[PhilippMainlander]

I haven't. It looks like in past years they have sent some decisions in late January. but most in February. I know they have a very small program that is pretty competitive, so I'd be ecstatic to get accepted there.

Let us pray that we both get in.

[wujinya1]

Nothing Today!!!!!!!!

For university of Washington, I haven't get any contact yet, does that mean I have very little chance to get in？

[nicole2]

Nothing Today!!!!!!!!

For university of Washington, I haven't get any contact yet, does that mean I have very little chance to get in？

Days not over yet, 3 hours left to go on the west coast.

[PhilippMainlander]

Nothing Today!!!!!!!!

For university of Washington, I haven't get any contact yet, does that mean I have very little chance to get in？

Uh. I'm p sure they are only doing applications for applied. If you applied for 'pure' then you are good.

[wujinya1]

Nothing Today!!!!!!!!

For university of Washington, I haven't get any contact yet, does that mean I have very little chance to get in？

Uh. I'm p sure they are only doing applications for applied. If you applied for 'pure' then you are good.

For integreat's application, he got this at least...

U Washington: Promising contact w/faculty (1/20)

[PhilippMainlander]

Nothing Today!!!!!!!!

For university of Washington, I haven't get any contact yet, does that mean I have very little chance to get in？

Uh. I'm p sure they are only doing applications for applied. If you applied for 'pure' then you are good.

For integreat's application, he got this at least...

U Washington: Promising contact w/faculty (1/20)

Read that one post by Math Parent answering my question about "unofficial acceptance".

[wujinya1]

Uh. I'm p sure they are only doing applications for applied. If you applied for 'pure' then you are good.

For integreat's application, he got this at least...

U Washington: Promising contact w/faculty (1/20)

Read that one post by Math Parent answering my question about "unofficial acceptance".

What a relief.

[Integreat]

Nothing Today!!!!!!!!

For university of Washington, I haven't get any contact yet, does that mean I have very little chance to get in？

Uh. I'm p sure they are only doing applications for applied. If you applied for 'pure' then you are good.

For integreat's application, he got this at least...

U Washington: Promising contact w/faculty (1/20)

To clarify, I made a point to talk to one of my POI while at JMM. They said I should shoot them an email and they would look at my app. After doing so, they said it looked good.

[mani_fold]

[chrisps1992]

Accurate

[Alkaline]

Lol, literally me. I'm going to fall apart any moment now.

[ahhhhmeh]

[wujinya1]

MORE, I WANT MORE!