LOLmisterB wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:43 amTo rest of the forum, this forum has been immensely helpful, I have received 3 acceptances so far and I can definitely attribute some of it to this page, especially the applicant profiles and fall sweat sections. However, being banned after being racially abused and then being called a liar is a bit much, hence I'll be limiting my activity on this forum. Wishing everyone all the best.
Yeah we both know the truth so spare the pretending for the rest of the forum. Anyway, if my intuition is wrong and this represents a real profile, congrats on your recent admits and wish you all the best for your future. I have nothing more to say to you.nicole2 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:46 amLOLmisterB wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:43 amTo rest of the forum, this forum has been immensely helpful, I have received 3 acceptances so far and I can definitely attribute some of it to this page, especially the applicant profiles and fall sweat sections. However, being banned after being racially abused and then being called a liar is a bit much, hence I'll be limiting my activity on this forum. Wishing everyone all the best.
Fake news. You were the one that fired the first round at me.
Talking about pretending for the rest of the forum.misterB wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:53 amYeah we both know the truth so leave the pretending for the rest of the forum. Anyway, if my intuition is wrong and this represents a real profile, congrats on your recent admits and wish you all the best for your future. I have nothing more to say to you.nicole2 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:46 amLOLmisterB wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:43 amTo rest of the forum, this forum has been immensely helpful, I have received 3 acceptances so far and I can definitely attribute some of it to this page, especially the applicant profiles and fall sweat sections. However, being banned after being racially abused and then being called a liar is a bit much, hence I'll be limiting my activity on this forum. Wishing everyone all the best.
Fake news. You were the one that fired the first round at me.
Penn and UCLA both told me they're still reviewing my application yet I see others getting offers left and right. I guess "in review" means "our math department don't care enough about your application so we didn't give it much of a look, yet."
Dear Nicole,nicole2 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:56 amTalking about pretending for the rest of the forum.
You haters' been saying I'm a troll since Day 1 it's getting old seriously. Seems more like your a sexist and your intuition tells you that women getting into PHD programs are just wrong and therefore we are trolls.
Dear Mathguy.Mathguy1264 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:45 am
Dear Nicole,
Consider it from this point of view: A person with a very sub-optimal math GRE score say someone who has taken it multiple times and their best score is 15th percentile. One this is a horrible exam since HALF the exam is calculus with an emphasis on single variable. Higher schoolers who only took and mastered Calculus AB and BC can SCORE HIGHER than that. While the exam does not reflect how much mathematical talent a candidate has, scoring so poorly implies that the student has a poor understanding of even freshmen calculus. Graduate students are expected to TA calculus multiple times. But how can a committee trust someone to TA for calculus, when it appears that they do not even have a solid understanding of calculus.
In addition, it is well known many non-top tier universities have strong grade inflation, so the mGRE score is even more important for candidates from non-top tier universities since committee members do not know what an "A" means at your university. Does almost everyone in your classes get an "A"? The committee does not have time to check all of these especially from not well-known schools, so they use the mGRE instead as a way to compare applicants.
Now imagine someone who has a high GPA but a horrible mGRE (math phd don't care about the regular gre since it's just high school math) from a not well known school. This instantly puts a question about whether the candidate really deserved their grades. Now imagine the student applying to only top 20 schools. Of course, everyone would suggest them to apply to lower ranked schools since it is very unlikely they will get admitted to many if any of them due to most top 20 schools have a "cut off" score of around 800 on the mGRE. Now imagine someone boasting about how they will get into a top 20 school just for being female. I do agree that females should have an advantage in admissions for diversity reason; however, they still have to be a strong applicant to be admitted into a top tier school.
The main reason people are calling you a "troll" is because of your attitude. You adamantly believe you are a top candidate solely based on your gender and a high GPA. However, your mGRE gives the appearance that you do not understand undergrad material well. You call everyone who disagree with you a "sexist", when it seems much more likely that you are the sexist. You believe that because you're female and have a high GPA you deserve admissions to every top tier school. What about guys with high GPA and high mGRE; do they not deserve it as much as you because they were born male?
In addition, saying you will get into a top 20 just because you're a female is a disservice to every other female candidate. They all got in for many OTHER reasons other than just being female. I am in a top 10 math program and the female graduate students are all very bright and accomplished and got in for many reasons other than their sex. They all deserve their spot here.
I am happy to hear you got interviews and unofficial offers from top tier school, but you need to mature up and study hard for your qual exams, or you'll be kicked out of the school in no time.
Hey man, I'm right there with you. It really sucks since UIC is one of my top choices, but I guess we gotta play the waiting game now.bark_muffalo wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2020 11:49 pmThere's an acceptance from UIC up on grad cafe. Maybe they are sending out their first round of offers? If so, another one of my schools and still nothing...
Yeah, I'm just worried that I'm waiting for a rejection. I don't mean to be melodramatic, but I'm starting to think that I fundamentally miscalculated how committees at the schools I applied to would view my application. I'm an unusual applicant; I was a sociology major as an undergrad and have had to do all my grad school prep--first online classes, now an MA in math--while working. I tried to play these experiences as strengths. In particular, I tried emphasizing my teaching experience, thinking that schools are often looking for students who can help with the undergraduate teaching load. Now I am concerned that these factors do not make up for my lack of research experience and mediocre mgre.EricAndre wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:57 amHey man, I'm right there with you. It really sucks since UIC is one of my top choices, but I guess we gotta play the waiting game now.bark_muffalo wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2020 11:49 pmThere's an acceptance from UIC up on grad cafe. Maybe they are sending out their first round of offers? If so, another one of my schools and still nothing...
Yes, I see your point. She has been evolving and I commend her for that. I am hopeful that she will be able to pass her quals and do well in graduate school even in a top 20. She seems to have a lot of potential based off her GPA, general GRE, and thesis. Hopefully, her potential can be realized and she excels in graduate school.MathParent wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:34 amDear Mathguy.Mathguy1264 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:45 am
Dear Nicole,
Consider it from this point of view: A person with a very sub-optimal math GRE score say someone who has taken it multiple times and their best score is 15th percentile. One this is a horrible exam since HALF the exam is calculus with an emphasis on single variable. Higher schoolers who only took and mastered Calculus AB and BC can SCORE HIGHER than that. While the exam does not reflect how much mathematical talent a candidate has, scoring so poorly implies that the student has a poor understanding of even freshmen calculus. Graduate students are expected to TA calculus multiple times. But how can a committee trust someone to TA for calculus, when it appears that they do not even have a solid understanding of calculus.
In addition, it is well known many non-top tier universities have strong grade inflation, so the mGRE score is even more important for candidates from non-top tier universities since committee members do not know what an "A" means at your university. Does almost everyone in your classes get an "A"? The committee does not have time to check all of these especially from not well-known schools, so they use the mGRE instead as a way to compare applicants.
Now imagine someone who has a high GPA but a horrible mGRE (math phd don't care about the regular gre since it's just high school math) from a not well known school. This instantly puts a question about whether the candidate really deserved their grades. Now imagine the student applying to only top 20 schools. Of course, everyone would suggest them to apply to lower ranked schools since it is very unlikely they will get admitted to many if any of them due to most top 20 schools have a "cut off" score of around 800 on the mGRE. Now imagine someone boasting about how they will get into a top 20 school just for being female. I do agree that females should have an advantage in admissions for diversity reason; however, they still have to be a strong applicant to be admitted into a top tier school.
The main reason people are calling you a "troll" is because of your attitude. You adamantly believe you are a top candidate solely based on your gender and a high GPA. However, your mGRE gives the appearance that you do not understand undergrad material well. You call everyone who disagree with you a "sexist", when it seems much more likely that you are the sexist. You believe that because you're female and have a high GPA you deserve admissions to every top tier school. What about guys with high GPA and high mGRE; do they not deserve it as much as you because they were born male?
In addition, saying you will get into a top 20 just because you're a female is a disservice to every other female candidate. They all got in for many OTHER reasons other than just being female. I am in a top 10 math program and the female graduate students are all very bright and accomplished and got in for many reasons other than their sex. They all deserve their spot here.
I am happy to hear you got interviews and unofficial offers from top tier school, but you need to mature up and study hard for your qual exams, or you'll be kicked out of the school in no time.
I agree with the logic presented, but please observe that lately Nicole pulled back on her attitude of "I deserve it since I am a female". She seems to have realized, at least partially, that she was wrong. Observe also, that she deleted her comment, that used to be sitting there next to her (truly horrible) mGRE scores, stating that "math GRE are way too hard". She seems to have thought that mGRE involves knowledge of graduate math, while it is ALL undegraduate, and most of it seems to be elementary (just needs to move your brain fast, that's it). I think she realized, after multiple explanations from multiple posters, that mGRE that she has is very sub-par for PhD applicants at top schools, and started to ask advise about lower ranked schools and applications to those.
My point is, Nicole is evolving. I think being on this forum did indeed help her to calibrate herself "against the field."
I think one more exercise that she can do is actually to go through profiles posted, and see how many are females, and check out their credentials. And compare. That will be one humble experience.
But at any rate, let's be positive. Yes, I know YOU already are. Let's hope that some other math guys on this forum will also be that way.
UCLA open house RSVP has recently passed, so I think they're probably done with making most offers.nicole2 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:20 amPenn and UCLA both told me they're still reviewing my application yet I see others getting offers left and right. I guess "in review" means "our math department don't care enough about your application so we didn't give it much of a look, yet."
I really wanted to go to Boston but hopefully thy give out enough stipends. Heard Boston is expensive to live in.
Personally, no. USNews is not so reliable. I formed my ideas of tiers based on the AMS groups, the national research council rankings (tho those are pretty buggy too), and impressions I’ve gathered from profs, grad students, postdocs, etc.username31415 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 3:41 pmQuestion: when people here refer to tiers of schools or rankings, are you using US news?
The AMS rankings aren't good either. Smaller programs, for example, won't do as well in the rankings due to how they're structured. It makes much more sense to simply look up the people in your specific field of interest at a school. Specifically, look them up on mathscinet, and see if they have papers in the best journals: Inventiones, Annals, Publ Math, Duke, etc. ("best" here makes some sense as peer review is more scientific).asterac wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:36 pmPersonally, no. USNews is not so reliable. I formed my ideas of tiers based on the AMS groups, the national research council rankings (tho those are pretty buggy too), and impressions I’ve gathered from profs, grad students, postdocs, etc.username31415 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 3:41 pmQuestion: when people here refer to tiers of schools or rankings, are you using US news?
It can be weird talking to profs about it tho because many of them have good mid-tier schools they won’t know much about or will, say, have an inflated overall opinion of some schools because they’re good for their specific field. Reputation is a bit of a clusterfuck
Yeah, every ranking has its bugs. For example, Davis is Group II but comparable or better than some of the public schools in Group I, as I’m given to understand.ponchan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:06 pmThe AMS rankings aren't good either. Smaller programs, for example, won't do as well in the rankings due to how they're structured. It makes much more sense to simply look up the people in your specific field of interest at a school. Specifically, look them up on mathscinet, and see if they have papers in the best journals: Inventiones, Annals, Publ Math, Duke, etc. ("best" here makes some sense as peer review is more scientific).asterac wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:36 pmPersonally, no. USNews is not so reliable. I formed my ideas of tiers based on the AMS groups, the national research council rankings (tho those are pretty buggy too), and impressions I’ve gathered from profs, grad students, postdocs, etc.username31415 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 3:41 pmQuestion: when people here refer to tiers of schools or rankings, are you using US news?
It can be weird talking to profs about it tho because many of them have good mid-tier schools they won’t know much about or will, say, have an inflated overall opinion of some schools because they’re good for their specific field. Reputation is a bit of a clusterfuck
Not at all, but I come from a very unknown school so a waitlist actually makes me feel good because I think undergrad institution is much more important than people think.
I understand the feeling, but I also think it's the wrong way to view the situation. A school is not going to waitlist you unless they would truly be happy to have you as a student (schools mean it when they say that they get way more qualified applications than they have room for). The idea that because you weren't their first choice means you are somehow "less than" is wrong. The decision-making calculus of admission committees is complicated and variable; I imagine that the decision between acceptance and rejection often comes to a preference for a particular trait in an applicant that is not a function of their mathematical ability. And even if you were waitlisted because they were other candidates "better than you", so what? You're doing this because you love math.
Thanks, chrisps, congratulations. Do they have a visiting day? If so, when is it?
Programs generally try to make offers to people who will actually enroll, so a big part of the admissions calculus is the likelihood that you'll take the offer. And that includes considerations like how good a fit you are for the department and where else you're applying. So you shouldn't take being waitlisted personally.
I disagree, most schools want the strongest applicant whilst fulfilling any diversity quotas. Fit does not seem to matter much because its all irrelevant if you don't pass your quals./fluffball wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:18 pmPrograms generally try to make offers to people who will actually enroll, so a big part of the admissions calculus is the likelihood that you'll take the offer. And that includes considerations like how good a fit you are for the department and where else you're applying. So you shouldn't take being waitlisted personally.
It’s March 13fluffball wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:14 pmThanks, chrisps, congratulations. Do they have a visiting day? If so, when is it?
First of all, there are no diversity quotas. There might be informal preference given to applicants from underrepresented groups, but that's all.EricAndre wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:25 pmI disagree, most schools want the strongest applicant whilst fulfilling any diversity quotas. Fit does not seem to matter much because its all irrelevant if you don't pass your quals.fluffball wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:18 pmPrograms generally try to make offers to people who will actually enroll, so a big part of the admissions calculus is the likelihood that you'll take the offer. And that includes considerations like how good a fit you are for the department and where else you're applying. So you shouldn't take being waitlisted personally.
Well that’s something at least. Apparently I’m not good enough to even elicit a rejection! All the schools tell me the application is under review which just can’t be. Honestly I feel so embarrassed that if I decide to apply for the following year I will not apply to any of the programs I applied to this year: I’ll go to Europe or something.
Ha.. haha.. same. Just sitting here freaking out more and more as the days go by, wondering when (or if) I'll hear back from my schools. Although, to be fair, there is nothing particularly impressive about my profile. So maybe they're treating me like the mediocre applicant that I amahhhhmeh wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:05 amWell that’s something at least. Apparently I’m not good enough to even elicit a rejection! All the schools tell me the application is under review which just can’t be. Honestly I feel so embarrassed that if I decide to apply for the following year I will not apply to any of the programs I applied to this year.
Personally, I'm taking everything pass/no pass at this point, but I can afford to cause I have enough graded classes to graduate. And yeah I doubt they would care about a shitty grade in a non-math class, but I have no actual information to confirm that.
my current school forces us to finish a bunch of non-math classes to graduate, that's so tough for me lolasterac wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2020 8:56 pmPersonally, I'm taking everything pass/no pass at this point, but I can afford to cause I have enough graded classes to graduate. And yeah I doubt they would care about a shitty grade in a non-math class, but I have no actual information to confirm that.
One of my offer letters said, "On the recommendation of the Department of Mathematics (and if applicable, contingent upon receipt of your official test scores at a satisfactory level and of your official transcripts showing conferral of your degree), we are pleased to admit [...]" which makes it sound like they wouldn't look at my final transcript for much besides the fact that I actually did get the bachelor's.
I do not know what their total process is but I know they have 2 visit days, one in a few weeks, and one at the end of March, so I can imagine them sending out some additional decisions between those.
Don't want to start a debate but the MGRE is more heavily overlooked if you are a female, at least from reading the application history. If you are a male, then I'm impressed.mmmyaknow wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:43 pmHi guys,
I've been lurking here for a while but I decided to make an account and make a comment.
I'm a graduating senior math major at what one might call a public Ivy in the US. My math GPA is a 3.75. I've been involved in three separate research experiences, including one at my home institution that will become my honors thesis as well as a first author publication, and one at the top ranked school in my field, which I presented at a large math conference. I'm currently a grader for real analysis, and have previously graded for differential geometry (ie., I do a lot of calc). I've received offers from several schools this cycle, including an Ivy and two top-15 public schools in my field, and I'm waiting on a few more decisions post-interview.
I also did very, very poorly on the mGRE. In fact, I did exactly as poorly as some of the more-critiqued users on this forum.
I say all this not to toot my own horn or to criticize or support anyone's profile, but because I think statements I've seen such as "If you do that poorly on the mGRE, it means you don't even have a grasp of HS calculus", "the mGRE is SUPPOSED to be easy", "I got into top schools and had an xyz percentile mGRE, this shows that schools only care about the mGRE" and "if you do poorly, you'll just fail your quals and master out, like xyz person I stalked on linkedin" are incredibly harmful and not supported by evidence. First of all, the mGRE is objectively not a good assessment, and there are several studies pointing out that achievement on the mGRE is not associated with success in a graduate program. Secondly, I provide a counterexample to this idea if you don't do well, you don't even know HS calc/can't get into top programs/won't succeed. Granted, I didn't submit my mGRE most places because I know it's bad, and of course I recognize that some schools/fields place more weight on it than others, but clearly my application was strong enough to do well without it, and my success in mathematics isn't going to be ruled by whether or not I did well on this one test.
There's plenty of reasons people might be accepted or rejected from a program other than doing well/poorly on the mGRE, and there's plenty of reasons people might do poorly on the mGRE that has little to do with their intelligence or their preparation for grad school. I care about the math community being a supportive and reasonable place. We're all aspiring scientists, after all. I think we can do better than making such harmful and ill-informed statements.
(This is kind of my one hit wonder on this forum, so I'm not interested in fighting people on this, I just wanted to throw out my 2 cents. I wish I had seen something like this when I was freaking out about my own score so maybe this will help someone in the future.)
It’s also more readily overlooked when the applicant is from a prestigious school and has letters of recommendation from well-known researchers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make the post completely irrelevant for applicants from lesser-known schools. If you bomb the mGRE, are from a lower-tier school, and don’t have letters from famous mathematicians, then the odds are VERY heavily stacked against you. Pretending otherwise just gives people false hope.
CoronalRain wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:58 pmIt’s also more readily overlooked when the applicant is from a prestigious school and has letters of recommendation from well-known researchers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make the post completely irrelevant for applicants from lesser-known schools. If you bomb the mGRE, are from a lower-tier school, and don’t have letters from famous mathematicians, then the odds are VERY heavily stacked against you. Pretending otherwise just gives people false hope.
This also doesn’t apply to Asian males. No Asian male (domestic or international) can bomb the mGRE and expect acceptance to a competitive program.CoronalRain wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:58 pmIt’s also more readily overlooked when the applicant is from a prestigious school and has letters of recommendation from well-known researchers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make the post completely irrelevant for applicants from lesser-known schools. If you bomb the mGRE, are from a lower-tier school, and don’t have letters from famous mathematicians, then the odds are VERY heavily stacked against you. Pretending otherwise just gives people false hope.
They were right about one thing, though: bombing the mGRE does not necessarily imply that you’re bad at calculus and linear algebra. It just means you’re bad at the mGRE.
Completely agreed.ponchan wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:03 pmThis also doesn’t apply to Asian males. No Asian male (domestic or international) can bomb the mGRE and expect acceptance to a competitive program.CoronalRain wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:58 pmIt’s also more readily overlooked when the applicant is from a prestigious school and has letters of recommendation from well-known researchers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make the post completely irrelevant for applicants from lesser-known schools. If you bomb the mGRE, are from a lower-tier school, and don’t have letters from famous mathematicians, then the odds are VERY heavily stacked against you. Pretending otherwise just gives people false hope.
They were right about one thing, though: bombing the mGRE does not necessarily imply that you’re bad at calculus and linear algebra. It just means you’re bad at the mGRE.
I don't think its true for Asian domestic males, but yes Intl Asians better bring their A-game to the mGRE.ponchan wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:03 pmThis also doesn’t apply to Asian males. No Asian male (domestic or international) can bomb the mGRE and expect acceptance to a competitive program.CoronalRain wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:58 pmIt’s also more readily overlooked when the applicant is from a prestigious school and has letters of recommendation from well-known researchers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make the post completely irrelevant for applicants from lesser-known schools. If you bomb the mGRE, are from a lower-tier school, and don’t have letters from famous mathematicians, then the odds are VERY heavily stacked against you. Pretending otherwise just gives people false hope.
They were right about one thing, though: bombing the mGRE does not necessarily imply that you’re bad at calculus and linear algebra. It just means you’re bad at the mGRE.
I am a domestic asian male that got into an Ivy and top tier publics with a mediocre GRE score. I think the only reason my mGRE scores were overlooked were because I came from a very prestigious school and my letter writers are famous + I did uniformly well in all of my grad courses.EricAndre wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:13 pmI don't think its true for Asian domestic males, but yes Intl Asians better bring their A-game to the mGRE.ponchan wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:03 pmThis also doesn’t apply to Asian males. No Asian male (domestic or international) can bomb the mGRE and expect acceptance to a competitive program.CoronalRain wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:58 pm
It’s also more readily overlooked when the applicant is from a prestigious school and has letters of recommendation from well-known researchers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make the post completely irrelevant for applicants from lesser-known schools. If you bomb the mGRE, are from a lower-tier school, and don’t have letters from famous mathematicians, then the odds are VERY heavily stacked against you. Pretending otherwise just gives people false hope.
They were right about one thing, though: bombing the mGRE does not necessarily imply that you’re bad at calculus and linear algebra. It just means you’re bad at the mGRE.
If I recall correctly, you applied to applied math programs which means the MGRE is not that important in your case.Sobolev_Inequality wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:24 pmI am a domestic asian male that got into an Ivy and top tier publics with a mediocre GRE score. I think the only reason my mGRE scores were overlooked were because I came from a very prestigious school and my letter writers are famous + I did uniformly well in all of my grad courses.
The ivy I got into was applied while the publics were pure.EricAndre wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:25 pmIf I recall correctly, you applied to applied math programs which means the MGRE is not that important in your case.Sobolev_Inequality wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:24 pmI am a domestic asian male that got into an Ivy and top tier publics with a mediocre GRE score. I think the only reason my mGRE scores were overlooked were because I came from a very prestigious school and my letter writers are famous + I did uniformly well in all of my grad courses.
The ivy I got into was applied while the publics were pure.Sobolev_Inequality wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:36 pmEricAndre wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:25 pmIf I recall correctly, you applied to applied math programs which means the MGRE is not that important in your case.Sobolev_Inequality wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:24 pm
I am a domestic asian male that got into an Ivy and top tier publics with a mediocre GRE score. I think the only reason my mGRE scores were overlooked were because I came from a very prestigious school and my letter writers are famous + I did uniformly well in all of my grad courses.
Well, yeah. You’ve gotta have *something* that evidences your ability beyond what you say about yourself.CoronalRain wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:58 pmIt’s also more readily overlooked when the applicant is from a prestigious school and has letters of recommendation from well-known researchers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make the post completely irrelevant for applicants from lesser-known schools. If you bomb the mGRE, are from a lower-tier school, and don’t have letters from famous mathematicians, then the odds are VERY heavily stacked against you. Pretending otherwise just gives people false hope.
They were right about one thing, though: bombing the mGRE does not necessarily imply that you’re bad at calculus and linear algebra. It just means you’re bad at the mGRE.
