2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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mani_fold
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:49 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by mani_fold » Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:14 pm

Undergrad Institution: Medium-large state school
Major(s): Math
Minor(s): N/A
GPA: >3.9
Type of Student: DWM

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96)
V: 166 (97)
W: 5.5 (98)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 760 (71)

Program Applying: Pure & Applied math

Research Experience: 5 semesters + summers working on various original research projects with faculty advisors at home university. Variety of topics mostly centered on analysis on graphs. No REUs. Lots of conferences; e.g. 3 years JMM, poster at UMS. A handful of regional conferences and a couple of seminar talks. 4 original manuscripts, 5th due soon, with 3 more expository manuscripts.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Standard honor roll awards, with some more specialized departmental awards. No huge national honors outside of some conference awards. National Merit scholarship.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutored calculus all four years of undergrad, with recent grading assignments.

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I think I have 45-50 total number of enrolled math courses (this includes research credits). Among these are probably 15 or so graduate level classes (this excludes research). In particular, I specialized academically early on in analysis and made an effort to exhaust every analysis course at my school thru Ph.D.. I have four letter writers; three are professors who have known me all of undergrad and have advised original/expository research. The fourth is supervisor from department math lab, also known all of undergrad.

Applying to Where:

Longshots
Princeton - Rejected 1/31
MIT - Rejected 2/6
Yale - Rejected 2/3
CalTech - Rejected 2/19
Michigan - Rejected 2/13
UCLA - Will withdraw
Stanford - Will withdraw


Ambitious but not insane
Wisconsin - Rejected 2/5
Brown - Rejected 2/11
Georgia Tech - Will withdraw
UT Austin - Will withdraw
Minnesota - Will withdraw

UC San Diego - Accepted 2/7 (w/ funding) Accepted offer - 3/7
Ohio State - Accepted 12/31 (w/ funding) Declined 3/7
North Carolina, Chapel Hill - Accepted 2/4 (w/ funding) Declined 2/11

Safety (in theory)
University of Utah - Accepted 1/31 (w/ funding) Declined 2/8
Texas A&M - Accepted 1/24 (w/ funding + fellowship :shock: ) Declined 2/11


~ R e f l e c t i o n ~
  • The mGRE matters heavily. I think a lot of rejections I got were based on being <80 percentile. But what helped is that I had a bunch of research and a lot of interest (evidenced by a strong personal statement) in a field that matched very well with a good department. So I was able to make it. I think my mGRE was below average for UCSD, so if you're reading this, be aware that my score probably isn't representative of the average applicant with an offer.
  • If I could go back I wouldn't have wasted so much money on longshot schools. The writing was on the wall lol.
  • This community is 10% helpful and 90% toxic. Stay for the helpful people but keep your distance from the toxic people. If you're not at least a little bit insecure about your profile, you're either god tier (if you're reading this you're not) or you're overconfident. This website can be toxic because not everyone handles that insecurity in a healthy way. Believe in yourself, be realistic about your options, take a deep breath, get off gradcafe, and all of this will pass. There are a lot of god tier people (bless their mothers, I'm sure they tried to raise them right) who probably don't have much y w
  • Some final words on the math GRE before I close this nightmarish chapter in my academic career.
    • General advice: do a ton of calculus problems, take it twice or more if you can, and take it seriously every time. You really need to get a good score to make it in this process. The exam sucks, it's a flawed metric of success, it's too hard, blah blah blah. We don't make the rules. Seriously, take it seriously.
    • Some people say you can't study for it, or that you shouldn't study for it, or whatever. They're wrong; you really need to hit the calculus books to gain not just recall but mastery over things that may be long forgotten. I approached the exam as a competitive math test, with a mindset of training > studying. Don't try to master a new subject, just try to nail calc/linear algebra/diffeq/(one other specialized topic) and you'll get a good enough score. If you want a really good score, don't ask me because I don't know how.
    • Also Princeton review is a joke and a waste of money. Specialize to to problem books to practice. For a list of good books see https://mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5071
Last edited by mani_fold on Sat Mar 07, 2020 6:15 pm, edited 20 times in total.

oyoyoy
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2020 4:50 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by oyoyoy » Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:54 pm

Undergrad Institution: Top 10 Private
Major(s): Applied Math
Minor(s): Music
GPA: 3.85/4.0 Overall, 3.83/4.0 Math
Type of Student: Domestic White Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 166 (97%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 800 (78%)

Program Applying: Applied Math PhD

Research Experience: Two years of CS research/development (databases, data mining) before moving to more mathy research. Two national lab summer internships, currently a full-time predoc at a national lab. One conference publication in data mining, one preprint in numerical linear algebra.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list, departmental honors, nothing huge.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: None.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Four grad classes in math and mathematical statistics. Generally well-known/prominent recommenders.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I have a lot of stats and CS experience but didn't take many "fundamental" math courses (topology, PDEs, etc). My math grades are not stellar - got some B+'s. I'm hoping my breadth and research background will compensate for my obviously non-genius performance in classes.

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Nonsense:
Stanford : ICME - Rejected (2/5)
UC Berkeley : Applied Math - Rejected (2/6)
NYU : Math - Accepted (2/4) - Attending! (4/6)
MIT : Applied Math - Rejected (2/6), CSE - Accepted into CDO masters (2/19) - Declined (4/6)

Reach:
Caltech : ACM/CMS - Rejected (3/3)
Cornell : Applied Math - Waitlisted (2/10) - Interview offered and declined (4/10)
Yale : Applied Math - Rejected (2/12)
Brown : Applied Math - Rejected (2/4)

Match?:
Duke : Math - Waitlisted (2/14) - Rejected (4/14)
UC San Diego : Math/CSME - Accepted (2/7) - Declined (3/31)
UT Austin : CSEM - Waitlisted (3/5) - Emailed to gauge interest and declined (4/15)
UMN Twin Cities : Math - Rejected (4/20)
Last edited by oyoyoy on Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:43 pm, edited 30 times in total.

wth961209
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2020 12:28 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by wth961209 » Sat Jan 11, 2020 12:42 am

Undergrad Institution: Public, Top 30
Major(s): Mathematics
GPA: 3.7 (Major GPA 3.9), 3.5(in master program)
Type of Student: International

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 159 (83%) 2017 August
V: 168 (93%) 2017 August
W: 3.0 (15%) 2017 August
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 830(82%) 2017 Sept

TOEFL Score: N/A

Program Applying: Pure Math Ph.D (Algebra/Algebraic Number Theory)

Research Experience: Found the explicit basis for space of centralizer of a given matrix in arbitrary field k, and some reading courses.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's Award, PBK honor society, Excellent TA Award
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TAed for Calculus, Linear Algebra, Number Theory
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Ph.D pass in Algebra, Ph.D- pass in Complex Analysis, Master pass in Real Analysis
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Got rejected from all programs 2 years ago. Continued in master program at home institution.


Applying to Where:
Columbia Rejected 02/06
Upenn Very likely rejected
University of Michigan Rejected 02/12
UCI Waitlisted 02/20 (#8th out of 33) accepted 04/14
Ohio State Unofficially Rejected after Email Inquiry 2/18
UWash Rejected 03/04
UIC Rejected 03/03 via email inquiry (they finally reply to my email) Official Rejection 03/23
Penn State Rejected 03/31 via email
Emory Waitlisted 02/07 (one of the four people waitlisted for the Algebra group) told that the incoming class is already full 03/31 Official rejection 04/07
University of Arizona Promising contact after email inquiry 02/20 waitlisted 03/13 was told that I am on the highest group of waitlist 04/07 was told that they are not going to make more offers due to COVID-19 04/08

03/27 losing hopes now
Last edited by wth961209 on Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:00 pm, edited 22 times in total.

ccar
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2020 2:11 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by ccar » Sat Jan 11, 2020 2:30 am

Undergrad Institution: Boise State University
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Physics
GPA: 3.57 because I didn't put any effort in non-major classes (bad idea). Major GPA 3.94, Minor GPA 4.0
Type of Student: DWM

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 168 (93rd percentile)
V: 166 (97th percentile)
W: 5.5 (98th percentile)

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 540 (24th percentile) in September
M: 700 (59th percentile) in October


Program Applying: Pure Math/Applied Math

Research Experience: Faculty-guided independent research, which turned into my senior thesis. I wrote a paper that I submitted to an undergraduate journal. Under graduate research assistant for a STEM education study conducted by the Educational Technology department. Not the type of research I wanted to do, but it was a paid research assistantship and there weren't any other options for work/research at the time.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list with highest honors for two semesters.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor for statistics and upper-division math, like analysis, abstract algebra, etc. Learning Assistant (basically a TA minus the grading) for a ton of classes.

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Not really. Maybe that my advanced calculus and linear algebra classes were undergrad/grad cross list?

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Took two years off. I have a BA in philosophy that took me forever to complete before getting my math BS. Also have a W on my transcript.

Applying to Where:

Reach/Match list
Michigan State - Rejected 2/14
UNC - Waitlist after inquiry 3/20 - Rejected after inquiry 4/14
University of Minnesota - Rejected after inquiry 4/08 :( I didn't really expect to get in, but I wanted to
Texas A&M - Waitlist after inquiry 3/18 - Still haven't heard anything 4/16
CU Boulder Applied Math - Waitlist after inquiry 3/17 - Invited to Skype interview 3/20 -- Accepted w/ funding! 3/23 (what?!) Attending!
North Carolina State - Waitlist after inquiry 3/16 -- Accepted w/ funding 3/24 - Declined
Rensselaer Polytechnic - Accepted 3/06 -- TA offer 3/09 + 1 year fellowship supplement -- funding is only guaranteed for 4 years :/ seems like this is standard for them - Declined
University of Arizona - Accepted 1/30 -- Campus visit 2/29 -- TAship 3/06 - Declined
Louisiana State - Accepted w/ Fellowship! 2/13 - Declined

Backup masters programs
Portland State University - Accepted 1/09 / waiting on funding - Declined
Boise State University - Accepted w/ Funding 2/02 - Declined
University of Minnesota Duluth - Accepted 2/03 -- TAship 2/12 - Declined


REFLECTIONS

I think it's pretty safe to say that my personal statements got me my offers. I put a TON of effort into them. Named faculty, specific aspects of the programs, touched on how my specific skills and interest and background would contribute to the program. I assume my LoR were good too, but I honestly considered my applications to be somewhat marginal outside of my SoP and LoR. Having research experience I'm sure helped to.
Last edited by ccar on Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:28 pm, edited 23 times in total.

vzlamath
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2020 5:26 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by vzlamath » Sat Jan 11, 2020 5:47 pm

Undergrad Institution: Midwest, Private
Major(s): Applied Math & Petroleum Engineering
Minor(s): Computational Science, High-Performance Computing, Geoscience
GPA: 3.6/4.0
Type of Student: International Male

Grad Institution: Same as undergrad
Major(s): Applied Math
GPA: 4.0/4.0

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 163 (82%)
V: 153 (60%)
W: 6.0 (99%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
Did not take

TOEFL Score: Not Applicable

Program Applying: Applied Math Ph.D., mostly

Research Experience: Master's thesis in Numerical PDE's, Boundary Element Methods
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Full-tuition scholarship for undergrad. Academic excellence awards.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for Calculus. TA for Petroleum department. 4-years tutor.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: luck
Any Other Info: Also applying to programs in Petroleum Engineering:
Southern California, UT Austin, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Houston, Mines, LSU,
Oklahoma, Tulsa, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Penn State, Stanford.

Applying to Where:
Rensselaer Polytechnic - Mathematics - Accepted (4/01) with funding - Declined
Southern Methodist - Computational & Applied Math - Accepted (1/21) with funding - Declined
Harvard - Applied Math (SEAS) - Rejected (2/24)
MIT - Computational Science & Engineering (CSE) - Rejected (3/12)
Columbia - Applied Math (APAM) - Rejected (4/22)
Rice - Computational & Applied Math (CAAM) - Rejected (4/15)
Maryland - Applied Math & Stats and Scientific Computation (AMSC) - Rejected (2/21)
Stony Brook - Applied Math & Statistics (AMS/CAM) - Rejected (2/13)
Brandeis - Mathematics - Rejected (4/10)
Illinois Tech - Applied Math - Rejected (3/18)
Houston - Mathematics - Rejected (8/03)

(3/2) Putting this back up after all, hope it helps someone in some way at least.
(3/31) Leaning toward the PhD in Petroleum Engineering.
(4/15) Attending: University of Southern California!
Last edited by vzlamath on Thu Aug 06, 2020 9:57 am, edited 57 times in total.

totient16
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2019 8:49 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by totient16 » Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:59 pm

Undergrad Institution: Ivy
Major(s): Mathematics, History
GPA: 3.9 (Math GPA 3.8; much lower than my GPA from my other classes :? )
Type of Student: Domestic White Male

GRE General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 170 (99%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 850 (86%) - FWIW, I failed the test (~50%) three times before getting a decent score. I've seen a lot of posts on this forum about how the mGRE is (or should be) trivial and I just don't think that's true.
TOEFL Score: N/A

Program Applying: Pure Math Ph.D. (in something algebraic)

Research Experience: Two summers working with professors at my home institution. One REU. One paper; some stuff under review but I think it’ll never get published because the problems were quite silly (see thoughts on combo below).
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Departmental award for history thesis. Nominated for Goldwater, but I think they were too fixated on my math GPA.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Graded for some calculus courses. Helped run some events for women in math, didn't write about this much though because I don't want to sound male savior-y. It was just something I personally believed in doing, whether or not it helps me get in anywhere.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: One graduate course in analysis. Edited a politics journal for two years.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: B’s in a couple of math classes. My letter writers know me very well, but two of them are postdocs because I had trouble building relationships with tenured professors at my school. It might look suspicious that I did three summers of combinatorics research but I didn’t write about it in my essays. I don't like combinatorics and the problems I was given were extremely pointless, but I kept doing it because that’s what undergrads are expected to do. REUs (and undergrad research generally) are pretty overrated tbh.

Applying to Where: (alphabetical, since this is less arbitrary than US News rankings :P )
Cambridge
Columbia
Cornell
Harvard
Michigan
MIT
UC Berkeley
UCSD
U Chicago
admitted on 01/09
UIUCadmitted on 01/08
UT Austin
University of Utah

ChimiSeanGa
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:52 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by ChimiSeanGa » Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:05 pm

Undergrad Institution: Medium sized state school
Major(s): Mathematics, Computer Science
Minor(s):
GPA: 3.93 overall, 4.0 math
Type of Student: Domestic white male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 169 (95%)
V: 164 (94%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 800 (78%)

Program Applying: Pure Math PhD

Research Experience: REU at my undergrad institution, and senior project research paper was published
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Several awards/scholarships from my undergrad math department and college, summa cum laude
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Currently working at a large tech company in the Bay Area

Applying to Where:
Boston University - Rejected 3/26
Brown University - Rejected 2/17
Colorado State University - Admitted 2/25
University of California, Berkeley - Admitted 1/31 - ATTENDING 4/11
University of Chicago - Rejected 1/28
University of Colorado, Boulder - Admitted 1/31
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Admitted 1/9
University of Massachusetts, Amherst - Rejected (never heard back)
University of Michigan - Rejected 3/6
University of Oregon - Admitted 2/10
University of Pennsylvania - Rejected (never heard back)
University of Utah - Rejected 3/3
University of Virginia - Admitted 2/6
University of Washington - Rejected 3/2
University of Wisconsin - Rejected 2/3
Last edited by ChimiSeanGa on Sat Apr 11, 2020 8:28 pm, edited 12 times in total.

convergency75
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:39 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by convergency75 » Wed Jan 15, 2020 3:06 pm

Undergrad Institution: Top 60 Private but not famous for math
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): None
GPA: 3.96
Math GPA: 4
Type of Student: Asian Female

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 155 (68%)
V: 161 (76%)
W: 3.5 (39%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 640 (46%) 2019 April 6th
M: 760 (71%) 2019 October 26th

I didn't really care too much about GRE because I believe it does not indicate at all whether one can be successful in grad school. i just took it once and then ignored it.
I did care about GRE math because it is important to master all the undergrad material. It was much more fun to study than GRE anyway.
I was never good at calculating stuff because I spent much more time doing proof than these calculating things. As you see I didn't do very well on the first exam, but for the second exam I really really studied. You all can improve by studying! Believe in yourself.
To get a 760 you don't need to know how to do the very hard questions. You just need to remember all the things from calc, linear algebra and differential equations. Also PRACTICE A LOT! I woke up and got to library at 8:30 to do practice problems on Saturday for 4 weeks.
Also, I don't think it weighs too much on admission process. Indeed a low score is a bad sign, but you don't need to stress too much about it. There are more important things than just practicing GRE math numbly.

TOEFL Score: Waived

Program Applying: Pure Math ph.D

Research Experience: One research project on complex geometry with professor at my school, nothing published. The professor wrote me a letter of recommendation. The special thing is that I was the only 2 students in our department to get this opportunity. I am not US citizen so I don't get a lot of opportunity for REU.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Departmental award that is given once a year. Phi beta kappa.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Went to a conference for female mathematicians. Did an independent study on fractal geometry and gave a talk in school. Did a directed reading program on arithmetic geometry and gave a talk to math faculty and students. Had been a volunteer Teaching Assistance in China for a pretty fancy "summer camp" called Harvard Summit for Young Leaders in China. Nothing interesting.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: 5 grad courses. The only interesting thing I did. My strength is that my recommenders know me very well and they all like me very much. One recommender is from UPenn, the other from UCSB, and the other from Rutgers which are all in my list. The recommender from UPenn actually taught me graduate course (topology) and I got an A in his class so I think he would have something to say about it. Also I know a professor from Purdue who have recommended me to their department chair. I met her at the conference and I invited her to our university to give a talk because I really think her research is interesting and meaningful (mathematical biology).
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: My dad has a phD in fluid dynamics, and my aunt has a phD in chemistry. My mother's side of family is Korean (Joseonjok, Korean minority in China) and my dad's side Chinese. Lot to write about in "cultural background" essays.

Applying to Where:
Super Reach
Michigan Ann Arbor - Rejected - 2/12
UPenn - Invited to open house - 1/14 - Admitted - 2/11 (OMG...) - ATTENDING

Reach
UIUC - Admitted - 1/8
(Thought I was dreaming the whole day I got the email!) - declined
UCSD - Rejected - 3/19
Notre Dame - waitlisted - 2/20
Rutgers - Admitted - 2/17 - declined

Match (I hope)
UCSB - asked if still interested -4/10 - declined
Indiana Bloomington - waitlisted - 3/31 - declined
Purdue - Rejected - 4/15
Maryland - admitted - 2/14 with Ruth Davis Fellowship $3000 per year for 5 year + Dean's Fellowship $5000 per year for first 2 year + $20, 688 TA ship ($28,688 in total for first year)- declined
Michigan State - Admitted - 2/10 with Teaching Reduction Fellowship for the 1st year.
- declined

I wanted to apply to some safety school but at the end of the semester I just got tired from all these applications. Also it's a lot of money to apply. Plus my UPenn recommender think it unnecessary to apply to the safety schools I initially suggested.
Last edited by convergency75 on Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:41 pm, edited 16 times in total.

youngsmasher
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2020 4:10 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by youngsmasher » Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:31 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large public university
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Computer Science
GPA: 3.94 overall
Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 162 (90%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 870 (89%)

TOEFL Score: N/A

Program Applying: Pure Math PhD

Research Experience: N/A
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA-like position for undergraduates
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help:
- Will graduate with around 14 grad courses (real/complex analysis, differential geometry, probability theory, some applied classes)
- One recommender is very famous in analysis and the other two are well-known in their respective fields; did not know them particularly well, however
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: SDE internship

Applying to Where:
Safety:
UCI - Requested for interview 1/30/20, Withdrew 1/31/20
UCSD - Accepted by e-mail 2/25/20

Not Safety:
UCLA - Accepted by e-mail 1/18/20
Berkeley - Rejected 2/6/20
NYU - Admitted to Masters program 3/26/20
Purdue - Positive e-mail 2/6/20, Official acceptance by e-mail 2/11/20
UW - Waitlisted by e-mail 3/2/20, Withdrew 3/2/20
Caltech - Rejected 2/19/20
Columbia - Rejected 2/6/20
Stanford - Rejected 3/20/20
MIT - Rejected 2/6/20
UChicago - Rejected 1/28/20
Cornell - Rejected 2/10/20
Brown - Rejected 2/11/20
Princeton - Rejected 1/31/20
Last edited by youngsmasher on Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:44 pm, edited 14 times in total.

Alkaline
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:19 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Alkaline » Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:44 am

Undergrad Institution: Small school, not known for math
Major(s): Actuarial Science
GPA: 3.92/4.0
Type of Student: International, Male, Black

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 161 (76%)
V: 158 (80%)
W: 4.5 (81%)

Program Applying: Math/Financial Math PhD Programs

Research Experience: Two year-long research/stat consulting projects. Both published in not-so-impressive journals. Presented both at regional conferences as well as at NCUR.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Several within my school
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Math Tutor for one year on campus, Actuarial Internship for one year but I'm not sure that'll be much help.

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
School - Emory University (Math) / Rejected 2/6
School - Florida State University (Financial Mathematics) / Rejected 3/5
School - University of Florida (Math - Quantitative Finance Track) / Pending
School - University of Central Florida (Financial Mathematics) / Admitted 3/6

I didn't take the GRE Subject Test because I waited way too long before I decided to apply to grad school and then it was just too late to take the test. Casually freaking out about this whole process; this waiting game is slowly killing me. Hoping to receive some good news soon!
Last edited by Alkaline on Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:04 am, edited 5 times in total.

coru97
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2020 2:48 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by coru97 » Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:33 pm

Undergrad Institution: Big university in Spain
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Physics Engineering (technically speaking, this is a second Major)
GPA: 9.51/10.00 in Math (nevertheless I don't think this is quite translatable to USA GPAs, for example, I am top of my class with more than half a point of difference)
Type of Student: International, Spanish, Caucasian/Hispanic, Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: About 40%
W: About 15% (I dont think they care much about the last two in Math)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 970 (99%)

TOEFL Score: (108 = R29/L29/S25/W25)

Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience: One scientific paper (Analytic NT, not published yet). Research experience at Princeton in Analysis of Fluids (PDEs) and at ICMAT (Madrid, Spain). Also some workshops in PDEs, Harmonic Analysis and Functional Analysis.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: A lot of math olympiads (bronze IMO, two golds and one silver IMC...)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA 4h/week in my 4th year, RA 15h/week in my 4th year (analytic NT). In my undergrad program, we have a 5th year of full-time research (Analysis of Fluids/PDE).
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I personally think that the letters of recommendation are the decisive factor for top schools, once you have good GPA+MathGRE. My letters were good (one of them is at Princeton), and I guess they had a really good opinion of me (I was working for more than 4 months with two of my recommenders).

Applying to Where:
Princeton - Admitted with a formal offer
NYU (Courant) - Admitted with a formal offer (02/03)
UChicago - Admitted with a formal offer
UCLA -
MIT - Admitted with a formal offer (01/25)
Last edited by coru97 on Fri Feb 07, 2020 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

MathMusicMinistry
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2020 7:56 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by MathMusicMinistry » Sun Jan 26, 2020 8:00 am

Undergrad Institution: Small, private liberal arts school
Major(s): Actuarial Science
Minor(s): Counseling
GPA: 3.5

Grad Institution: Eastern Michigan University
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): N/A
GPA: 3.8

Type of Student: Domestic/Female/Minority

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 158
V: 158
W: 4.5
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: N/A

TOEFL Score: N/A

Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience: Research study in Multivariate statistics at my graduate school, Eastern Michigan University. I will present this research at a graduate conference in March.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: GA tutor for a year, GA teacher for a year (I taught two sections of Intermediate Algebra each semester), independent tutor 7 years.

Applying to Where:
Central Michigan University - Mathematics (Collegiate Teaching Concentration) / Accepted 2/05 - no word on funding yet
Clemson University - Mathematics / Pending
Wayne State University - Mathematics / Accepted 1/27 - no word on funding yet
Last edited by MathMusicMinistry on Wed Feb 12, 2020 12:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Lisztrachmaninovfan
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2019 7:30 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Lisztrachmaninovfan » Sun Jan 26, 2020 8:06 pm

Undergrad Institution: Well-known large public with a top 10 math program
Major(s): Applied Mathematics
Minor(s): N/A
GPA: 3.69 (~3.74 in math, higher excluding lower-division courses)
Type of Student: Domestic Mixed-Race Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 167 (90%)
V: 162 (90%)
W: 6.0 (99%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 790 (76%) (September 2019)

TOEFL Score: N/A

Program Applying: Applied Mathematics Ph.D. (or Mathematics if Applied Math is not a separate program)

Research Experience: REU at another top 10 math university (not my home university), three research positions at my home university (one of which is current). Out of those three, two were in computational fluid mechanics: the first was in planetary climate simulations, and the second is in lava flow simulation; the other was a physics/materials science one in low-dimensional materials. No journal publications yet.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: A prestigious academic scholarship through my university (similar to an honors program) and some smaller academic awards.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Physics tutor (one semester), math peer adviser through department (two semesters), currently teaching and facilitating a course on nonlinear dynamics (one semester), grader/reader for real analysis (one semester), TA for data science (one semester), and an officer for a K-8 STEM outreach program (been a member since freshman year and an officer for this last year).
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: 5 graduate-level math classes (numerical ODEs/PDEs, PDE theory, point-set topology/measure theory), 2 graduate-level physics classes (Hamiltonian dynamics, nonlinear dynamics), and two of my recommenders are well-known researchers in math/physics and probably wrote good letters.

Applying to Where:
UMich - Admitted by email on 2-17 Declined
UCLA - Unofficially rejected by email on 2-19 :cry:
UT Austin - Rejected by portal on 4-14 (after ghosting me for nearly two months, I already expected it :lol:)
Northwestern - Admitted by portal on 1-29 Declined
Yale - Admitted by portal on 2-12 Attending!!!
Brown - Rejected by portal on 2-4
UC Davis - Admitted by email on 1-28 Declined
Cornell - Rejected by email on 2-10
UWash - Admitted by email on 1-22 Declined
CMU - Shortlisted by email on 3-1, and then notified the next day that I was very high on this shortlist and would likely be offered admission shortly. Finally, officially admitted by email on 3-6 Declined
Last edited by Lisztrachmaninovfan on Wed Apr 15, 2020 1:23 am, edited 18 times in total.

algebro
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:53 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by algebro » Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:24 pm

Undergrad Institution: Midwestern Private College (not known)
Major(s): Math
Minor(s):
GPA: 3.8
Type of Student: International, Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 163 (82%)
V: 159 (83%)
W: 4.0 (57%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 730 (65%)

TOEFL Score: n/a

Program Applying: Pure Math - Algebraic Geometry

Research Experience: Nothing original
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: no
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: no
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: no
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Graduated in 3 yrs - might be detrimental

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)

Doctorate:
UC San Diego - Rejected on 3/19
University of Oregon - Rejected on 2/10
University of Nebraska Lincoln - Accepted on 2/18, Funding: 17k, 79% of insurance premium, + possible 3 - 4.5k of summer support

Masters:
University of Waterloo - Rejected on 2/20
McGill University - Rejected on 3/20
Simon Fraser University -Interview on 3/4
Last edited by algebro on Fri Mar 20, 2020 3:35 pm, edited 7 times in total.

yaskhn3
Posts: 149
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:23 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by yaskhn3 » Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:33 am

Done
Last edited by yaskhn3 on Tue Mar 10, 2020 8:39 pm, edited 12 times in total.

hanalysis
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2020 7:43 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by hanalysis » Fri Jan 31, 2020 8:25 am

Undergrad Institution: Asia, top 3 in our country
Major(s): Math
Minor(s): -
GPA: Overall 4.01 / 4.3 Major 3.92 / 4.3
Type of Student: International Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 156 (73%)
W: 3.0 (15%) :(
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 910 (96%)

TOEFL Score: (97 = R30/L24/S23/W20) :(

Program Applying: Pure Math, Analysis

Research Experience: 2 REU at home institution, 1 from Dept. of Math. and 1 from Dept. of CS., both are not original
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 1 medal from National Collegiate Math Competition in our country
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Undergraduate TA once + some tutoring programs
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: 9 grad courses(Measure Theory, Functional Analysis, Fourier Analysis, Harmonic Analysis, Ergodic Theory, Differentiable Manifold, Lie Group, Algebraic Topology, Several Complex Variables)
Recommendation from the math professor with whom I did REU, believing it's a strong one.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Some UG Math Seminar Talks

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
British Columbia(Master) -
Caltech - Rejected via E-mail on 19th Feb
Cornell - Rejected via E-mail on 10th Feb
Georgia Tech - Rejected via Portal on 8th Apr
Johns Hopkins - Rejected via Portal on 12th Feb
MIT - Rejected via E-mail on 6th Feb
Ohio State - Admitted via E-mail on 13th Feb
Princeton - Rejected via E-mail on 31st Jan
Purdue - Rejected via Portal on 15th Apr
Pennsylvania -
UCLA - Rejected via Portal on 26th Feb
UCSD - Rejected via Portal on 11th Apr
UIUC - Rejected via E-mail on 10th Jan
Washington - Rejected via E-mail on 1st Mar
Wisconsin-Madison - Rejected via E-mail on 5th Feb
Yale - Rejected via Portal on 3rd Feb
Last edited by hanalysis on Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:37 am, edited 12 times in total.

panchitopanchito2
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 10:16 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by panchitopanchito2 » Sun Feb 02, 2020 10:42 am

[deleted]
Last edited by panchitopanchito2 on Sat Apr 11, 2020 6:51 pm, edited 20 times in total.

pgePark
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2020 6:56 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by pgePark » Sun Feb 02, 2020 7:16 pm

Undergrad Institution: University of Washington (Seattle)
Major(s): B.S. Math & B.S. Applied Computational Mathematical Sciences
Minor(s):
GPA: 3.99/4
Type of Student: Domestic Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 169 (95%)
V: 163 (93%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 880 (90%)


Program Applying: Pure Math/Applied Math

Research Experience: Studied computational neuroscience through an undergraduate training program run through my school. Worked in a lab for that studying the mathematical properties of neural networks for around a year and throughout the summer. Got lots of coding experience and experience with parallel processing on the school's supercomputer. Worked under another Postdoc studying algebraic combinatorics for a bit. No publications.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Honors Scholar (whatever that means)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Math tutor, Software Developer
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Took a few grad classes and had a wide range of coursework from deep mathematical theorem to some more applied classes in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Very close with all three of my recommenders and one of them was very well known in the academic community. Lots of volunteering with outreach events and the local animal shelter.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I added a joke about my pet guinea pigs in my personal statement. I can safely assume I was the only one to do so.

Applying to Where:
UCLA (MATH): Admitted (Jan 19)
UC Berkeley (MATH): Admitted (Jan 31)
University of Washington (Applied Math): Admitted (Jan 22)
University of Washington (MATH):
Cornell (MATH):
Stanford (Applied Math - ICME): Rejected (Jan 27)
Caltech (MATH):
UC San Diego (MATH):

SKD
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 6:22 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by SKD » Mon Feb 03, 2020 6:26 pm

Undergrad Institution: A upper-tier university in China with some reputation in math
Major(s): B.S. Mathematics & Applied Mathematics
Minor(s):
GPA: 81%

Grad Institution: Big public university in the US (with math ranking 10-20)
Major: Mathematics
GPA:3.8/4

Type of Student: International Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 166 (89%)
V: 152 (54%)
W: 3.0 (15%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 850 (86%)
(I must be a fake Asian)

Program Applying: Pure math, especially interested in geometry

Research Experience: No solid research experiences. Participate some undergrad seminars (mainly based on graduate level math) in China, spend a semester write a so-called review on a famous theorem in modern geometry.(Maybe not that modern? Proved in 60s to 80s)
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Excellent graduation thesis (at the university in China)
Things Would Help: Take almost all grad courses in geometry or related to geometry that I can take, including differential geometry and algebraic geometry. But I did not so well in algebra, I guess this will put me in disadvantage.

Applying to Where:

Tier 1:
Stony Brook University
University of Chicago Rejected Jan 29
Northwestern University
University of Michigan
University of California, Irvine

Tier 2:
Duke University Rejected Jan 29
University of Wisconsin, Madison Rejected Feb 3
Purdue University
Pennsylvania State University
Rutgers
Rice University

Tier 3:
University of Notre Dame
Indiana University, Bloomington
Georgia Institute of Technology
Boston University
University of Illinois, Chicago

dujiahan
Posts: 37
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2019 8:50 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by dujiahan » Tue Feb 04, 2020 4:35 pm

Undergrad Institution: (The only top 5 public school, the school that beats Stanford)
Major(s):Pure math
Minor(s):none
GPA:3.908
Type of Student: Chinese male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 168 (93%)
V: 166 (97%)
W: 4.0 (57%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 950 (99%)

TOEFL Score: Waived

Program Applying: PhD's in pure or applied math

Research Experience: One summer research experience, but no publication or original results, one JMM presentation
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list, high school math competition
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Graders for various upper div math classes
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Many grad classes
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
In no particular order:

Michigan Ann Arbor AIM, accepted
UCLA pure math, accepted
Brown applied math, rejected
Wisconsin Madison pure math, accepted
Georgia tech pure math, accepted
Northwestern ESAM, accepted
Duke pure math, rejected
Cornell CAM, rejected
UT Austin pure math, pending
UCSD pure math, accepted
Purdue pure math, pending
Washington applied math, rejected
Bonn math masters, accepted
Last edited by dujiahan on Mon Feb 10, 2020 7:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

tbbxl20
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2020 10:34 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by tbbxl20 » Wed Feb 05, 2020 10:53 am

Undergrad Institution: Foreign
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): N/A
GPA: 3.59 / 4, math courses 3.65 / 4 :(
Type of Student: International Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 154 (64%)
W: 3.5 (39%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 900 (94%)

TOEFL Score: (101 = R26/L28/S24/W23)

Program Applying: Applied Math Ph.D. (or Math Ph.D. if Amath is not separated)

Research Experience: 2 summer research experiences (Numerical Linear Algebra and Discontinuous Galerkin), 1 distance research at Purdue for 3 months, but no rec letter for that... So just think it as two. Currently one paper in preparation (DG method, uploading the draft to universities)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 1 semester TA for complex analysis course in my senior year.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Have some connections with Penn State, CU-Boulder, and UIowa (though I was not applying it lol)

Applying to Where:
Better than lotteries?
Brown - Applied Math / Rejected on 2/4
Cornell - CAM / Rejected on 2/10
UT Austin - Math / Rejected on 4/14
UT Austin - CSEM / Rejected on 3/4

Reach
CMU - Math / "Not likely for more offers" (4/13)
Wisconsin - Math / Rejected on 2/5
Minnesota - Math / Rejected on 4/15
Maryland - AMSC / Rejected on 2/19 :(
Washington - Applied Math / Admitted to MS on 1/24 / Declined 3/19
Rice - CAAM / Rejected on 4/15
UCSD - Math & CSME / Rejected on 3/19

Match (with some connections)
Penn State - Math / Waitlisted on 3/23 / Officially accepted (4/15)
CU-Boulder - Applied Math / Interviewed on 2/6 / Officially accepted (3/19) / Declined 4/15
Last edited by tbbxl20 on Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:38 pm, edited 18 times in total.

qwertyiop
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2019 8:58 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by qwertyiop » Thu Feb 06, 2020 6:41 pm

Undergrad Institution: Big State
Major(s): Mathematics, Psychology
Minor(s): N/A
GPA:
3.1 retention (listed as cumulative on transcript), 2.9 cumulative, :?
3.6 at last school,
3.8 math
Type of Student: Domestic Multiracial (Minority & White) Female

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 159 (70%) :?
V: 159 (83%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: N/A

TOEFL Score: N/A

Program Applying: Pure Math, Applied Math, Computer Science (varies by school, my interests are all over the place: number theory, graph theory, math bio, etc.)

Research Experience:
Did a reading course on post-quantum cryptography. Worked in a neuroscience lab for a couple semesters.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: President's List, Dean's List, LSAMP scholar
Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
Just started a math tutoring job. Have done volunteer work teaching and doing some math outreach. I also participated in a reading program (basically talking about math with a grad student) and gave presentations for that.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help:
My low grades are mostly old, some as many as 10 years old. I've made almost straight A's for the last few semesters and there was a distinctive turnaround when I started taking advanced math courses. I've also been told that I addressed the circumstances of my low grades well in my SOP.
At one school I may be funded for the first two years via an outside scholarship program.
Also, in retrospect, I think a couple of my recommendation letters may have been quite strong.

Applying to Where:
University of North Texas - PhD Math - never actually got around to applying; probably won't bother at this point
UT Dallas - PhD Computer Science - also haven't applied, might still toss in an application (4/8 - just kidding lol)
University of Oklahoma - PhD Math Admitted w/ GTA (2/9) + fellowship (3/?)
Oklahoma State University - PhD Pure Math Unofficially admitted to MS program (not PhD) w/ GTA (3/2)
Kansas State - PhD Math Admitted w/ GTA (2/18) Declined (3/27)
Texas State - MS Pure Math Admitted (2/14) Declined (4/8)
University of Tulsa - MS Applied Math Admitted (5/5)
UT Arlington - MS Applied Math Recommended for PhD instead, withdrew application (3/8)

I don't have a ton of hope with my applications, but hopefully something will work out.

Update (4/8): I mostly put this up because when I was fretting about admissions, I couldn't find any applicants who were similar to me. I was convinced I would only get into unfunded master's programs because I didn't see enough data points to get a decent grasp of my chances. With the world changing rapidly, funding may be scarce in the coming years, but I'm hoping the information I provided will be helpful to someone when this is all over.
Last edited by qwertyiop on Tue May 05, 2020 6:14 pm, edited 16 times in total.

hiwasaki
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2020 5:42 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by hiwasaki » Thu Feb 06, 2020 7:47 pm

Undergrad Institution: Top Private (Ivy-level) Tech school
Major(s): Physics, Mathematics
Minor(s): Chemistry, Computer Science
GPA: 3.85 (4.0 in physics, 3.8 in math)
Type of Student: International Asian Female

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 156 (73%) LOL
W: 3.5 (39%) :(
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 860 (87%)

TOEFL Score: NA

Program Applying: Pure Math (Geometry)

Research Experience: 2-year computational chemistry research; 2-year theoretical physics research (no math :/)
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: some achievement awards within school
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: tutored physics/chemistry classes, graded physics/math classes
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: 3 physics grad classes, 1 math grad class
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Math
Harvard - Rejected (2/6)
Stanford - Waitlisted (3/2) Admitted (unofficially 4/2, officially 4/8)
Columbia - Rejected (2/6)
UCLA -
Stony Brook - Admitted (unofficial email 2/26, official letter in a week or two) Declined (4/10)
Northwestern - Admitted (1/25 email for a scheduled call, 2/2 official email) Declined (4/10)

Physics
Harvard - Rejected (2/13 website)
Princeton - Admitted (2/13 email) Declined (4/8)
Caltech - Rejected (2/19 email)
Berkeley - Admitted (2/6 email) Declined (4/8)
UCSB - Rejected (3/3 website)
CU Boulder - Admitted (1/3 email) Declined (a long time ago)
Perimeter Scholars International - Admitted (11/30 interview offer via email, 12/6 accepted via email)


I have way stronger background in physics but am tending to going to math grad school
Last edited by hiwasaki on Fri Apr 10, 2020 8:35 pm, edited 12 times in total.

DillWithIt77
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2020 8:06 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by DillWithIt77 » Thu Feb 06, 2020 8:26 pm

Undergrad Institution: Liberal Arts
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Computer Science, Economics
GPA: 3.79

Graduate Institution: Michigan State University
Major(s): Industrial Mathematics (Masters)
GPA: 3.72

Type of Student: Domestic White Female

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 157
V: 157
W: 4.5
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 510 (16%) (It's bad, I know. :oops: )


Program Applying: Applied Math Phd

Research Experience: 1 REU at Michigan State University which produced a publication
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List all of Undergrad, several Departmental Awards, Graduate Teaching Award, Drew Graduate Recognition Award (just another teaching award but from a specific program I taught for.)
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Math and Computer Science tutor during undergrad, worked in Information Services in undergrad, graduate teaching assistant during my masters program, lead TA for the last year of my masters program, and currently a software developer for an insurance company
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I did a lot of projects (6) during my masters since I had to do a defense of my work to graduate. Most involved some type of math modeling such as Feature Selection, Clustering, Linear Modelling, etc. 2 projects were basically like internships because the work was for a particular company.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I also did an internship at Quicken Loans as a Data Analyst, so I guess that might be useful. I also still tutor for the program I taught for at MSU. :D

Applying to Where: (alphabetical order cause that's how it is on my excel sheet :wink: )
Colorado School of Mines - Accepted (2/12); waitlisted for GTA, invited for visit weekend (3/5 - 3/7) - Declined (4/13)
Colorado State - Accepted (3/10); waitlisted for GTA - Declined (4/13)
Georgia Tech - Rejected (4/10)
Kansas State - Accepted (3/6); 17k for fall and spring 4k for the summer, invited to visit weekend (3/18-3/21) visit cancelled bc of coronavirus - Declined (3/27)
Texas A and M - Rejected (4/17)
University of Auburn - Accepted (4/17); not funded - Declined (4/17)
University of Colorado Boulder - Rejected (2/5)
University of Colorado Denver - Accepted (2/4); TA position, $2k for relocation, extra $250 a year for first 2 years from NSF grant (super pumped for my second funded offer :mrgreen: ), invited to visit weekend (3/12 - 3/13) visit cancelled bc of coronavirus - ATTENDING!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
University of Iowa - Accepted (3/11);20k GTA and 3k guaranteed summer funding;invited to visit weekend on 3/02 (3/27-3/28)visit cancelled bc of coronavirus - Declined (4/7)
University of Minnesota
University of Oklahoma - Accepted (2/15); waiting to see if I get any additional fellowships, invited to visit weekend (2/28 - 2/29) - Declined (3/20)

Let's see how this goes. *fingers crossed*

Final thoughts: I'm very happy with the school I ending up deciding on. I'm going to be in a city I love, with a super support program, and get the chance to be so much more than what I currently am. A lot of my decision was based on fit, and I feel really confident that the program I will soon be a part of is the perfect fit for me out of all of my choices. I hope my profile can serve as help to others! Good luck to everyone and I hope you are all staying safe. :D
Last edited by DillWithIt77 on Mon Apr 20, 2020 8:52 pm, edited 14 times in total.

anast
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2020 3:21 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by anast » Sat Feb 08, 2020 4:15 pm

Undergrad Institution: California State University (Unranked)
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): None
GPA: 3.85
Math GPA: 4.0
Type of Student: DWM

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (95%)
V: xxx (xx%)
W: x.x (xx%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 810 (79%) :( :oops:

Program Applying: Pure Mathematics (Differential Geometry, Global Analysis, Geometric Analysis) / Mathematical Finance

Research Experience: One REU in complex dynamical systems - joint paper was written, but not intended to be published. Attended a 3 week conference, where I was an active member of the undergraduate seminar; also worked on the computational math lab at this conference.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Deans List each semester, awarded highest math scholarship in my final year
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor for an elite math/physics high school, grader for the Intro to Proof and Real Analysis courses at my Uni
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: One recommender did his PhD under and wrote a book with Chern. My academic advisor is a very famous author and taught me four analysis courses - he also wrote me a strong letter. Took 5 graduate level classes - Measure Theory, Functional Analysis, Complex Analysis, Algebraic Topology, and General Relativity (in the Physics department).
Attended the Math in Moscow Program in my Junior year, where I took 5 courses and got a 4.0 .

Applying to Where:

Dream
NYU - PhD / Rejected on February 6th (admitted to unfunded masters) Declined
UC Berkeley - PhD / Rejected on February 6th
UCLA - PhD / Pending

Reach
U Michigan - PhD / Pending
UCSD PhD / Pending
Cambridge - Part III / Pending
Bonn - MSc / Admitted on Feb 2nd :shock: :D
Berlin Math School - Phase 1 / Pending
U Toronto - MMath / Rejected on Jan 31st
U Chicago - MFin / Pending

Realistic
Brandeis U - PhD / Pending (poked with an email on Feb. 4th, and looks good)
USC - PhD / Pending
London School of Economics - MFin / Pending
Imperial College London - MMath / Pending
U of Waterloo - MMath / Pending

Safety
Higher School of Economics - MSc / Admitted on Jan 31st / Will Decline

misterB
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2020 8:24 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by misterB » Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:49 am

Undergrad Institution: International (India)
Major(s): Math
Minor(s): Physics (kind of, dont have a major minor system)
GPA: 96.3 %
Type of Student: International Indian Male

Grad Institution: International (India)
Major(s): Math
GPA: 7.8/10

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 167 (90%)
V: 155 (68%)
W: 3.0 (15%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 730 (65%)

TOEFL Score: (109= R29/L27/S29/W24)

Program Applying: all Pure Math PhD

Research Experience: Masters thesis in knot theory. 4 summer research programs (Indian equivalent for US REUs), all of them were reading projects. Two of these were funded by IAS-NASI-INSA. No original research.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Best student award in undergrad institute for curricular and extra-curricular activities (except the fact that it sounds nice, I don't think this really helps my applications). CSIR JRF.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: None
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I'm enrolled in a master's program right now and have taken around 10 grad courses.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: Arranged in no particular order
University of Oklahoma - Admitted on (10/Feb/2020) , being offered ($19.5k for 9 months, summer stipend available)
George Washington University - Accepted via e-mail to check portal , $25k/9 months(12/Feb/2020) Declined.
Florida State - Rejected (06/March/2020)
Michigan State University - Rejected (on 15/Feb/2020), was my top choice, Sad.
UI Chicago - Rejected(on 31/Mar/2020 via email)
Vanderbilt - Waitlisted (on 09/March/2020) via email inquiry. Grad director said probability of me getting in was low. Rejected (27/Mar/2020)
Notre Dame - Rejected (on 22/Feb/2020)
Kansas State - never heard back
Temple - Waitlisted (on 25/Feb/2020) via email inquiry. Rejected (via email on 30/Mar/2020)
UC Riverside - haven't heard back
University of Iowa - Waitlisted (on 05/March/2020) via email inquiry. Rejected
Indiana University Bloomington - Waitlisted ( on 31/Mar/2020 via email). Please decline your offer if you're not going there, it's my top choice really. Rejected.
Louisiana State University - Accepted but waitlisted on funding (on 06/March/2020) via email. Didn't end up receiving funding.
SUNY Buffalo - accepted (on 13/Feb/2020), $20k/9 months. Attending.
University of Georgia - Probably Waitlisted (on 19/Feb/2020) via email inquiry, not in the first round of admits. Rejected, fewer spots this year.
Ut Dallas- accepted , offered 2k per month for 9 months. Declined.
Berlin Math School(Phase-I)- Rejected (22/Jan/2020)
Last edited by misterB on Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:30 am, edited 18 times in total.

Devilbob
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Feb 10, 2020 1:27 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Devilbob » Mon Feb 10, 2020 3:35 am

Undergrad Institution: The top public unversity (it's whichever one you think it is)
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): N/a
GPA: 4.0 Math, 3.97 Overall
Type of Student: US White Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 164 (94%)
W: 5.5 (98%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 810 (79%)

Program Applying: Some applied, some pure

Research Experience: None
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: GPA related, otherwise nothing notable
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Several years tutoring experience. Spent substantial effort (order of hundreds of hours) helping other students in my courses. Didn't do it for resume building, but I think it ended up helping (letter writers were aware of it)
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Older than most students
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Overcame significant adversity of several types

Applying to Where:
UC Berkeley - Mathematics / Admitted
MIT - Mathematics / Rejected
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - AIM / Admitted
Rutgers, New Brunswick - Mathematics / Admitted
University of Wisconsin, Madison - Mathematics / Admitted
UCSD - Mathematics / Admitted
UCSB - Mathematics / Rejected
UT Austin - Mathematics / Admitted - Attending!
UT Austin - CSEM / Admitted (Austin gave me the choice of CSEM or Math, but prefer I go Math)

Finally heard back from UCSB. Based upon my other results I'm guessing I was either yield-protected, or just a poor program fit. Either way, I've accepted Austin's offer and have already declined the others. Best of luck folks!

Some reflections for posterity's sake: I expected to have pretty middling results. I had no grad courses and no research experience going into it, and a lot of applying students online speak so confidently about how important they are. You'll see things like "Oh you need at least 6 grad courses and a bunch or REU's", which freaked me out. The head of the ad com at my school (who happened to be one of my letter writers) gave me much better advice, though. Working from that and my own experience, this would be my input: letters are extraordinarily important. Letters are the only thing I can think of in my application that might have stood out. Grades matter a good deal, particularly in math courses. mGRE score is, unfortunately, used as a kind of first-pass filter at a lot (but not all) places. Personal statements probably matter less than we'd all like. In my own statements, I emphasized my passion and tried to be honest with what my goals were and why. I didn't try to blow people away with technical jargon or show how impressive I was. Best of luck to those reading this with your applications!
Last edited by Devilbob on Tue Apr 14, 2020 8:20 pm, edited 6 times in total.

Sobolev_Inequality
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2020 4:02 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Sobolev_Inequality » Tue Feb 11, 2020 4:27 am

...
Last edited by Sobolev_Inequality on Thu Mar 26, 2020 6:33 pm, edited 31 times in total.

Luisp155
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2019 6:08 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Luisp155 » Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:05 am

Undergrad Institution: Small Unknown PLAU
Major(s): Mathematics, Computer Science
Minor(s):
GPA: 3.86, 3.92 Math
Type of Student: Chicano Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 161
V: 144
W: 5.0
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 500

Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience:
2020 Math Honors Capstone (set-theoretic topology) 3 months, 2020 CS Capstone (coding theory/algebra) 3 months, 2019 Math Capstone (set-theoretic topology) 5 months, 2018 REU Program at ASU (applied math) 2 months, 2018 Summer Research (coding theory/set theory, graph theory) 10 months

Various conference talks including: 2019 SACNAS Undergraduate Poster Presentation, 2019 MAA MathFest, Spring 2019 MAA SoCal-Nev Section Meeting, HEENAC (GMiS) Conference Poster Presentation

Various local talks: Student Research Symposium Poster Presentation, STEM Research Showcase (Festival of Scholars), ALLIES in STEM Research Showcase (Festival of Scholars), Math Seminar Oral Presentation, Student Research Symposium Poster Presentation

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
2019 American Petroleum Institute SHPE Scholarship, 2019 Departmental Distinction - Computer Science, 2019 NEWC Scholarship, 2nd Place Winner of 2018 Research Poster Competition in the Undergraduate Math/Science Category, 2018 Edison International Scholarship Recipient, McNair Scholar, ALLIES in STEM Scholar, Dean’s List Spring 2018 - Present.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
Calculus Supplemental Instructions Leader (2 years), Mathematics Departmental Assistant (1 year), University Math Tutor (3 years)

Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help:
I have done research with all my recommenders and have created great relationships. I am a minority. Graduate-level work in Point-Set Topology.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Engage in outreach opportunities like tutoring for Upward Bound and speaking with underrepresented students in high school, male minority initiative programs, played soccer at the collegiate level for four years, many hours tutoring teammates, McNair Scholar

Applying to Where:
Dream:
Princeton - Rejected
Berkeley - Rejected
Brown - Rejected

Reach:
Rice -
UCSB - waitlist
UC Irvine - Rejected
UC Davis - waitlist

Safety/ Match:
UT Arlington Bridge to PhD -
Yale Post-Bac PREP -
UPenn Bridge to PhD (MA Math) - Rejected
SFSU (MA Math) - accepted
BGSU (MA Math) - accepted
Last edited by Luisp155 on Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:51 pm, edited 5 times in total.

Martingale
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 10, 2020 6:06 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Martingale » Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:07 am

Undergrad Institution: Top 50 small US school
Major(s): Applied Math
Minor(s): Not relevant
GPA: 3.84 (Major: 3.96)
Type of Student: Asian Male

Graduate Institution: Ivy
Major(s): Statistics
Minor(s):
GPA: 3.42
Type of Student: Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 152 (54%)
W: 3.5 (39%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 740 (67%)

TOEFL Score: Waived

Program Applying: Applied Math(Math if no applied)/Operation Research (Main interest in Mathematics Physics/PDEs/Dynamic System/Numerical Analysis/Stochastic Analysis)

Research Experience: Three small projects in DS/Math Finance/Econ(Probably nothing, but did write some report). One on numerical method and put it on Arxiv. One on differential geometry. (Jack of all trades, master of none)
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: None
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Letters all over the place. Applied way too many programs that ends up rotate between 6 professors(3 are kinda ok, but 2 are only lectures, and 1 is not even a math professor(philosophy)).
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I don't like statistics(especially inference and calculating probability), but weirdly I do love stochastic. It reminds me a lot like topology(Markovian or Martingale or sigma algebra) and PDEs(SDEs). I wish I could go back in time and shoot me like Ryan Reynolds after graduating from undergrad. The fancy ivy diploma means nothing for Ph.D. and actually hurt me quite a lot. I wasn't determined for Ph.D. until last year, and it is the boring industry works(debug and cleaning data like a monkey) that make me realize how much I miss research. C'est la vie.

Applying to Where:

Gamble
Columbia - IEOR - Presumably Rejected
Cornell - ORIE - Rejected
UCLA - Math - Rejected
Michigan - AIM - Rejected
Minnesota - Math
UCSD - Math - Rejected

Reach
Wisconsin - Math - Rejected
UVA - Math - Rejected
UC Davis - Applied Math
PSU - Math
Georgia Tech - Math - Rejected
UNC - Math - Presumably Rejected
USC - Applied Math
Purdue - Math - Rejected
Rice - Applied Math
Maryland - Applied Math - Rejected
Notre Dame - Applied Math
Emory - Math - Rejected
University of Washington - Applied Math - Rejected
Stony Brook - Applied Math - Accepted

Match
University of Georgia - Math
Pittsburgh - Math
Indiana - Math - Accepted
Missouri - Math - Accepted(Need TOEFL test)
Buffalo - Math - Accepted
Last edited by Martingale on Thu Apr 09, 2020 4:24 am, edited 9 times in total.

1443046585
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Dec 08, 2017 3:57 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by 1443046585 » Thu Feb 13, 2020 1:37 pm

Undergrad Institution: Somewhere in Ohio
Major(s): Math
Minor(s): None
GPA: 3.59
Type of Student: International

Grad Institution: Somewhere in Ohio, but a different place
Major(s): Math
Minor(s): None
GPA: 3.80
Type of Student: International

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 165 (89%)
V: 150
W: 3.5
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 760 (71%)

TOEFL Score: Did not take.

Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience: Some, but nothing serious.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Scholarships?
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for 2 years in College, 1 year experience in teaching precalc recitation, and 1 year experience in teaching calculus I.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: 5 or 6 grad classes, and 3 independent studies classes.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I know my recommenders pretty well. In my personal statements, I stated which professor's work interests me.

Applying to Where:
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) - Rejected (Jan 10) :(
Ohio State University (OSU) - Rejected (Feb 24)
Indiana University Bloomington (IU) - Rejected (Apr 15)
University of Notre Dame (ND) - Rejected (Feb 22)
Michigan State University (MSU) - Never heard back
University of Pittsburgh - Rejected (Apr 10)
University of Rochester - Waitlisted (Feb 11) Never heard back
Syracuse University - Accepted (Feb 13), with assistantship Attending
University of Kentucky (UK) - Accepted (March 2), with assistantship Declined
Binghamton University - Accepted (Apr 22) Declined
Last edited by 1443046585 on Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:26 am, edited 6 times in total.

ljsreader
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2018 3:17 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by ljsreader » Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:30 pm

deleted--BUT just a note to not talk yourself out of aiming reasonably high if your GRE is lower than you would like, or you're feeling uncomfortable as a woman or some kind of underrepresented minority. you're a bamf and you can do it!
Last edited by ljsreader on Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:52 am, edited 3 times in total.

xu3
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2020 10:08 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by xu3 » Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:25 am

Undergrad Institution: Top school in my country
Major(s): Math
GPA: 4.12/4.3 (Major 4.16)
Type of Student: International Male (Asian)

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 160 (86%)
W: 3.5 (39%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 910 (96%)

TOEFL Score: (105 = R29/L30/S20/W26)

Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience: After graduation, I kept studying with my advisor for half year, producing one unpublished paper regarding geometric analysis.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's award; 2 times Dean's lists; national science fair golden award in high school.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA of algebra (honor course) in my senior year
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I took plenty of grad-level courses and I guess those impressed one of my referrers. The others of my referrers are my former advisers, current advisors, and a famous mathematician from whom I took an intense course when he visited my school. I believe the one written by my current advisor played a crucial rule due to her connections. Besides, I went through lots of famous articles in complex geometry, differential geometry and algebraic geometry, which might compensate the lack of my research experience.

Applying to Where:
Princeton - rejected (Jan 31)
MIT - accepted (Jan 24)
Columbia - accepted (Feb 5)
Stanford - waitlist (Mar 3)
Harvard - rejected (Feb 7)
Berkeley - rejected (Feb 7)
Chicago - rejected (Jan 29)
Stony Brook - interview invitation (declined) (Feb 23)
Last edited by xu3 on Tue Mar 03, 2020 6:53 am, edited 4 times in total.

MathGal
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:06 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by MathGal » Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:16 pm

Undergrad Institution: Public School in Midwest, not known
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Geology
GPA: 3.81/4.00
Type of Student: DWF

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 159
V: 160
W: 4.5
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 550 (<25%)

Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience: None.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Deans list, undergraduate awards, honors student.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Prealgebra and calculus tutor.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Female.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: N/A.

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)

Illinois Champaign
Illinois Chicago - Accepted
Indiana
Iowa State - Accepted
Michigan - Accepted
Michigan State - Accepted

Minnesota
Notre Dame - Rejected
Northwestern - Rejected

Ohio State - Accepted
Rochester - Rejected
Syracuse - Accepted
Tufts - Rejected
UWashington
Washington State - Accepted

bark_muffalo
Posts: 58
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 6:56 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by bark_muffalo » Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:18 pm

--
Last edited by bark_muffalo on Sat Apr 18, 2020 10:18 pm, edited 12 times in total.

kcp23
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:56 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by kcp23 » Tue Feb 18, 2020 1:21 pm

Undergrad Institution: Small Midwestern Liberal Arts
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Physics, History
GPA: 3.9
Type of Student: International Male


GRE General Test:
Q: 160 (73%)
V: 155 (68%)
W: 4.0 (57%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
Didn't take it


Program Applying: Applied Mathematics mostly MS, some PhD

Research Experience: Summer REU in Abstract Algebra/Combinatorics at my home institution.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Outstanding poster at the JMM, Kappa Mu Epsilon, Dean's list, scholarship at home institution
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Peer mentor for the mathematics department, tutor for mathematics, physics, and english (writing).



Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
UC Denver (PhD) - accepted no funding
Oregon State (MS) - accepted fully funded (TA, ~17k a year)
University of New Mexico (MS) - accepted fully funded (TA, ~17k a year)
UC Riverside (MS) -
Simon Fraser (MS) - rejected
UC Merced (PhD) - accepted fully funded (TA, ~28k a year)
Florida State (MS) - rejected

Reflections:
Some important things I want to share:
- If you're undecided if you want to get a Master's or PhD, apply for PhD programs. That's where the funding is at and you can still graduate with a Master's after two years. I spent so much time trying to find schools that have funded Master's programs, while PhD funding is available pretty much everywhere. If you still want to just apply for a Master's, check out this website http://jlmartin.faculty.ku.edu/~jlmartin/masters.html
- Disappointed that the schools with extremely high application fees are taking extremely long to evaluate applications. It's early April now and I still haven't heard from UCR and Simon Fraser. Communication hasn't been good either, even after reaching out. Most schools have deadlines for April 15, and just a few days aren't enough to make a decision.
Last edited by kcp23 on Tue Apr 14, 2020 12:59 pm, edited 5 times in total.

GREmlin
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2020 2:44 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by GREmlin » Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:03 pm

Undergrad Institution: Big time public school with a sexy math program
Major(s): Math
Minor(s): CS
GPA: 3.7
Type of Student: DWM

GRE Revised General Test:
Who cares
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
Good not great


Program Applying: Applied Math PhD

Research Experience: lots and lots
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: nothing special
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: funded research during my gap year
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: lots of grad classes
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: graduated last year

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)

omgomgomgomgomgomg tier
Princeton PACM - Accepted!!! // Declined (that was hard to do but I think its the right choice)

omgomgomg tier
Brown - Rejected
NYU Courant - Rejected
Northwestern ESAM - Accepted! // Attending!!!!!!

omgomg tier
UChicago CAM - Waitlisted // Declined
Washington - Unfunded Masters // I dont think I've ever seen anyone get straight up rejected from Washington for applied math

omg tier
Minnesota -
Colorado - Accepted! // Declined
Maryland AMSC - Accepted! // Declined
Last edited by GREmlin on Wed Apr 15, 2020 12:55 pm, edited 11 times in total.

CE123
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat May 18, 2019 7:14 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by CE123 » Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:14 pm

Undergrad Institution: SLAC
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Chemistry
GPA: 3.82 (3.99 Major)
Type of Student: DWM

Grad Institution: Top 10 program for my graduate degree (unrelated to Math)
Major(s): Bioethics and Science Policy
GPA: 3.8

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 166 (89%)
V: 168 (98%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 800 (78%)

TOEFL Score: N/A

Program Applying: Pure Math PhD, focus on logic/foundations

Research Experience: Graph theory research at home institution. Resulted in two conference talks and one paper.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: The two highest Math awards at my home institution
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor in undergrad, TA for a humanities course in grad school.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help:
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Worked in clinical research for 2 years after my M.A. - very unusual applicant, was extremely bored at work so I did math in my free time and realized I needed to pursue math professionally. Because of scheduling reasons I was unable to formally take Analysis, I have a feeling this will be a big negative in my application. I discussed self-studying analysis and topology in my personal statement. Last math course I took was Fall 2015 (~5 years ago by the time I will start)

Applying to Where:

Donating Money:
Berkeley - Rejected 06Feb
U Chicago - Rejected 28Jan

U Toronto - No Response 16Apr*
York University - No Response 16Apr*
Waterloo - Rejected 20Feb
McMaster - No Response 16Apr*
(Canadian schools listed as donating money since I only have a US undergrad degree and am from the US)

Realistic Reach:
UC Boulder - Rejected 31Jan - Pretty disappointed, great match for this school in terms of research and teaching interests.
UC Irvine - Waitlist 20Feb - Withdrew from waitlist 13Mar.
Johns Hopkins - Rejected 12Feb
U Washington - Rejected 02Mar
UI Chicago - No Response 16Apr*

Target?:
U Penn - No Response 16Apr*
Northeastern - No Response 16Apr*
Boston U - Rejected 31Mar
Temple U - No Response 16Apr*

Maybe Safe?:
UC Santa Cruz - No Response 16Apr*
U Denver - Accepted!!! 18Feb First acceptance. With funding 19Feb.
Colorado State - Accepted 19Feb. With funding 20Feb.

* I am considering all of the schools that have not responded to me by April 16th rejections.

Final Thoughts: I am very glad I applied to so many schools. Even though I had gone through this forum and GradCafe with a fine tooth comb, I had no idea where my application stood given my strange background and needed to cast as wide a net as possible. I believe my mGRE score was an important factor in getting the acceptances I did because it showed that I still had a decent basis of undergrad math to work with even after being out of math for so long. I also think I wrote a pretty decent personal statement that told a story and showed that I have consistently gone out of my way to pursue mathematics.

I am honestly very excited for where I will end up and even accepted their offer well before I would have heard back from other schools. I would have been happy at any of these schools but I got to go to one of my top choices even though it isn't nearly as prestigious as most of the other schools on this list.

Tips for future non-traditional applicants: Think long and hard about why you're doing this, what you need out of your program, and go find those programs. I knew I wanted to spend ~5 years funded spending 100% of my time on math in a pure focused department that has faculty doing things related to foundations. Prestige is nice, but wasn't necessary for my goals. I'll probably end up in industry and want to live in Colorado long term so I think this works out well because I can build out my local network during grad school. Don't fall into the trap of looking down on schools that aren't top 20 or 50 or whatever. Do some introspection, figure out what you really want, and find a path towards that.

Talk to current grad students and professors. Tap into your alumni network, contact old professors, buy a coffee for someone and chat about math and grad school. Plan very far in advanced, stick to your plan, and make your applications the best they can be for the year you are planning on applying. I was 100% committed to pursuing a math PhD in early Fall 2018, this gave me a little over a year to study for both GRE's and get the rest of my application together. Try to have at least one rec letter writer that knows your ability to do math, but if you haven't been doing math for a while it's probably also good to have someone recent talk to your professional abilities and all that. Kill the mGRE because it's the only way to show grad schools that you can still do math and won't be starting years behind. And finally, cast a wide net, but only apply to schools you'd be happy with. Make an excel sheet and look at every school you possibly can - I did some amount of analysis on ~120 programs by the time I finalized my list.

mGRE tips: Practice practice practice. Princeton review book was good, Rambo practice material was good, Schaum's calculus was solid and had tons of practice problems that were essential for me to get my calculus mojo back after having not taken calc since 2013. Plan out your practice test schedule ~6 months ahead of time, make sure you take the most recent practice tests closer to your actual test date. Review what went wrong and go do more practice problems that are similar and cover the same topic. I studied for ~4.5 months and took my score from an initial practice test score of ~25th percentile to my final mGRE score of 78th percentile. By the end I got in the 90's from that first practice test I did. I did this while holding a full time job and would have preferred more dedicated time to study. I think with another 2 months of studying I could have filled in some gaps that were missing from my undergrad studies. Just spend lots of time consistently with calculus and other mGRE practice problems and you'll get better.

I hope this was helpful and I wish all of you reading this in the future the best of luck!
Last edited by CE123 on Thu Apr 16, 2020 10:49 am, edited 9 times in total.

exercise2reader
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:09 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by exercise2reader » Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:30 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large State Research University
Major(s): Math
GPA: 3.15 (3.7 in Community College)
Type of Student: DWM

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 156 (60%)
V: 151 (51%)
W: 3.0 (15%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: N/A

Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience: None. Did a DRP with a graduate student and am currently doing a reading course.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List; CC Honor Society President; CC PTK All-Academic Team
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor for a year; Mathematical Contest in Modeling participant
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I suspect at least one letter to be particularly good

Applying to Where:
Pittsburgh (PhD) Rejected (4/6/20)
Missouri (PhD) Accepted w/ Funding (2/9/20) Attending
Louisiana State (PhD) Accepted (3/6/20) Waitlisted for Funding
Syracuse (PhD)
Oklahoma (PhD) Recruitment suspended due to Coronavirus
Wake Forest (Master) Waitlisted for Admission (3/23/20)
Home University (Master)
Last edited by exercise2reader on Mon Apr 06, 2020 3:14 pm, edited 4 times in total.

ThrowawayName
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:31 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by ThrowawayName » Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:55 pm

Undergrad Institution: Private lib arts, 60-80 ranked, not known for math
Major(s): Math
GPA: 3.6/4.0 general, 3.75/4.0 math (had a bad sophomore year)
Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 167 (91%) took one practice test for prep LOL
V: 159 (83%) too lazy to study vocab
W: 4.5 (81%)

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 520 (18%) I wanted to die when I saw this, my ancestors are now feeling the dishonor


Program Applying: All PHD, interested in working on analysis/probability/PDE, spread between pure and applied departments

Research Experience: Possible submission involving bond pricing using Malliavin Calculus. Also did some work on an interdisciplinary project with a medical center in motion capture analysis.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list, received a grant for first undergraduate research project
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Grader/tutor for Calc 1-3 and remedial courses, also did tutoring for Probability and ODE for my peers.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: I know I will have at least one exceptionally strong letter.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I think my personal statement is pretty nice, also I speak Chinese fluently despite being American (dunno how much this would help tbh).

Throwing Away Money
Columbia(APAM):
UMichigan: Rejected 02/12
Johns Hopkins: Rejected 02/12
Northwestern (ESAM): Rejected 02/25 considered for MS, declined.
UT Austin(ICES): Rejected 03/04
Rutgers: Botched my PS on this one, probably rejected as soon as they read it.
UMaryland(AMSC):rejected 02/19 they never notified me though...

Reach
UNC Chapel Hill:
Georgia Tech: Might not even respond because I forgot to submit an official transcript. Update: rejected 04/02 wow they actually looked at mine
Notre Dame: Rejected 02/21
UIC: Accepted 02/18, ~$20-21k/year This is already beyond my expectations. Committed 03/25
CUNY:
Carnegie Mellon:
Penn State: rejected 04/02 took them long enough LOL
Stony Brook (AMS):
Texas A&M 12/15: Told I'm strong contender for second round 02/07 Accepted 03/31 unfortunately already committed elsewhere

Reasonable (I don't like calling schools safeties with my stats)
UConn: Waitlisted 02/25 Declined
Northeastern:
UKansas: Waitlisted 04/07, declined
UMass-Amherest:
RPI:
Brandeis: Rejected 03/09
Florida State (Financial Mathematics): Accepted 01/27 ~$20kyear First acceptance! Declined 02/24 (if anyone gets this spot, good luck!)

I'm posting to give some hope to the people in the years after, just like some of the posts in the previous years did for me. Good luck all of you reading this in the 2021 and later cycles!
Last edited by ThrowawayName on Thu Apr 16, 2020 10:58 am, edited 17 times in total.

swati16273
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 2:46 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by swati16273 » Fri Feb 21, 2020 3:17 pm

Undergrad Institution: Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi
Major(s): Computer science and mathematics
GPA: 8.44/10
Type of Student: International Indian Female

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 166 (89%)
V: 150 (46%)
W: 4.5 (81%)

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 830 (82%)

TOEFL score: 106

Program Applying: Pure mathematics Ph.D.

Research Experience: BTech project in axiomatic set theory.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Nil
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Teaching assistant for a course on linear algebra and mathematical logic, Tutor of two international students for probability and statistics course.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: All my recommenders know me very well and all of them must have written strong LORs; Treasurer of Women in mathematics association of IIITD.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: 9 graduate courses.

Dream:
Cambridge MASt in Pure Mathematics - rejected on 21/3
CMU - Pending
Dartmouth -rejected
UIUC - Rejected on 10/1 - Being considered for master's currently-Rejected on 27/3
Rutgers - Waitlisted by email inquiry on 19/2- most probably rejected since they won't be admitting anyone before 15th April due to financial limitations caused by COVID-19 :cry: (informed on 8/04)

Reach:
Penn State - Rejected by email inquiry on 26/3
Ohio State - waitlisted on 20/2-rejected on 9/04
University of Illinois, Chicago - Admitted on 16/2 with TAship $2290 per month - ATTENDING :D 8) .

Safe:
UConn - Admitted on 21/2 with TAship $24,313 per year declined
University of Florida - admitted
Temple University - Waitlisted on 7/2 by email inquiry- declined.
Kansas State University - Admitted on 18/2 - Declined
Last edited by swati16273 on Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:44 pm, edited 9 times in total.

Choice_Axiom
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 4:44 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Choice_Axiom » Fri Feb 21, 2020 7:12 pm

Undergrad Institution: fairly small private university
Minor(s):Double major math/physics
GPA:3.29
Type of Student: DWM

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 166
V: 155
W: 3.0
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 630 :?


Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience: N/A
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: standard for doing ok nothing exciting in school. nothing interesting
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: worked as a tutor/ peer mentor for 3 years
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: apparently my LOR's are decent/good.... was told this while i was dismissed from a different program honestly don't think it was that true.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: was in grad school for aero-engineering was bad at it and left/forced to withdraw

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Notre Dame - rejected 2/21/20
UCSB - rejected 4/14/20
UCR - pending
Dartmouth - rejected 2/24/20

honestly not expecting to get in anywhere. gl to everyone else.

well so far that 3/4. guess its to be expected since I am such a bad applicant
Last edited by Choice_Axiom on Tue Apr 14, 2020 8:15 pm, edited 4 times in total.

I'm the biggest noob
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2019 9:57 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by I'm the biggest noob » Sun Feb 23, 2020 12:51 pm

Undergrad Institution: Canadian uni
Major(s):pure math
Minor(s):none
GPA: somewhere above 95%
Type of Student: International Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q:170
V:154 :oops:
W:4.5
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 99%. Don't remember the score :oops:

Program Applying: (Pure Math except for Cornell ORIE)

Research Experience: two preprints neither accepted yet; two in preparation. All in the same field. Around 5 conference presentations, some of them informal.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Putnam honorable mention.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: only TAed once.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: <10 grad courses, 4 recommenders, two of them co-authors.

Applying to Where:
(Color use here is welcome) (the order is basically my preference)
MIT - Rejected
Stanford - Admitted (ATTENDING!)
Princeton - Rejected
NYU Courant - Admitted
Berkeley - Admitted
Cornell (ORIE) - Admitted Feb 21
Chicago - Rejected
Home institution - Admitted

Most acceptances & rejections sent around last week of January till first week of Feb, don't remember the dates.
I'm extremely thankful to the very top student in my school who did not apply to Stanford and other schools who accepted me :P
Last edited by I'm the biggest noob on Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

scrubm8
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2020 12:07 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by scrubm8 » Sun Feb 23, 2020 8:59 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large State School
Major(s): Math, CS
Minor(s): None
GPA: 3.97
Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96)
V: 168 (98)
W: 5.0 (92)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 840 (84)

Program Applying: Pure Math (Algebraic Geometry, Representation Theory)

Research Experience: REU in algebraic geometry at home institution, REU at Chicago, senior thesis on mirror symmetry
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Various awards from department
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for proofs course, grader previously
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: well-known recommenders, several graduate courses (12 math, 1 CS)
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: graduating in 3 years

Applying to Where:
Reach
Harvard - Rejected 2/6
MIT - Rejected 2/6
Princeton - Rejected 1/31
Match
Berkeley - Admitted 1/31 (declined 4/1)
Chicago - Rejected 1/28
Columbia - Admitted 2/4 ACCEPTED OFFER (3/30)
Stanford Rejected 3/20
UCLA - Admitted 1/22 (declined 3/11)
There are only 10 top 10 schools
Brown - Admitted 2/1 (declined 3/5)
Cornell - Admitted 2/3 (declined 3/8)
Michigan Waitlisted 3/6 (withdrew 3/6)
Stony Brook - Admitted 1/20 (declined 3/5)
UT Austin - Withdrew 4/1
Wisconsin - Waitlisted 2/5 (withdrew 2/5)

Remarks
1. I should not have applied to so many schools. That's a lot of money down the drain :(
2. Trust your letter writers when you decide where to apply. I didn't do this, but DO NOT use this website to decide where to apply. You can't even tell who people's letter writers are or where they even go to school. Large state school could be Berkeley or Alabama, nobody knows
3. Research fit is very important at the top schools!
Last edited by scrubm8 on Sat Apr 18, 2020 4:05 pm, edited 12 times in total.

Flyingbe
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:03 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Flyingbe » Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:18 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large State School
Major(s): Math, Econ
Minor(s): None
GPA: 3.62
Type of Student: International Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170
V: 161
W: 4.5
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 800 (78)

Program Applying: Pure Math (Analysis, PDE)

Research Experience: Reading on Harmonic Analysis, Relativity and geometry
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Various awards from department
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: None
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Good letters, PhD qualifying exam pass in Analysis, graduate courses (5 math)

Applying to Where:

Colmubia - Rejected 2/6
Brown - Rejected 2/11
Umichigan - Rejected 2/12
Uchicago - Rejected 1/28
UCLA - Rejected 2/26
Duke -Rejected

UIC - Admitted 2/14
JHU - Rejected 2/12
UMD - Admitted 2/14
UCSD - Admitted 2/25
UVA - Admitted 2/7
USC - Admitted (2/21)
University of Wisconsin - Rejected (2/3)

Unknown :
NYU
Rutgers
Upenn
Northwestern
Minnesota
UW
Rice
CMU
Vanderbilt



Remarks
I'm applying with my girlfriend. She's applying for CS PhD. Two-body problem is always a huge problem. Hope every get lucky in the application process.
I really hope that I can get into Northwestern since my girlfriend has been admitted to UChicago. Anyone knows if NWU has released all their offer?

nacharon
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2018 12:08 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by nacharon » Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:14 pm

Undergrad Institution: Foreign (Chile)
Major(s): Mathematics
GPA: 6.1/7.0
Type of Student: International male

Grad Institution (Masters): Foreign (Chile)
Major(s): Mathematics
GPA: 6.4/7.0

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 165 (86%)
V: 154 (64%)
W: 3.5 (39%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 890 (92%)

TOEFL Score: 111 = R30/L29/S24/W28

Program Applying: Pure Math (Analysis and Geometry)

Research Experience: One REU in Differential Geometry at my school (one manuscript, a talk, no publications); masters thesis on magnetic Schrödinger operators (one talk and a co-authored publication); guided study of the Yamabe problem and related topics after finishing my masters.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Merit-based scholarship received each year as an undergrad.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for courses covering calculus, metric spaces, measure theory and functional analysis.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: The undergraduate plan of study at my institution includes several courses for which the equivalent ones in US institutions are graduate level courses.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: As a sophomore, I was author of a dissemination article published in a national journal for high-school math teachers. Cello performance (not sure if it matters at all).

Applying to Where:
Dreaming:
Stanford - Rejected (Mar 20)
UC Berkeley - Rejected (Feb 06)
Columbia - Rejected (Feb 06)
Cambridge -
Oxford - Skype interview (Feb 14)

Reach:
Michigan, Ann Arbor - Rejected (Feb 12)
Duke - Rejected (Jan 29)
Johns Hopkins - Waitlisted (Feb 5)
Northwestern - Rejected (Mar 28)
UT Austin -
UC San Diego - Admitted (Apr 11)
British Columbia - Admitted (Mar 04)

Match/Safe:
University of Washington - Admitted (Feb 25)
UC Irvine - Skype interview (Feb 28) / Admitted (Mar 03)
Purdue -
UC Santa Barbara - Rejected (Apr 8)
Last edited by nacharon on Sat Apr 11, 2020 7:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Molly_R
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2020 6:38 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by Molly_R » Thu Mar 12, 2020 7:00 pm

Undergrad Institution: Small Public School in the Midwest
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): None
GPA: 3.94 overall, 3.68 math
Type of Student: Domestic white female

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 152 (55%)
W: 3.0 (15%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 540 (24%)

Program Applying: Pure/Applied Math

Research Experience: None except a senior paper. Originally planning to do a thesis but turned into a paper.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: School and department scholarships. Dean's list.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutoring at math department, grader for calculus and precalculus.
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: Female. Expecting one strong letter from a professor I did two independent study courses with.
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Nothing in particular that will help.

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)

Georgia Tech - Accepted 01/16 with funding
Iowa (Applied Math) - Accepted 02/20 with funding Declined 04/13
Iowa State - Accepted 02/04 with funding Declined 02/21
Michigan State - Accepted 03/20 with funding Declined 04/12
Ohio State - Accepted 12/31 with funding Declined 04/11
University of Illinois at Chicago - Accepted 02/28 with funding Declined 02/21
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Accepted 01/08 with funding

Carnegie Mellon - Waitlisted 03/12 and rejected 04/13.
Nebraska - Withdrawn 02/12, rejected on 02/16.
Stony Brook - Rejected via email 04/11
University of Chicago - Rejected 03/25
University of Michigan - Rejected 03/06
University of Minnesota - Rejected 03/23
University of Washington - Rejected 03/04, was asked if I'm interested in unfunded masters
University of Wisconsin at Madison - Rejected 02/05
Last edited by Molly_R on Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:27 am, edited 9 times in total.

gsilva99
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2020 7:12 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by gsilva99 » Sun Mar 15, 2020 7:40 pm

Undergrad Institution: Big State in New England
Major(s): Math, Computer Science
Minor(s): Ecology
GPA: 3.5 (~3.85 Math)
Type of Student: Domestic Latino Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q:168 (92%)
V:155 (70%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: Didn't take (Decided to apply after registration deadline)

TOEFL Score: N/A

Program Applying: Applied Math/Math Bio PhD

Research Experience: Optimization research project with local bikeshare company, CS project using supreme court database and oral arguments to attempt to predict case verdict and sentence length.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Member of Honors College at my university
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor for my school's athletic department for the past two years, instructor at a summer tech camp
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: One of my recs was written by my department's distinguished professor. Having computer science experience definitely helps and also have outside knowledge in the field I want to specialize in (Ecology).
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Did poorly one semester, but mainly due to terrible mental health because of a disorder, have since bounced back academically and mentally.

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Arizona (Applied Math) - Admitted $18,900/yr (2/6) Visited (2/29-3/3) Declined
Cincinnati - Withdrawn
Iowa State (Applied Math) - Admitted $21,000/yr (2/4) Was supposed to visit but Corona changed that RIP :( (Declined)
Louisiana - Withdrawn
Miami (FL) - Still waiting on a response - Withdrawn
Nebraska (Environmental Math concentration) - Waitlisted. Withdrawn
Nevada-Reno - Still waiting on a response - Withdrawn
New Mexico (Applied Math) - Admitted $18,000/yr (2/21) Declined
Oregon - Rejected (2/10)
Tennessee (Math bio/ecology concentration) - Admitted $18,300/yr + $3000 fellowship(2/25) ATTENDING 8) 8) 8)
Utah (Math Bio) - Waitlisted. Withdrawn
Washington (Applied Math) - Admitted to masters (1/25) Declined
Last edited by gsilva99 on Sat Apr 04, 2020 6:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.

mlpwas100
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Feb 29, 2020 11:43 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by mlpwas100 » Tue Mar 24, 2020 10:01 pm

Undergrad Institution: Georgia Institute of Technology
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s): Certificate in Finance
GPA: 3.76
Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 167
V: 153
W: 3.5
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 790

Program Applying: Pure Mathematics, Algebra or Knot Theory

Research Experience: None Whatsoever
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Undergraduate TA Award from Math Department
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for 6 semesters, one government internship, one UARC internship, Teaching Assistant/Counselor at SIMUW
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: First-generation college student
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Failed Undergraduate Algebra I, only took Undergraduate Real Analysis I

Applying to Where:

Masters/Post-Bacc
University of Washington - Rejected via Email (3/14)
University of Georgia - Withdrew Application (3/27)
Indiana University - Withdrew Application (3/27)
Iowa State - Withdrew Application (3/27)
Washington University in St. Louis - Withdrew Application (3/27)
University of Connecticut - Withdrew Application (3/27)

PhD Programs
The Ohio State University- Rejected via Email (2/24)
University of Michigan- Rejected via Email (2/12)
University of Wisconsin, Madison- Rejected via Email (2/3)
Duke University- Rejected via Email (1/29)
University of Utah- Rejected via Email (3/3)
University of Notre Dame- Rejected via Email (2/14)
Georgia Institute of Technology- Pending Withdrew Application (4/2)
Purdue University- "Application is still being considered" (2/25) Withdrew Application (4/2)
Rice University- Rejected via Inquiry (3/27)
University of California, Santa Barbara-ACCEPTED (3/25) $21191/year GTA ATTENDING!!!! :D :D :D :D
University of Iowa- ACCEPTED (3/22) $20064/year GTA Declined Offer (3/26)
Syracuse University- ACCEPTED (2/13) $19380/year GTA Declined Offer (3/26)

Reflection(s)
(3/24) I definitely dropped way too much money applying to schools that I knew were WAY out of reach for me. I also didn't apply to some schools that had faculty I was interested in because the schools weren't "prestigious" enough (i.e. University of Buffalo, George Washington University). Nonetheless, I am beyond ecstatic for getting into even one, let alone two programs. I still have hope for the few PhD programs that I have left and I probably should back out of the MS/post-bacc ones.
Last edited by mlpwas100 on Thu Apr 02, 2020 9:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

yeonK
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 11:25 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admissions Results

Post by yeonK » Fri Mar 27, 2020 5:48 pm

Undergrad Institution: Foreign (Well known in Asia especially its business school)
Major(s): Business, Mathematics
Minor(s):
GPA: 4.0/4.0 (4.29/4.3)

Grad Institution: Same as the undergrad (applied to graduate school in US as a second semester master's student here - FYI, 1st semester in our country is the 2nd (spring) semester in US. Our academic year starts in spring and ends in fall.)
Major(s): Mathematics
Minor(s):
GPA: 4.0/4.0 (4.3/4.3)

- I was originally planning to apply this year fall, but I changed my mind last August. So now, I do not plan to finish the master's degree here. (it's a four-semester program)


Type of Student: International, Asian, Female

{
Due to limited preparation time, I took each of the following exams only once, with a short prep time.
(For each TOEFL, and IELTS, I could only prepare for a week, and a day, while taking three grad courses and a seminar this semester.
I am sure I'd be able to score much higher if I had more prep time, or took more than once. but well I guess it's fine as long as it's over the min.)

GRE Revised General Test: 331 (Aug 23.2019)
Q: 169 (95%)
V: 162 (90%)
W: 4.5 (81%)

GRE Subject Test in Mathematics: (Oct 26. 2019)
M: 910 (96%)
(* Also, first exam: September exam was canceled this year in Korea :( and did not even think of taking it till August, so had no chance in April either. So I only had less than two months of preparation time.)

TOEFL Score: 111 (R 30 / L 29 / W 28 / S 24) (Sep 22. 2019)
IELTS Score: 8.0 (R 9.0 / L 8.5 / W 7.5 / S 7.0) (Nov 26. 2019)
}

* Program Applying: Math / Applied Math / Operations Research

* Research Experience:
1) Senior year for business-somewhat financial engineering- in business class.
It was the second to last semester of undergrad, and at that point, I was still thinking of only pursuing Operations Research.
The research topic was related to enhancing the performance of an investment strategy based on the Markowitz Portfolio Selection Model, and some other applied models.
Done on Python language. (I did not take any programming courses, but just self-taught while performing the research.)

2) Senior year summer break & last semester of undergrad in applied math lab of my school
It was on parameter estimation through modeling & simulation, applied to the spread of infectious disease. I learned MATLAB from the seniors in the lab, performed research successfully and gave a poster presentation.

* Awards/Honors/Recognition:
Multiple merit-based scholarships and honors
Silver Prize in National Math Olympiad for undergrads (in non-math major tier: for students in other natural science/engineering/med/etc majors) Graduation with the highest distinction (was a valedictorian for the department)

* Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutoring in Undergrad (Analysis 1) in senior year, Private Tutoring last summer, during July-August (on single/multi var. calculus)

* Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help:
- Have been in the reading group since master's program (for about a year.) and there, we covered Stein's Singular Integrals and differentiability of functions, Evans' PDE, and some others.

* Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

- Interested in analysis, pde, and optimization.

- I don't know if it will help, but I have studied diverse fields (majored French in high school; obtained DELF B2/B1 then. After that, I majored Business till sophomore in college) / And I could not take much math courses during the senior year, as I had to fulfill business graduation requirement. But I have been trying to catch up with the missing holes.

- Took almost 170 credits during undergrad, so this might reflect my curiosity on many things. / 17 upper-level math courses, excluding 6 additional graduate courses.

- Spent two semesters in one of the ivy leagues (famous for math / one of the schools I applied to),
and scored 3.89/4.0 (took 8 courses, all majors)

- Thankfully, there were five supportive professors; three from my school(two math, one business), and two from the visiting school.
Two of the three home institute professors would be from my research advisers.
With the business professor, whom I have known since sophomore, I took two courses, and aced them. I did not take any courses with the other professor though. She is super nice, but we only met in the senior year since the research in summer.
With one of the math professors from my school, I took two upper-level courses, and one grad course. (analysis 1, fourier analysis, and grad real analysis.) I took the first rigorous math course with this math professor, and I do not know if he is well-known in the US, but he is the professor that I admire the most.
I really liked the professors from the visiting school, (they were all very nice and their classes were super helpful and fun) but I am not sure if the letters would be very strong, as I have never done research with them. Their courses were all upper-level ones though and did an ok job. (not like acing though: It was only my second, and third semester of math studies, after long wandering) Also, they saw me grow, and I liked them so I asked for the letters anyways. Very thankfully, they kindly agreed to write them.


* Applied to Where?: (all Ph.D.)

<Dream Schools>
- UCLA, Math ... Rejected 2.28.
- UC Berkeley, Math ... Rejected 2.8.
- Harvard, Applied Mathematics (SEAS) ... Rejected 2.25.
- MIT, Operations Research ... Rejected 2.21.
- Caltech, CMS (Applied Math) ... Interview offer on 1.17. then School visit on 2.7. Admitted 2.20. with full funding + $37,000/year w/o TA duty the first year
- Princeton, ORFE (focused on Operations Research) ... Rejected 2.19.
- Stanford, Operations Research ... Rejected 3.3.
- Columbia, Applied Mathematics (SEAS APAM) ... Admitted 1.25. with full funding + $48,000/year (presidential scholarship)
- Yale, Operations Management ...Interviewed on 1.30. then Rejected 2.21.
- Cornell, Operations Research ... Admitted 2.22. with full funding + $28,000 + $6,000 (1st summer) /year w/o TA duty the first semester
- Michigan, Math ... Rejected 2.13.
- Chicago Applied Math ... Admitted 2.1. with full funding + $26,250 + $5,000 (1st summer) /year + McCormick Fellowship ($2,500 first year)
- NYU, Math ... No News till 3.28. Expecting Rejection (Did not withdraw)
- Brown, Applied Math ... Rejected 2.4.
- UPenn, Math ... Unofficially Admitted 2.3. then Admitted 2.17. with full funding + $35,000/year w/o TA duty
- Wisconsin, Math ... Admitted 2.11. with full funding + $27,000/year
- Maryland, Math ... withdrawn, but email from the professor in the committee that I am highly ranked so was likely to be accepted
- Purdue, Math ... withdrawn
- Duke, Math ... withdrawn
- Georgia Tech, Math ... Admitted 1.17. with full funding + $27,000/year
- Washington, Math ... Rejected 3.3.

<Safety>
- none (I thought. I would have been grateful even if I got admitted to a single school, and would have studied happily there. All the schools that I applied were ones I liked very much.)


Overall:

1. I should have focused on what I really want to study. I regret applying to several schools through operations research programs instead of math or applied math. I do like operations research, but while preparing for the interviews, I found out that I liked math even more.
2. I started math study since my junior year in undergrad, starting from a business major. So I did not have the opportunity to do heavy research in math. But I think the professors who wrote the letters were very kind enough to see all my good aspects as a student and a prospective researcher. I guess weak research experience can be covered with wonderful letters. I am so grateful for them and the schools that admitted me.
3. I am still undecided among Caltech, Columbia, and Chicago. The only place I didn't have the chance to visit was Chicago and I really liked the other two places. (Each had its own strength.) Also, all schools have wonderful faculty members. So it's very hard for me to make up my mind.
If someone has some helpful advice on the final decision-making process, please leave a comment or private message me. I would sincerely appreciate it.



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