Question about school selection and competitiveness - pure math
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2020 8:31 am
My background is unconventional. I graduated with B.Eng computer engineering with a math minor. I have a year of real analysis, abstract algebra and linear algebra at introductory level. My results are okay, 4.76/5 overall and so far all A's in maths, except an A- in discrete maths in freshman year. I don't know if that will change though as I am taking exams in a few days and I feel inadequately prepared... but that's irrelevant.
I will be doing a Msc in pure math at my home institution, which is well-known in Singapore. It will take a number of years (2 or 3).
I am worried if it will be very difficult for me to be admitted to a top 50 US PhD institution for math, just because I don't have a perfectly matching background for Bachelor's. I am fretting about this because admission results seem really CRUELLL in the recent years even for ppl with Math Major, good GPA, etc. I am concerned about ranking because I want an academic career, and my home institution is really particular about ranking (which might be an issue a few years down the road if I start looking for academia jobs).
I'm interested in set theory, category theory, homotopy type theory. My home institution has 1 prof in set theory but no people in category theory or type theory. The schools I'm interested in going are:
UCB/UCLA/JHU/U Illinois Chicago/CMU/Notre Dame/UC Irvine
Bonn/U Darmstadt/U Helsinki/Paris Diderot/U Warsaw(?)
As an international applicant I don't really know the "market trend" in the US, but I feel it is going to be tough as I look around.
My questions are:
1. How competitive is it to get into US top-50 for pure math? Will it be very difficult for people like me without a Bachelor's in math?
2. Any suggestions to more good European schools in my interest area?
3. Could someone share his/her knowledge on U Warsaw? Or schools in Poland in general (I heard Poland is great for mathematical logic but I don't know if that's true.)
4. Any other specific advice is appreciated
Cheers.
I will be doing a Msc in pure math at my home institution, which is well-known in Singapore. It will take a number of years (2 or 3).
I am worried if it will be very difficult for me to be admitted to a top 50 US PhD institution for math, just because I don't have a perfectly matching background for Bachelor's. I am fretting about this because admission results seem really CRUELLL in the recent years even for ppl with Math Major, good GPA, etc. I am concerned about ranking because I want an academic career, and my home institution is really particular about ranking (which might be an issue a few years down the road if I start looking for academia jobs).
I'm interested in set theory, category theory, homotopy type theory. My home institution has 1 prof in set theory but no people in category theory or type theory. The schools I'm interested in going are:
UCB/UCLA/JHU/U Illinois Chicago/CMU/Notre Dame/UC Irvine
Bonn/U Darmstadt/U Helsinki/Paris Diderot/U Warsaw(?)
As an international applicant I don't really know the "market trend" in the US, but I feel it is going to be tough as I look around.
My questions are:
1. How competitive is it to get into US top-50 for pure math? Will it be very difficult for people like me without a Bachelor's in math?
2. Any suggestions to more good European schools in my interest area?
3. Could someone share his/her knowledge on U Warsaw? Or schools in Poland in general (I heard Poland is great for mathematical logic but I don't know if that's true.)
4. Any other specific advice is appreciated
Cheers.