Help With Profile Improvement
Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 12:47 pm
Hi all, I would really appreciate some advice on my profile, including evaluations, suggestions on how to improve, etc. I am about to graduate from a UK G5 school with a math major. My application this year went really badly and here was my profile:
Expecting First-class honor (GPA 3.93/4.0)
mGRE=90%/880
GRE=324
1 Individual Research required for all students (more like required coursework? But we were expected to do researches on the topic and produce a presentation), mine was on eigenstates of wave equations. I received a high score on it and was invited the next year to be a peer marker; 1 group research required for all students (similar to the previous one, except it's a group project and we were expected to produce a 40-page long article), my group did Modular Forms; 1 UROP during summer on Bieberbach's conjecture and its proof, produced a 10-page long reconstruction of the proof.
In terms of graduate courses, UK schools aren't really flexible. Here are some courses I took that has both undergrad and graduate students: Differential Geometry, Algebraic Topology, Algebraic Number Theory, Algebraic Curves, Galois Theory. Like I said these are not entirely grad-level courses. They are designed for both grad and undergrad school students.
My aim was Ph.D. in the top 20s, ranging from top schools like Princeton to great schools like Cornell, Brown, and NYU, and I failed completely. I will probably aim at these schools again when I apply again, but I definitely need to improve my profile by a lot. I think my biggest weakness is the lack of ACTUAL research experiences. My researches were all pretty loosely-organized, and I honestly did not do a lot. Also, I think my courses were weak, because they were not at grad level. I can probably increase my mGRE scores, but I still think my biggest problems are researches and courses. I will either go to NYU's master in mathematics or stay at my current school for master (it will be a one year master tho, and I'm afraid I can't improve much before my next application) next year. Please leave your thoughts and suggestions on my profile, as well as on where I should go for masters right now. THANK YOU!!!
Expecting First-class honor (GPA 3.93/4.0)
mGRE=90%/880
GRE=324
1 Individual Research required for all students (more like required coursework? But we were expected to do researches on the topic and produce a presentation), mine was on eigenstates of wave equations. I received a high score on it and was invited the next year to be a peer marker; 1 group research required for all students (similar to the previous one, except it's a group project and we were expected to produce a 40-page long article), my group did Modular Forms; 1 UROP during summer on Bieberbach's conjecture and its proof, produced a 10-page long reconstruction of the proof.
In terms of graduate courses, UK schools aren't really flexible. Here are some courses I took that has both undergrad and graduate students: Differential Geometry, Algebraic Topology, Algebraic Number Theory, Algebraic Curves, Galois Theory. Like I said these are not entirely grad-level courses. They are designed for both grad and undergrad school students.
My aim was Ph.D. in the top 20s, ranging from top schools like Princeton to great schools like Cornell, Brown, and NYU, and I failed completely. I will probably aim at these schools again when I apply again, but I definitely need to improve my profile by a lot. I think my biggest weakness is the lack of ACTUAL research experiences. My researches were all pretty loosely-organized, and I honestly did not do a lot. Also, I think my courses were weak, because they were not at grad level. I can probably increase my mGRE scores, but I still think my biggest problems are researches and courses. I will either go to NYU's master in mathematics or stay at my current school for master (it will be a one year master tho, and I'm afraid I can't improve much before my next application) next year. Please leave your thoughts and suggestions on my profile, as well as on where I should go for masters right now. THANK YOU!!!