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grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:13 pm
by Jmr324
What are some grad schools for combinatorics/graph theory (not algebraic combinatorics) (Im not opposed to doing algebraic combinatorics, I currently am more interested in extremal combinatorics and structural graph theory)?
Obviously GaTech, CMU, Waterloo.

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:19 pm
by Cyclicduck
I highly recommend you do not do combinatorics, and if you do, do algebraic combinatorics.

That being said, if you really want to do combinatorics, there's Rutgers (experimental), Stanford, and MIT.

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:22 pm
by homotopysphere
Cyclicduck wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:19 pm
I highly recommend you do not do combinatorics, and if you do, do algebraic combinatorics.

That being said, if you really want to do combinatorics, there's Rutgers (experimental), Stanford, and MIT.
Wait, why?

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:36 pm
by Cyclicduck
homotopysphere wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:22 pm
Cyclicduck wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:19 pm
I highly recommend you do not do combinatorics, and if you do, do algebraic combinatorics.

That being said, if you really want to do combinatorics, there's Rutgers (experimental), Stanford, and MIT.
Wait, why?
Why would someone do combinatorics (especially non-algebraic)? It has no connection to the rest of math. You should know this well given your username...

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:21 pm
by homotopysphere
Cyclicduck wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:36 pm
homotopysphere wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:22 pm
Cyclicduck wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:19 pm
I highly recommend you do not do combinatorics, and if you do, do algebraic combinatorics.

That being said, if you really want to do combinatorics, there's Rutgers (experimental), Stanford, and MIT.
Wait, why?
Why would someone do combinatorics (especially non-algebraic)? It has no connection to the rest of math. You should know this well given your username...
Sorry, it's difficult to tell when people are joking online. I thought there was really some reason I didn't know about. My bad!

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:39 pm
by Jmr324
Cyclicduck wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:19 pm
I highly recommend you do not do combinatorics, and if you do, do algebraic combinatorics.

That being said, if you really want to do combinatorics, there's Rutgers (experimental), Stanford, and MIT.
What about geometric combinatorics?

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:45 pm
by jiayiwen99
I don't quite know about the school list, but if you are doing probabilistic/additive combinatorics, I guess almost every school with a combinatorics group will be good to apply. Sorry, I don't know much about this area, but I would suggest looking at the website of each school.

What Cyclicduck said is obviously joking. Combinatorics definitely has some relation with other areas of math. I don't have much knowledge about probabilistic/additive combinatorics, but from my experience, analysis is heavily used in probabilistic/additive combinatorics. At least, I know there are many applications in number theory. For example, the prime number theorem and the Green-Tao Theorem. Algebraic combinatorics is very different from probabilistic/additive combinatorics, including the objects and the tools that are used to study. It also has connections with other areas of math, but most of the applications or tools fall in the areas that have closed relations with algebra (i.e. commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, algebraic number theory, etc.).

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:50 pm
by Jmr324
jiayiwen99 wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:45 pm
I don't quite know about the school list, but if you are doing probabilistic/additive combinatorics, I guess almost every school with a combinatorics group will be good to apply. Sorry, I don't know much about this area, but I would suggest looking at the website of each school.

What Cyclicduck said is obviously joking. Combinatorics definitely has some relation with other areas of math. I don't have much knowledge about probabilistic/additive combinatorics, but from my experience, analysis is heavily used in probabilistic/additive combinatorics. At least, I know there are many applications in number theory. For example, the prime number theorem and the Green-Tao Theorem. Algebraic combinatorics is very different from probabilistic/additive combinatorics, including the objects and the tools that are used to study. It also has connections with other areas of math, but most of the applications or tools fall in the areas that have closed relations with algebra (i.e. commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, algebraic number theory, etc.).
Thanks for the advice. Results like regularity lemma, Roth's theorem, Green-Tao theorem, Van der Waerden's theorem etc are what got me interested in these areas. Yea I assume they're joking.

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:59 pm
by Hallauer
I can only speak to the US, but I know there to be good extremal combinatorics faculty at (in no particular order) CMU, GT, UCSD, UIUC, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UIC, Minnesota, and Rutgers. In addition, UT-Austin, Berkeley, and Washington are very known for CS Theory but their math departments don't actually have people in combinatorics. I am sure there are others I am missing, especially ranked (for overall math) around UIC or lower.

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:39 am
by Cyclicduck
Jmr324 wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:39 pm
What about geometric combinatorics?
I don't really know what geometric combinatorics is.
jiayiwen99 wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:45 pm
What Cyclicduck said is obviously joking. Combinatorics definitely has some relation with other areas of math. I don't have much knowledge about probabilistic/additive combinatorics, but from my experience, analysis is heavily used in probabilistic/additive combinatorics. At least, I know there are many applications in number theory. For example, the prime number theorem and the Green-Tao Theorem. Algebraic combinatorics is very different from probabilistic/additive combinatorics, including the objects and the tools that are used to study. It also has connections with other areas of math, but most of the applications or tools fall in the areas that have closed relations with algebra (i.e. commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, algebraic number theory, etc.).


It is true that analysis is used in some areas of combinatorics, but it's just to solve certain problems which are of isolated interest and not actually relevant to analysis or anything else as far as I can tell. Combinatorics is not related to the prime number theorem at all. Combinatorics is used to prove the Green-Tao theorem, but that's because this theorem is really just a statement about numbers satisfying certain density conditions, which the primes happen to satisfy. Thus I would not count this as an application to number theory either. I don't understand your statement about "areas that have closed relations with algebra".

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:40 am
by AnatolyBabakov
Jmr324 wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:13 pm
What are some grad schools for combinatorics/graph theory (not algebraic combinatorics) (Im not opposed to doing algebraic combinatorics, I currently am more interested in extremal combinatorics and structural graph theory)?
Obviously GaTech, CMU, Waterloo.
Consider UIUC , UIC, UC San Diego, U Minesotta. They have a few amazing faculties working in the areas that you mentioned.

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2021 12:41 pm
by notaiscrim
AnatolyBabakov wrote:
Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:40 am
Jmr324 wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:13 pm
What are some grad schools for combinatorics/graph theory (not algebraic combinatorics) (Im not opposed to doing algebraic combinatorics, I currently am more interested in extremal combinatorics and structural graph theory)?
Obviously GaTech, CMU, Waterloo.
Consider UIUC , UIC, UC San Diego, U Minesotta. They have a few amazing faculties working in the areas that you mentioned.
UGA is pretty good in Additive Combinatorics. Furthermore, Rochester and Emory are strong in the topics you mentioned.

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2021 3:26 pm
by AnatolyBabakov
notaiscrim wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 12:41 pm
AnatolyBabakov wrote:
Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:40 am
Jmr324 wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:13 pm
What are some grad schools for combinatorics/graph theory (not algebraic combinatorics) (Im not opposed to doing algebraic combinatorics, I currently am more interested in extremal combinatorics and structural graph theory)?
Obviously GaTech, CMU, Waterloo.
Consider UIUC , UIC, UC San Diego, U Minesotta. They have a few amazing faculties working in the areas that you mentioned.
UGA is pretty good in Additive Combinatorics. Furthermore, Rochester and Emory are strong in the topics you mentioned.
Yah my bad I should have mentioned Emory. But, to be honest, Rochester is amazing in analytic combinatorics and not the ones that OP mentioned. ( Pretty much why I am almost sure I'll be going there )

Re: grad schools for combinatorics

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:16 pm
by Jmr324
AnatolyBabakov wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 3:26 pm
notaiscrim wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 12:41 pm
AnatolyBabakov wrote:
Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:40 am


Consider UIUC , UIC, UC San Diego, U Minesotta. They have a few amazing faculties working in the areas that you mentioned.
UGA is pretty good in Additive Combinatorics. Furthermore, Rochester and Emory are strong in the topics you mentioned.
Yah my bad I should have mentioned Emory. But, to be honest, Rochester is amazing in analytic combinatorics and not the ones that OP mentioned. ( Pretty much why I am almost sure I'll be going there )
I like Emory a lot. My current interests are more in graph theory (especially structural) and extremal combinatorics. I'll look into more analytic combinatorics because it looks like a really interesting area.