Advice on an interim year?

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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awildbread
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:58 am

Advice on an interim year?

Post by awildbread » Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:20 am

I have yet to be accepted to any of the schools I've applied to and there's only a handful left to hear from, so... I'm getting pretty worried. Apparently I was too ambitious in my choice of schools :( Any advice on the best things to do if I have to take a year and apply again? I know there are some one year research programs out there but I'm not sure where and which deadlines haven't passed yet. I've heard that not doing anything directly math related for a year tends to make it even harder to get in places, but is that only really a deal breaker for top schools? Pure math if that matters. Thanks for the help :/

Rise
Posts: 73
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:48 pm

Re: Advice on an interim year?

Post by Rise » Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:07 am

What is your background? If you’re already well equipped for a graduate program, then I would recommend brushing up on Qualifying Exam topics and also keeping yourself from rusting. Additionally, learn programming or finance to give yourself a more employable fallback. If you’re not super prepared, work on filling the gaps on your undergraduate background so you will be more competitive for next year. I think if you keep your discipline, you’ll come out fine, albeit at the cost of one year (though you can always try to graduate PhD in four years to make up).


I’m also a big advocate of travelling for fun, but I understand that that might not be feasible for everyone. If it is for you, I’d consider spending some time doing that. It keeps your morale up, you learn a lot of non-math stuff, and you can always study while on vacation.

djysyed
Posts: 359
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 9:59 pm

Re: Advice on an interim year?

Post by djysyed » Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:22 pm

awildbread wrote:I have yet to be accepted to any of the schools I've applied to and there's only a handful left to hear from, so... I'm getting pretty worried. Apparently I was too ambitious in my choice of schools :( Any advice on the best things to do if I have to take a year and apply again? I know there are some one year research programs out there but I'm not sure where and which deadlines haven't passed yet. I've heard that not doing anything directly math related for a year tends to make it even harder to get in places, but is that only really a deal breaker for top schools? Pure math if that matters. Thanks for the help :/
You could do independent studies or undergrad research with professors at your university. That's essentially what I'm doing.



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