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I survived the process last year myself, and I am now a graduate student in mathematics at Texas A&M University. I should be able to give you some advice. You will likely have to complete a statement of purpose. That will be the best way to hide a sub-par GPA. Although your GPA is not as bad as you think, despite what you hear most people do not have a GPA close to 4.0, in fact most people are not even close to that. Although acceptance rates are generally low everywhere so you might want to apply to more schools (the schools you mentioned are especially hard to get into). Did you take a lot of challenging courses as an undergrad? If so explain that in your statement of purpose. My GPA was not as high as I would have liked, but I took a lot of challenging courses and highlighted them on my statement of purpose and that is why I got a lot of offers for Fall 2008. You will also want to mention on the statement of purpose that you had a rough start to college, but that in the last couple of years you have done a lot better. Improvement will help your application. If a statement of purpose is not required, then you will still want to somehow illustrate this. Most schools do not use litmus tests to narrow the number of applications, although a few do. There is usually no way to tell so you're better off not worrying about it. If they reject your application by use of litmus test, then they're assholes who shouldn't be running a graduate program anyway. Good luck with the application process. I won't be on the site much because I have finished this process, but I will occasionally be on here check things out.

Congratulations za232 on you're enrollment at Colorado. I was only rejected from 3 out of 15 schools (that is the final verdict), and Colorado was one of them. I am going to Texas A&M University in College Station and I am absolutely thrilled about it. I am also doing this because I love applied math. This moron santana is pissing everyone off in here but everyone on here is trying to be nice and patient for him, and someone (us) needed to step up and draw the line. I am glad this whole process is over. But I'll still hang around on TheGradCafe.com since this place has been so good to me.

Texas A&M University, Mathematics, PhD

Now that the April 15 deadline has just about passed, where are you attending graduate school? You can list the university and/or the degree program.

I got two back. They were quite different. Nebraska: We tried, but the school won't give us more funding before April 15. Sorry we will miss the deadline. We understand if you have to withdraw your application but we would have loved to have you here. Texas: You're rejected. Go f**k yourself. I am still waiting on one more school. I will know very soon where I am going.

I have contacted about a dozen schools the the past couple of weeks, some multiple times. I withdrew a few applications because I knew that I was going to turn down the offer if accepted (of course, I asked them what the offer would have been first because I can't carelessly burn my bridges). All three of the schools that I am waiting on have told me that they would make a decision by today and they know full well that I can't wait any longer. I will likely call them after lunch time if they haven't made a decision yet.

Is anyone else on here dealing with this? I got another fall-back offer patiently waiting since February and three schools who have still not made a decision whether to admit or reject. I'm worried that I might have to tell a school "Sorry, I was going to accept your offer but you're too late - I accepted another offer as the deadline passed."

I had this pain many times this year. Some schools were harder to turn down than others. It makes me feel even more awful when the school takes the news hard, or is a bad sport about it. I has a couple schools ask me to reconsider, one school try to increase their offer (not enough of an increase, by the way), another school or two were envious. One school tried to make me regret my decision by saying that they would have increased their offer (and I still would have turned them down). I am still waiting on three schools to make a decision, and APRIL 15 is TOMORROW. This whole process is a big pain in the ass, and for their sake they better make a decision by tomorrow. I am not going to give any extensions.

The campus is a lot like the University of Texas, except that there are more hills. The weather was warm and dry (unlike the steamy east coast) and the people were incredibly nice. The administration of the school is among the few weaknesses - not the department of your major but at the higher levels. I don't think this is anything to be scared about though. One more thing: The people at the University of Tennessee worship Peyton Manning as it is their birthright. They also mostly dislike Tom Brady. So be careful when discussing that with the locals.

You found this forum and spoke up. As such, I would not be surprised if another 200 persons on here agree with you. Good luck in Buffalo buddy - you'll be going to a good school. Yeah, if you want to be a professor at MIT. I'm not in this for the money, or to live in the shit-hole of Cambridge Massachusetts just to work with a Nobel Laureate or two. Any alumni at a top 100 school has a shot to work at a research-intensive institution at a top 100 school if they secure a good enough post-doc. The problem is that a lot of people new PhD's don't get post-docs and regret it later. You make a ton of wild assumptions, especially for a statistics student.

I got way more acceptances than rejections. Colorado and Purdue are the only schools (out of the eleven that responded so far) which sent me a rejection. That is about an 81% success rate with my applications. That is a wake-up call - that your comments are bullshit. Most mathematicians find jobs very easily, usually beginning as post-docs and then later as professors or researchers. Some of them make less than six-figures, but they are certainly making more money than burger-flippers and other lowly jobs (by the way, truck drivers make a lot more money than most people think). You're referring to when unemployment levels were at about 6% or 7%. Currently it is more like 3% or 4% and it is expected to get better during the next 20 years. Sometimes the politics will work in our favor. Publishing more isn't a problem if you have a PhD, especially if you have a post-doc which will provide more time to do write papers. Most math programs have acceptance rates or about 10%-20% (top-tier schools) or 30% to 40% (middle-tier schools). Other programs in history, English, philosophy, and biology have lower acceptance rates because more students are interested, but there are often even less jobs available for them. Physics programs are harder to get into because more students are interested. Try asking people who have greatly successful careers without going to top-tier schools. I agree that you don't have as many opportunities with a degree from Austin Peay State University (no offense to Peay students), but there are mid-tier programs with outstanding programs. Applied math has greater demand outside of academia, but both are encouraging fields. ----- I looked around at your postings. There are a few things I would like to say about your postings and account, but I am not going to because I don't want to risk getting banned from TheGradCafe.com

I don't know the program at Florida State well, but I know they're better than Purdue in financial math. But Cornell is the best you're going to get. My suggestion is that you ask Florida State for an extension if Cornell makes you wait any longer than the 15th.

I visited the University of Texas at Austin last September. The University of Texas is bigger, warmer, and flatter but aside from that I thought the two schools were actually very similar. It's not like you're moving to a totally different place, and there are plenty. I'm actually in the Knoxville area right now and it's been storming. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Since you are going for a PhD, you may want to think about what degree will look better. If you plan on going into academia, then I recommend the school with a better reputation. If you plan on going into industry, then it is too close to call. The math program ranked 21st in US News is the University of Maryland. If this is the school, then I strongly don't recommend it. I am finishing undergraduate school nearby and I can't wait to leave the area. The traffic is terrible and the people are not nice. The climate is not moderate - Maryland is very cold during the winter, very hot and humid during the summer, and there is too short a period in between where it's nice (and it just passed). I frequently tell me friends that Maryland is a grossly overrated University. I am guessing (again, I might be wrong) that the other school is the University of Michigan. I am not familiar with the area, but the climate is colder during the winter and much nicer during the summer. Ann Arbor is not very small and even if it was, it is not far from Detroit. Unless you plan to not go into academia and Maryland is offering at least $10,000 more, or you plan to go into academia and Maryland is offering at least $15,000 more, then I recommend Michigan. If I was wrong guessing Maryland or Michigan, then the information above should still be helpful.

I've been there a few times. I can try to answer your questions. Knoxville has among the lowest costs of living in the country. Having a bike is a good idea. The roads are largely mountainous and the traffic is worse than in Nashville or Memphis (despite a smaller population). Compared to Texas, the summers are more tolerable, but still hot. The winters are much colder and they get snow every year, but not a whole lot of it like they would in the mountains. The weather is really nice in the spring and the fall because it is much less humid than the east coast or east Texas. I am not very familiar with public transportation in Knoxville. If you choose not to bring a car, you might be just fine with a bike since Knoxville isn't very big. But if you need food or errands, you would probably need to live close to a Kroger or Walmart. The World Fair Sunsphere recently reopened for tourists, but aside from that I don't know much about the parks. Knoxville is the third-largest city in Tennessee so I expect that there would be plenty of things to do. Culturally and historically, Tennessee is very similar to Texas and if you like it in Texas, you will definitely like Tennessee. East Tennessee is a beautiful place and they get a lot of tourists (e.g. Smokey Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, fall colors, etc). It is also (as I said earlier) really cheap, so unless they're paying you like a slave, I have no doubt that you will find a place close to campus. But the middle part of the city is a little bit crowded because of geographical constraints and construction, but I don't think that will be too much of a problem either. Let me know if you have any more questions. I will be in Knoxville again for a conference on Saturday so I might know more after that.