George

Congratulations!

I feel for you. I had 2/12 lost and that was bad enough for me. To answer your other question, GRE scores are sent electronically, even though ETS sends you a piece of paper in the mail. Now that you know that, you should be even more upset it costs $20 to send scores to one school.

"One of her ex-stepmoms"! 0_o

That's really cool. In another life, I would like to do mathematical physics. String theory, quantum field theory and general relativity are amazing feats of human intelligence. Do you think it's possible for me to learn these things and do research in them in grad school if my training in physics is limited to 2 introductory level courses in college? They covered mechanics, electromagnetism, optics... you know, the basics. Did you double major in math and physics?

I got a Nook for Christmas, which came with a free copy of Dracula. I've been thoroughly enjoying both the Nook and Dracula. =)

I agree with Sanssouci. I asked several schools, and they will all accept this document when you find out that you've been accepted and exactly how much funding they have provided for you. It's quite natural to take your TA-ship and tuition waiver into account when you make your case for whether or not you can pay for grad school.

Yes, but it's nice to associate a face with those results, even though it's just a pseudonym. We've all probably read a bunch of each other's posts, and we are emotionally attached at least to an extent. I'll post mine here as well. Hold your breath for another month Mathk1d! =)

I feel your pain everyone, and I promise to never make fun of any major! I can't recreate the conversation like some others have, but I can convey in prose some of what has happened to me. I once had this conversation with a few members of my family who were trying to convince me that mathematics is only useful up to and including basic arithmetic. The older generation honestly couldn't imagine what more there was to mathematics outside summing up the prices of your groceries, or subtracting what you're paying from the amount of money you have and other such life situations where math basically allows you to function. I could see where they're coming from. It would take me a week to explain to them what a function is, let alone calculus or (shudder) modern algebra, and the more I talk about these things, the more they'll think they're useless because they don't apply to their lives in any way. One of the relatives was a bit more knowledgeable having studies engineering, and he was on my side for calculus, but he thought such things as topology and modern algebra are useless. He told me a story of a mathematician he knew in university who would regale him with stories about the topology of a Luffa. Of course my relative remembered a story where something as mundane as a sponge was involved - "why in the world would you analyze that!"

I just dreamed that I had to retake the GRE, but I couldn't figure out if I have to retake the general test or the subject test or why I needed to do it in the first place. I was mortified by the possibility of sitting in a chair for 4 hours another time.

My field is math. I definitely do not fit the ideas of one party or the other. I tend to be slightly conservative economically and am a fan of Ayn Rand's meritocracy even though I don't fully subscribe to her ideas about social interaction. In other areas I am very liberal: civil rights for anybody, severe penalties for trashing the environment, lots of spending toward public education.

The adcomm who would do that must have a heart of ice.

Here goes. I'm applying to math without having taken a couple of key courses: complex analysis and topology. Mediocre grades without much to offset that. AND I just found out that I sent 4 transcripts to the corresponding pure math departments instead of the applied ones I submitted apps to and one LoR is reported as missing in a fifth institution. All the deadlines are long since passed, and I found this out today, on a Saturday. With MLK day coming up I won't be able to do anything at all about the situation until Tuesday.

It's too bad we're spread out across this enormous country. I love the idea too. Anyone in the DC area?