forallepsilon

Thank you so much, this was exactly the reply I needed!!!

Hi all, as you can tell from the title, I failed a graduate level course this year (my final year) as an undergraduate. I had been gearing up for the grad application season, with many of my apps already finished, before this had happened. Now, I am totally disheartened and feel like I shouldn't apply at all. However, I honestly think it would benefit me if I opened this question up to others. Here is the deal... Other than this F, my GPA is somewhat competitive (3.53). I am a math major currently looking at pure math programs, but I had been applying to schools on the lower end of the spectrum (above the top 50). I felt as though I had a pretty good chance prior to this considering that my GPA was above 3.5, I will have had several grad courses under my belt prior to next year (other than the one I failed, doesn't count!), I have done two research projects (only one very minor publication), and my two of my letters are very personal and come from well-respected mathematicians. Also, I go to a top 10 public U.S. university. Yet, part of me is telling me that I just blew my chances at a doctorate program with that F. Granted, this was a hard graduate level course, I still believe this will look terrible on my application. The one thing I have going for me is that my mentor was the one who taught that class (and incidentally is one of my letter writers). We had a pretty heart felt conversation about my results. I let him know that I worked hard but that I merely had a panic attack on the test which caused me to do way more poorly than I should have (totally true). He also was unaware that I have been working a lot while going to school. This being said, he let me know that he would highlight the F in his letter and let the committees know that this was a result of external circumstances and is not very representative of my skill set. Do you think I should bother? I'm not trying to get into MIT or Harvard (or even UW!)... The schools I'm applying to are mostly lower tier Ph.D. programs in mathematics. Any help would be appreciated. My other option is that I do a Master's first, but at 26, I really don't want to add another 2 years to my schooling. Also, I should note that I was doing very well in the class prior to the final, but the final was worth 50% of our grade and I totally bombed it.

No offense taken at all! I'm very well aware of my shortcomings but I think that my work ethic will be suited for graduate school. I am not one who was born with this innate ability for math. I didn't even realize I had any talent for it until I took second quarter calculus in COMMUNITY COLLEGE. Probability is lumped in with Stats at Berkeley and Stanford. Cornell, University of Washington - seattle, NYU, all have probability lumped together with their Pure Mathematics PHD program. There are more on my list.

Hi all, I appreciate the responses so far. @kuz: I've definitely been trying to do that, but for my own purposes. There are multiple top 40 schools which I will not be applying to based on their lack of having researchers who suit my interests. I know that my interests will change but I feel like I have a pretty refined scope, especially compared to many of my peers. However, I can only speak from those I've worked closely with so I don't know what the rest of the applicant pool will look like. Update: It looks like Probability theory is lumped with the Statistics program at Berkeley. The program doesn't require the subject test so that may or may not be good news for me. @CyberWolf: My undergraduate school is top 10 in the country according to a recent poll. I'm not sure how many of these polls there are. It is a UC School in California and I've had great teachers so far.

I am applying to pure math departments.

Thanks to the both of you for replying. I am interested in randomness when combined with other fields of mathematics. Specifically, randomness on groups and possibly the role probability plays in non-linear dynamics (Two people work on this at NYU so it makes it one of my top choices). Probability, as far as I understand from working with my mentor, can be used to "spice" up pretty much any other field of mathematics. I agree that probability is definitely catered more to the applied side of mathematics but it isn't exclusive to one side of a dichotomy or another. That's just from what I understand. Also, I'm not trying to put myself down but the reason I was kind of freaking out was because I was looking at applicant profiles on mathematicsgre.com. Most of the people who got rejected had applications better than mine! I just couldn't possibly fathom how someone with research experience, a higher GPA, and a great subject test score would get rejected. I am taking your advice (which was also given to me by a few others) and I'm applying to about 6 top 20 schools, and then 4 from 20-40. Location wise, I don't want to live in the South or in Texas or anything like that. I've been there and I'm definitely miserable in the heat/humidity.

Hi everyone, I'm currently in the midst of applying to graduate schools and I am looking for advice any where I can seem to find it. Could anyone suggest schools that I should be applying to on the basis of my interests and the strength of my application? Undergraduate School: Top 10 National Public University Undergraduate GPA: 3.63 Undergraduate Major: Mathematics Undergraduate Major GPA: 3.76 GRE Scores: 780Q 620V 4.0A (Math Subject GRE Still To be Taken) Prior Research Experience: I have two extensive REU's under my belt. One was more applied mathematics that led to an unpublished paper, a brief internship at NASA, and the opportunity to run experiments in a microgravity environment. This opportunity also gave me grant-writing and technical document writing experience. My second project was based on an open, but possibly obscure problem whose result was conjectured by a well-known control theorist. I came up with the problem myself and brought it to the attention of my advisor, who that it was a great idea. However, my paper merely gathered more data on the problem and the theorem is still left unproven. That being said, the paper resulted in a minor forth-coming publication. The project also resulted in two conference appearances (one poster and one talk) at University of Washington and UC Berkeley. Professional Development/Awards/Related Work Experience: I was selected to be a NASA Aerospace Scholar in junior college. I was one of forty students accepted with over a hundred applying. I also was selected to be apart of a NASA Reduced Gravity Flight Team (this coincides with my first research project above). Over 70 teams applied and only 13 got in. I was selected to become a McNair Scholar at my University. The McNair Scholars program is a competitive undergraduate program whose main goal is to diversify the doctoral degree by providing research opportunities to underrepresented or low-income groups. As a part of this program, I conducted my second research project in close proximity with my mentor and attended two conferences. Letter Writers: I have 3 LORs (thank god). The first of which comes from my research advisor and should be extremely personal. I expect this letter to be very positive and insightful. I have had many personal conversations based on my future goals and my interests with my mentor. My second letter writer mentioned that my mentor is an up-and-coming name in the field of probability and that any probability department will be familiar with his name. I hope this turns out to be beneficial for me. My second letter writer will not be as personal but should be very warm as well. It also comes from a respected probabilist but I am not sure of his exact standing in the field. My third letter writer will be the least personal of all of them but comes from a revolutionary topologist. He seems to be enthusiastic about my future pursuits but I am not sure how that will turn out in the letter. My Dilemma: I believe that even though my research experienceh as not resulted in a publication, it still holds as the strong point of my application along with my professional development/awards section. My grades aren't the best (3.76 Major GPA) but I've covered all of the hard classes (Analysis I, Analysis II, Topology, etc). Some of my advisors who are non-math people have urged me to apply to top 20 programs. However, I don't think they realize that math is one of the most competitive fields as far as getting into a PHD Program goes. I plan on applying to mostly schools in the Top 40, based on the strength of their probability department. NYU is my first choice as there are a few probability researchers who work on probability in non-linear dynamics. However, I am also interested in more discrete probability (I think that's the word for it) and the work of Persi Diaconis (Stanford) and David Aldous (Berkeley). Realistically, where should I be applying to? I plan on retaking the general GRE to get a perfect Quant score. I had a few mishaps that day and some external factors hindered my ability to completely focus.