the_sheath

Well, people do drink away their suffering. I'm personally not fond of alcohol, and I do not think it is an "acquired taste"--I do like being buzzed, though. Never seen scientists go hard, though. That's actually a thing?

I would advise against applying to schools solely based on the fact that they're easier to get into. The safety school mentality just doesn't work as well around here. Doesn't mean you shouldn't apply to smaller programs, but ya know, make sure the fit is fairly good. There have been quite a few threads on here specifically about people getting into their lower ranked schools/"safeties"/bottom choice, and they strongly consider waiting another year and not going. And it's like... Why apply there if you never intend to go there at all if you get accepted there?

I think it's worth a shot. The general "I'm still interested in your program but have not heard back. What is my status?" Email? Do you know if other people have heard back, or if csme gave some sort of decision date?

Well, seeing as he's responded to my email literally a day ago, within a day of me sending my question (completely unrelated question), I can probably guess he is either ignoring emails like yours or does not have an answer. How long ago did you shot him an email?

Hi there. I applied to CSME, but for the PhD, and under the math department. Naturally, I heard from them quite awhile ago, since I'm phd and not ms. I suggest shooting an email to whoever it is who handles admissions inquiring about status.

Contact them and find out!

No kids, but I'm 22. I'M JUST A BOY

What do they expect of us? To complete graduate studies. It's a bribe. TAKE IT.

I already checked out a couple of the books for the qual courses and I'm planning on studying for quals before classes begin. So yeah, I'm nervous. I mean, if visit day is any indication, I'm competing with people from the tip-top. Caltech? Wisconsin? Stanford? People with senior theses? PEOPLE WITH MASTERS DEGREES?! I know everyone gets in for a reason but I highly doubt mine was merit. And without merit, I think I am screwed.

Ha, yeah, I could tell at UCSB, at least from the department I visited, that they do spoil people there. In a good way. They really care about their students... Anyway, I'm speaking from a third person perspective but... You're brain and your heart are saying the same thing. CAL STATE. I say go for it. I mean, the general advice is to go where the funding is, and that happens to be at CSUF. Then, if that isn't an issue, then go where you feel you want to be, which, again, sounds like CSUF. Does your field really depend heavily on prestige? Do you actually want to go to UCLA, or do you just like the idea of being a bruin? Oh, and as a former bruin myself, I can say that this is an awesome school, but it's not perfect. Prestige is but one of MANY factors that can/should factor into your decision. You've gotta go to the program that fits YOU that will get you where you want to go. If it's "just a Cal State", then so be it. And from what I gather from the op, all signs point to CSUF. For you to go there wouldn't be insane. On the contrary, it sounds like the sanest option. Sorry if this post is rambling. I can't organize thoughts well via mobile.

We can't know that if OP is only looking at some epsilon-neighborhood of the domain. Unless the domain is actually that narrowly defined. In which case, OP is screwed.

Wait... You mean, I, an aspiring mathematician, have individuality and agency?! Well, who knew. No seriously though, we probably, for the most part, like math. So you can go off of that? I guess my best advice would be too treat us like human beings instead of some kind of monolithic hive mind, I.e. Treat us like we have individuality and don't have "stuff we like to do in general". Get to know us, basically.

Actually, the last minute thing is true of students too, or at least undergrads. It's freaking annoying. At least around ucla. Maybe usc has some sort of off campus housing listing? Ucla had a community housing website where people, normally affiliated with the University and normally students, posted sublet and full year lease listings. I'd imagine usc has something similar. If you're looking to sublet in the fall. I have used uloop and it worked for me. I was in the situation where I needed to sublet for spring and winter quarters.

We're the adults now and we get to decide what that means. Screw expectations.

Personally, I stay the hell away from home (well, I'm still within driving distance, sorta, but I don't intend on living at home). But that's just me. I also have like 27k debt, so there's that. I'd probably go where my wallet is hit the least, assuming I applied only to programs I would actually attend.

It's April 15th, folks! How we all doin'?

Well, I wouldn't actively want such an email from someone I only knew through the admissions process, but it would certainly be interesting to read.

Arguing with people on the Internet

It would be like Three's Company, but with schools instead of women

So he lied about being supportive and is holding you back? I would personally choose the school, but I guess it depends on how much you're willing to compromise for this guy. You know something that's great at killing relationships? Regret. Kinda like on 17 Again. I mean sure, not going far away now may save the relationship for now, but can you make this decision without heavily regretting what could have been? Because if not, your resulting unhappiness may cause problems down the line

Hi there fellow male! My experience with roommates of a different gender are exactly the same as every experience I've had living with a roommate of the same gender, surprisingly. The only difference is that she sometimes locks the door to change in the room. But I'm pretty sure I have done that and many male roommates would do the same whenever we have locks. It turns out that women are people with individuality and agency and varying personalities. Shocker, I know. You know how they say that girls tend to be cleaner than guys? HA. Yeah, that stereotype could not be further from the truth. From what I've seen it varies. Currently I live with... less than hygenic girls. Then awhile back I had a psuedo-roommate (a roommate's significant other who was also a good friend of mine who stayed over at our place more than she did at her own) who was fairly clean, fun to hang out with, and I had no issues with (she was my friend, after all). Then I've also had female roommates that were in the same apartment number, but different rooms. Also fine. When my roommates were more or less strangers, we generally kept to ourselves and within our social circles, no matter what gender. I found female roommates easier to talk to, but mostly because of my own personal tastes. There were varying levels of PDA/significant other-ship for either gender, but not much of a difference, really between genders. For both girls and guys, it varied between never really seeing the significant other and occasional to frequent sex, where I would sometimes be sexiled. My parents warned me when I told them I would have female roommates that they might falsely accuse me of sexual assault, but I think that's kinda bullshit (and a harmful assumption, given how unlikely people who are actually sexually assaulted end up being believed). For me, roommates of either the male or female gender turn out to be decent people with their own lives who are only sometimes casually racist or sexist. But that's from my personal experience (did not include non-cisgendered experiences because I do not have any, but I expect it to be more or less the same).

I told my boss that I was applying in December and that I was accepted in February. I'd say cut the rope as soon as possible, especially in cases like mine, where the hiring process is long, cumbersome, and painful. They do need to replace me for someone who isn't willing to work for so little. It's a good thing that we're kinda like a family here and they're very supportive.

Guess it depends. I sent one graduate student a very long series of messages detailing my entire decision process and why exactly it was that I selected UCSD over her school, UCSB--literally every aspect of my decision that I could think of. I also included every aspect of her school that I liked, and reasons why I declined. That is, of course, because she asked for these details specifically and she's been my friend since undergrad.

Grades look okay (in math). I'd take at least one course in real analysis. Depending on your area of research, I would also suggest numerical analysis. Generally a lot of course work in math is recommended. Graduate coursework would be even better because it demonstrates your ability to handle the workload. Though, since you're a senior and it's spring quarter/semester pretty much everywhere... I dunno how much you could fix that. Take the GRE and do well on it, probably the subject GRE as well (I heard the general rule for the subject GRE is to get >50%, but "good" would be >80% or 800+). I hear that programming and applied math go hand in hand. You don't need CS-graduate status coding experience, but having some under your belt, especially software specific to your area of interest (I think stats people use R or something like that, for example), looks pretty good. But I'm biased because I applied to a specialization specifically geared toward scientific computing. Can't hurt though, since you may have to learn that software down the line anyway. You should probably get better than meh letters of rec. You want to shoot for good letters of rec from big-name faculty. But you could probably do okay with good letters from relatively unkown faculty or meh letters from big-name faculty (I did the former and I hear the latter goes a long way). I can't tell you whether or not you can get into an okay masters program, because I do not know what that means. But your profile doesn't look terrible. I have no idea how competitive stats masters are, and this is just based on my experience in math/applied math.

Yes, you can, if you haven't already been rejected.