ozborne

Thanks for your replies guys. I ended up accepting CU Boulder's offer. I never went to NCSU since I would have had to pay for the flight myself, and since I don't think I would have picked it over Boulder. Also, I talked a bit more with the folks at Boulder and there's people doing research which seems very interesting, so I think it will be a good fit. I'm excited to get started there this fall. Thanks again for all replies. I'm glad to be at the other end of the application process.

The TA amounts are pretty much identical at around $18k for 9 months, which seems quite standard for TAships. The only major difference is that CU Boulder only covers 85% of health insurance, so that would be an extra cost of around $500 for the most expensive option on offer. Neither TAships cover student fees, which are $1500/year (ugh!) at CU Boulder (not sure what they are at NC State). Yeah, I definitely agree that CU Denver's program might not be optimal if you want to do stats. CU Boulder's applied math program is similar in that sense, with two statisticians and two applied probabilists, so you maybe would feel the same way about that program. I've asked some professors in my current department, and all of them seem to indicate to varying degrees that CU Boulder is stronger. CU Boulder does better than NC State on all measures except diversity on the NRC 2010 applied math ranking (http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-Applied/124704/). Were you at the Santa Cruz visitation days? I was there, so perhaps we met then if you were.

I am trying to decide which of these offers to go with. I am interested in applied math, especially the areas of applied probability theory and optimization. I have offers from the following schools: University of Colorado Boulder (PhD in Department of Applied Mathematics). Funding: TAship + $3,000 during first year University of Colorado Denver (PhD in Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences). Funding: TAship + $3,000 during first year North Carolina State University (PhD in Department of Mathematics; I would do the applied math track). Funding: TAship University of California Santa Cruz (PhD in Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics). Funding: RAship University of California Merced (PhD in Department of Applied Mathematics). Funding: TAship I have visited all schools except CU Denver and NC State, both of which I hopefully will visit next week. Right now, I'm leaning towards either CU Boulder or NC State. Here are some pros and cons with each program that come to mind: CU Boulder, pros: Two faculty members doing applied probability, plus a couple of statisticians. One faculty member doing things in continuous optimization which seems in line with my interests. I was also told they have a third faculty member joining this fall who is focusing on areas in applied probability theory I'm interested in. It's a department dedicated to applied math. I like the structure of the program: You can spread out doing the qualifying exams over the first two years; it seems like I could start doing research pretty much right away. CU Boulder, cons: The biggest potential con in my head is not related to the program, but the city of Boulder. It felt very small and isolated when I visited. I have previously lived in London and Seattle, and I'm worried I will feel "trapped" here. NC State, pros: They seem to have quite a few people working both in probability theory and optimization. The research triangle area sounds pretty awesome. Housing in Raleigh seems quite cheap. NC State, cons: Applied math is a track within the math department rather than its own department. I'm very happy to hear any and all thoughts and advice on my situation. Even though I'm leaning towards CU Boulder or NC State, please feel free to also comment on the other programs I've been admitted into. Many thanks in advance for helping me with this important and difficult decision!

I am currently an on-campus student at UW. For me personally, a disadvantage of the online degree would be that quite a few courses are not offered online. However, for the ones that are, I have been impressed by the quality/clarity of the video streaming/recordings, and online communication with professors/TAs. In fact, I have ended up watching lectures online in the courses I have taken that are offered online since I think it's more convenient. As for your second question, I think very few of the on-campus UW master's students write a thesis; I'm not doing one and I don't anyone who is. I don't know about the online students, but I think the on-campus students generally do quite well when applying to PhD programs after graduating. Feel free to PM me if you have any additional questions!

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I ended up not including my GRE subject test. I have been working as a TA for the duration of my current master's studies, so hopefully that will compensate for me not submitting my GRE subject test from, at least from the perspective of my ability to contribute as a TA. Thank you for this very useful feedback. I'm hoping that's the approach they take in the math departments strongly recommending the math GRE too.

Would you say it's better to just not include the score then? For UCLA I don't really have a choice though since it's required.

The general GRE I did pretty well on: 163 (92%) on verbal reasoning, 166 (92%) on quant reasoning, 4.5 (80%) on analytical writing, which I'm quite happy with as a nonnative speaker. That's a good point. I should also mention that my undergrad was in engineering rather than math, so hopefully they'll see that as another reason why I might not do the subject test. Or maybe that leads them to be even more interested in how I did my subject test...

Hi all, I would very grateful if I could get some advice and hear some thoughts on my current situation. I am currently applying for PhD programs. I'm mostly applying to applied and computational mathematics departments, but also a few mathematics departments where they are also doing applied research. Some of the programs I'm applying to (especially those in mathematics departments) either require (e.g. UCLA) or strongly recommend (e.g. Duke) submitting a GRE math subject test score. I did take the test in September, but unfortunately did really poorly: I got a scaled score of 650, which corresponds to the 49% percentile. My question is this: For programs that strongly recommend, but don't require, the math subject test, do you think I'm better off just not submitting the test score at all? One of the reasons why I'm leaning towards not submitting at all is that, first of all, my profile and research interests clearly are in applied rather than pure math, which ought to make the subject test less relevant. Second of all, by next fall I will have completed two master's degrees with strong grades: One 1-year MS in a heavily quantitative field from the math department of a top European university, and one 2-year MS in applied math from a strong US applied math department. I'm hoping that 3 years of graduate course work, mostly in applied mathematics, with strong grades will be a stronger indicator of my preparedness than the subject test. I'm not sure how the various admissions committees would look at this though. Thanks in advance for any input.

I'm still waiting to hear back. Can see that a couple of new rejections have appeared on gradcafe, but otherwise no activity. Hope to hear from them this week...

Hey all, Does anyone have any new info on this? I also got the three questions around March 1. It seems like there's been a few rejections and a few acceptances so far...