origin415

I already have a job that I do remotely, so I plan on moving to the school's area early in the summer and then continuing to work as I get to know the city I'll be living for the next 5 years. I find it exceedingly frustrating that I can't make any more in depth plans than that though, as I could be moving to any one of 10 cities across the country. If you want advice about summer programs, for the past two summers I've worked at national labs (Brookhaven and Argonne, still working for Argonne), they love interns, and if you can program you are very desirable. Their main program is SULI, which is for undergraduates, but they also had a lot of grads when I was there.

Well after reading this thread and seeing everyone's successes, I do regret not sending some emails, and definitely will when I get acceptances.

How about around $70 for the average application, plus another $20 to send GRE scores? I studied abroad, so getting transcripts from there was pretty annoying, for some reason it took two months for them to get here, and I had to do it twice because my list had doubled in size by the time the first bunch got here. Fortunately some schools didn't need that transcript, and the ones that did had their due dates distributed such that it all worked out. But of course the worst is the fact that after the application process is all said and done, you have to wait a couple months to hear a peep from the department.

I haven't, as I don't want to come off as a creep or something emailing them out of the blue (though if I were a grad student, I would be completely willing to help people who took the time to email me about the program). I have thought about emailing students in the schools I am actually accepted to, to ask them about living in the area and what they think of the department and such (though a visit and talking in person would serve the same purpose).

The difference isn't about theorems, I think. Rather, its motivation: do you wish to do math for its own sake because you find it intriguing and elegant, or do you wish to do math because it can help people, solve real problems, and better our understanding of our universe (as opposed to idealized, abstract mathematical universes). Personally I'm completely 100% in the former category, I could care less about the ramifications, but think the ideas themselves are beautiful. I think most people in mathematics studying string theory, by the way, would put themselves as pure. The University of Washington would seem to agree with me, here is what they say about the fact that they have separate departments for mathematics and applied mathematics, from their FAQ: "The most important difference, perhaps, is that faculty members in the two departments are interested in a somewhat different range of subjects. A second important difference is one of motivation: Research in the Applied Math Department is a bit more oriented toward using mathematical ideas to solve problems that arise outside of mathematics, while research in the Math Department is directed more at understanding the underlying mathematical ideas, whether motivated by applications or by more theoretical considerations."

Email them asking innocuously about visiting or stipends or something, when they respond you will know for sure. I'd hope they would catch their gaffe by now if it wasn't true. Congrats by the way, having your nightmares would be a dream come true for the rest of us

Think of it this way: if the school turns you down because they don't believe you would be happy with what you'll be researching when you get there, then you really didn't want to go there in the first place. Lying about your research interest just helps you (if at all) get into a school whose research interests differ from yours.

I would definitely say they are not needed, but that comes from being a math major. Typing up math notes in real time is nigh impossible with the arcane notation we use, using typesetting software takes too long. If you went through undergrad without one, there is no reason you can't continue without one.

I haven't had courses in any of these, so I'm mainly going off what I've heard and the first few chapters of some introductory texts I've picked up, but I think algebraic geometry, differential geometry, or algebraic topology. I've chosen to apply to schools that seem to have a balance of each so that I can decide later, or even decide on something entirely different.

Look at the results from last year and find the earliest that anyone in math heard back from any of the schools you applied to. I made a list for myself of all the school's earliest dates. For me, the earliest is Berkeley, which sent out a bunch of acceptances on 1/28/09. Since I have no expectations for acceptance as far as that application goes, I don't see myself getting anything from anyone until the 2nd week of february-ish. hubris is right that ad coms don't meet over break, they are probably starting around now for the earlier deadline schools.

Thats amazing. I guess that will help remove the temptation to bite your nails in anticipation?

I definitely understand the confusion, but besides the phrase "we wish you good luck in finding a great graduate program" (possible implication: as opposed to theirs), it seems very positive, so the implication of that phrase is probably completely unintentional. I would say getting your hopes up is called for, if you so wish (personally I'd rather resign myself to my safety school and be pleasantly surprised). I've not been as fortunate to receive any response save the standard application complete or such and such still hasn't arrived messages.

From my Berkeley SOP... Gee, I wonder what I'm applying for.

I often have dreams of getting accepted into the various schools I'm applying to. So really the real nightmare is waking up and realizing it was just a dream