MathCat
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Posts posted by MathCat
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What we're saying is that if A does badmouth you to B, it looks far, far worse for them than it does for you. Frankly, even if it all went as horribly as you fear (you decline A, they badmouth you to B, and then B rescinds their offer) - is that really worse than going to A? This sounds like a recipe for a toxic environment and unhappiness, not to mention a lot of debt. In a worst-case scenario, you can apply elsewhere next year. Is that really such a terrible outcome?
The longer you wait, the worse it is (more inconvenient for A). You should absolutely accept B's offer and decline A. Be very apologetic and professional about it to A, but just do it.
- RunnerGrad, fuzzylogician, Ellies and 1 other
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A school has no right to badmouth you for not accepting an unfunded offer. They're upset because they won't get money from you (which it sounds like they desperately want). Thank school A for their offer and politely decline. Keep all emails.
I doubt they would bother contacting school B, but if they do, you will have the emails to back you up.
If it was funded, it may be a little rude to decline, but it still wouldn't make you a bad person or worthy of being badmouthed.
Yes, this. I'd upvote if I could. Keep all the correspondence. I would also decline their offer over email, so that you have a record of their response...
Don't let them bully you. Go to B.
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If they are treating you this way, it's even more of a reason to go to B. Whatever you do, keep all your correspondence professional. Don't do something that they could point at as something inappropriate you did.
Seriously, accept B's offer and ditch A. This doesn't sound like an environment you want to be in.
- shinigamiasuka and Ellies
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Background: I'm a math major who reads for pleasure and always scored well on essays in high school English (the last English class I took). I almost never get test anxiety.
I wrote my exam at the end of September. I wrote the math subject GRE at the end of October, and I studied for both simultaneously (in any given week, probably at least 60% of the days were spent on math prep). I started studying around the middle-end of August for both exams. For the general test, I bought the official GRE practice book off of Amazon for about $20. I read the math section, because there was actually some stuff there that I didn't know, despite doing a math degree. Because of my background, I didn't spend more than about a day or two deliberately studying for quant.
For me, vocabulary was the biggest hurdle for the verbal section - my critical reading skills are pretty good, I read fast, and I can follow an argument well, but some of the more advanced vocabulary on the GRE is above the level I typically use or see in the kinds of things I'm reading. I found a big GRE vocab list on the internet to study from. My goal was to learn about 10-12 words every day or two. I wrote them down on my chalkboard and thought about them throughout the day, but didn't actually sit down and dedicate time to that alone. I also did a lot of practice problems from the GRE study guide.
For AW, I spent a day or so writing a few timed practice essays - it was literally 5 years since I wrote an essay. I got some feedback from a couple of friends and changed my strategy a bit, but did not dedicate a ton of time to this.
Finally, about 2 weeks before the exam, I started doing the practice tests in timed conditions. I did four, two from the PowerPrep software, and the two in the practice book.
On test day, I ate a big breakfast and took brain food with me to the test centre. I scored 170Q/166V/5.0AW.
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Here's the thing to remember: you've done nothing wrong. You have acted in good faith the entire time. You gave them a chance to find you funding and they did not - what are they expecting you to do?
I'm sort of skeptical that they are actually angry with you about it - perhaps they are disappointed or annoyed, but I would be very shocked to find them badmouthing you to B. That would reflect so badly on them, and be extremely unprofessional. If they are actually angry with you, then they obviously don't care about what is best for you. I wouldn't want to go to a place like that.
Accept B's offer, professionally and politely tell A that it is not financially feasible for you to attend their program, and apologize for the inconvenience of rescinding your acceptance. Go to B, and don't look back. It is great to be polite and courteous to everyone, but ultimately you have to do what is best for you. Clearly, that is attending B.
- fuzzylogician, Ellies, jeenyus and 1 other
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I'm not going to NYU, but mine is still being processed, their webpage estimates it will be about 2-3 more weeks. If you are worried, you should contact the international student office.
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The first four chapters of principles only get you started in real analysis; at a minimum you need to do the differentiation and integration chapters (5 and 6) too. I would do the course again and make sure you excel in it, then read the next few chapters yourself; it should be easier if you understand the first 4 chapters well.
Also, since this course is at a higher ranked university, chances are you may get a bit further this time around.
I agree. If the list you gave me is comprehensive, I think there is probably a lot more to see in the other real analysis I course. That seems like the best bet to me. Unfortunately they have the same name, so it might look like you are repeating the course. Some of my applications had me include a description of what courses I've taken + texts used, so that would show that it's not a total repeat course.
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That seems like the right decision based on what you said there. Good luck!
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Your use of any is ambiguous here.
If you mean literally every person who applies now will get in, of course not. They will still maintain standards and would rather leave a spot empty than admit somebody who they don't want.
If you mean if there is the possibility that they will still accept some people, if their application is good, then I would guess the answer is yes. After all, they are still accepting applications.
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One of the programs I applied to would use your CGS-M application (and perhaps CGS-D in case of PhD applicants?) for OGS consideration. Thus, you didn't need to separately apply for OGS. However, I did check a box saying I would like them to do this.
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Measure theory and probability (at the level of rigour we're talking about) would require you to have taken all this real analysis stuff already. So it's a good idea to have it.
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I got SHORE, and I had to fill out a decision/information form once they offered me the spot (this was awhile after hearing I was nominated - I got an email telling me to fill out the decision form on GradApply). The steps they outlined were 1) Accept the SHORE offer, 2) File a housing application, 3) Send $100 deposit within 10 days. If you've gotten on the regular waitlist and then accept SHORE that should be fine too, I think. They're not very communicative so I'm not sure if I've done this right.
To be clear, I've not received a housing offer yet. I have no idea when I'll hear about when I can move in, or where I'll be placed. It'd be nice to know so I can plan, but it's definitely not until end of August/start of September (what I requested), so we'll see.
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GW's offer is certainly a very good offer, and if that was my only option, I wouldn't hesitate. However, I would personally go for UMD, because teaching two courses (I have done this) is a LOT of work; it will most likely take you 35 hours a week. Also, you will have to deal with the attention and stress that comes with it. It would certainly be like having TWO full-time jobs. Now if that's what you want, if the finances are really important to you, and you think you can handle it, then go for it!
OP would be taking two courses at a time, not teaching them on top of the 35 hr/week job.
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For those of you who've applied for housing, did you receive any notification that your deposit was received?
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Yeah, that's a bummer. My faculty were generally just happy expect for two: one was super pleased because he went there and the other was a bit disdainful, tbh.
Which, honestly, after all the effort we've gone though, felt a little like a personal slight lol
Yeah, it's a bit like that. But, the faculty who seem the least supportive of my decision are also the ones who know me and my reasons the least. To be honest, I don't care much for their opinions anyway. Those who wrote my LORs or know me well, and whose opinions and advice I value know how my decisions process went, and they say I made a good choice.
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I set it up from ACMS page, it told me my password would work in 15 minutes. I can now log into my account using gmail (with @ucsd.edu at the end). I even had some nice spam about student elections.
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Two thoughts:
1) Echoing what others had said above, complex analysis is a different beast than real analysis, at least in its more interesting applications. A different style of reasoning is often employed in complex analysis (as opposed to real analysis) and it can be difficult to get used to. I would choose between the real analysis and complex analysis courses based on which one you think you would do better in. The other courses you listed are not as directly relevant to statistics.
2) Does the university offer a course in measure theory or probability theory over the summer? Doing well in either of those could be very helpful. But they can also be quite difficult at advanced levels if you have not seen too much proof-based maths.
Yeah, I think real analysis is the most relevant, and would help with taking measure theory or probability down the road. But a rigorous course in either of those would probably be too much at this point.
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aren't the financial documents supposed to all be in your own name? i.e. a parent's bank statement is no good.
I believe a parent's bank statement + an affidavit of support from them is okay.
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Depending where you live, you can bike. When I visited, I met students who bike to campus - usually around 30-40 mins to do so, but that's because they wanted to live on their own and so lived further away to afford that. You could live closer than that and bike. Staying on campus is very expensive and a bit isolated from the city life, if that bothers you. You'll get a bus pass as part of your student fees - most students bus there. One issue is that buses are pretty busy, so you can get passed by or have to stand the whole way. Definitely don't get a car, it's too expensive as you have said.
Obviously the commuting time will depend a lot on where you live. Most students I talked to were taking around 45 minutes to commute, but there are places you could live that would take 2-3x as long (don't live there!).
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My primary interest is in analysis, so I've taken all the real and complex analysis courses my undergrad university offers. Some people find analysis very, very difficult. Others struggle with a first introduction, but then get their foothold and do well. I was in the latter category, but I can't say for you. I don't know anyone who found it easy from the beginning, but I'm sure they exist.
If you think that you really understood the techniques by the end and could be comfortable with epsilon-delta style proofs (pretty much all you ever do in analysis), you should take the next real analysis course. I think that's the most relevant to statistics, and will show you can do that stuff. Complex analysis is a bit different from real analysis. It would probably be a bit harder at this point. When I took it, there was a fair bit of background in real analysis assumed, and it doesn't sound like you saw that much. Did you cover differentiation and integration in real analysis I? Taylor's theorem? Those are pretty much where a complex analysis course will go, and then develop some stuff that you don't do in the real case (e.g. Cauchy's theorem, Laurent series, poles, residues).
Have you done a complex variables course in undergrad? Many places seem to have a course where you do the computational aspects of complex analysis without proof - e.g. integration with residues, taking nth roots and such. That would make the complex analysis course a bit easier.
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A backpack for me, because I carry a lot and a messenger bag is uncomfortable. My professors use backpacks too, so I'm not really worried about how it looks.
In your situation, unless you are carrying enough for a messenger bag to hurt, I think a professional looking one would probably be better than a backpack.
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Vancouver is a pretty nice place to live. It does not rain as much as people say. It mostly rains in the fall and winter, and that's better than a blizzard! It is expensive to live in Vancouver, and the commute to UBC is pretty long, but it's a nice campus and close to the beach.
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Well, numerical analysis is probably not that proof heavy, so maybe it's not the best choice. I could be wrong about that - as I said, I've never taken it.
If you don't like analysis too much, you could try one of the algebra courses. Those are also usually rigorous and proof-based. Certainly the abstract algebra course should be. It's a different way of thinking - no fussy epsilon-delta proofs, if that's a bonus for you. An introductory course in group theory is the first course math majors take after learning what a proof is at my university, so it's reasonably accessible usually.
I think real analysis is the most relevant to statistics, though.
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For three, I had just gotten home from hanging out with one of my best friends. I called her my lucky charm for admissions. For one, I was just about to have a meeting with my research project supervisor - he walked into the room just as I excitedly told my mom "I GOT INTO <school>!!" on the phone, haha. For the remaining 2, including the offer I accepted, I was at an open house and had just decided I didn't like it there.
My rejections both came while I was trying to get some work done in the library... that bummed out feeling (they were my top choices at the time, but I'm thrilled about where I'm going) didn't help my productivity.
Professor sent me a thank you letter?
in Decisions, Decisions
Posted
You don't need to say that you won't be doing a rotation in her lab. I'd go with something ambiguous. Just say thank you and that you'll be considering it but it depends on how things turn out, or something like that. After all, it is possible your interests will change and you will end up wanting to work with her.