someDay

Unless you sleep with the (presumably female) adcom members, most probably not. These people are usually professional enough to make their decision purely based on merit, not on the gender of the applicant. sD.

Clearly you're admitted. http://xkcd.com/704/ sD.

@mdfishbein: Don't do that, especially if you want to go into academia. I naively suggested this to my tutor at one point and he very strongly suggested it's not a good idea at all and this would put you at the very bottom for future funding. sD.

Some courses at the LSE are very competitive, particularly economics. Research degrees are incredibly competitive, or so I was told. It may very well be a completely different story for anthropology. Oxbridge: You'll need a First (or at the very least a very high 2.1) and some good letters to get an interview and go from there. I have no clue about SOAS. sD.

The easiest way to get round this is to set your bloody status. Perhaps to "wonders whether their should be there."? "His" used as gender-neutral sounds odd to me, I don't think I've ever heard someone using that. "Their" is fine and what I was taught in school. sD.

You could always try to bargain for a better offer at option 1. If that doesn't work out, do some serious budgeting. There's no point going to a prestigious school if you're under too much financial strain and can't give it your best, especially if you have your eyes on an academic career. An excellent thesis at a good university is better than a good thesis at an excellent university.. or so I was told. sD.

A PhD in set theory must be quite a challenge - I fondly remember Mahlo/Ramsey/... cardinals and how to use the Mostowski collapse to prove that if there exists a model for the (...). Model theory seems a bit more "useful" to the still-pure-but-not-virgin-mary part of Pure Maths. Good luck to you guys! On a note though - doesn't category theory count as a branch of algebra, not logic? At least I see it that way; and the current development still seems to be driven by topologists and algebraists? sD.

@alexis: That's a little bit over the top. You'll find that grad schools admit considerably more than 7.5% of applicants (even Princeton admits around 13%). Granted, acceptance rates do not rise to 100% as one goes further down the ranking list but that's because the school has to find a supervisor and needs to be convinced the applicant will make an original contribution to their proposed field. Grad school admission is competitive, but getting into Harvard as an undergrad is still harder. On the other hand, sometimes people are just extremely unlucky, which - given it's unpredictable nature - is more common in grad school. Your safety school might not be a good fit and thus rejects you, or the professor already has 10 students, the university finds itself in a funding crisis, etc. I suppose this is why most people apply to a vast number of schools, even though they're very competitive candidates indeed. Best of luck to everyone! sD.

5. Funding 6. Location

Well, perhaps. But don't worry, no damage was done. No uni would seriously think you'd accept their offer before they even told you about funding. sD.

Depends on the circumstances. At this point, take it as a positive sign, but don't get *too* overexcited. Before the interview, read over your SOP and perhaps read his latest papers. Interviews before (in)formal acceptances are usually not a formality, whatever way they go. Having a prof that pushes for you is a crucial stepping stone in the admissions procedure, but by no means guarantees an admission. What's likely going to happen: You talk a little bit about your interests and your background. The prof might briefly go over your file and point out potential pitfalls or particular strengths. In one interview I was asked whether a (perhaps more famous than I had thought) prof at my institution knows me well. The prof explains his/her research and tries to make it sound as interesting as possible. I don't think you'll be asked in-depth questions about your subject in a phone interview. Best of luck in your interview! sD.

You shouldn't panic just yet. Sometimes this is more about the department than the particular field you're in (*), though finding an advisor prior to submitting the application *appears* to be more common in applied sciences. sD. (*) It certainly is in my field (Mathematics) - a few departments require you to find an advisor before you submit the application, others at some point in the third year. I would imagine it also depends whether the department prefers to accepts student who already have a master's degree or prior lab experience; or more those with tremendous potential but perhaps very little lab/research experience.

If they don't stick to the rules, why should you? Strongly indicate you'd accept and wait for the offer. If they force you to formally accept before April 15th, accept but be prepared to withdraw if a better offer comes along. I doubt this will much of a problem in the future, unless this is a very niche subject and the prof you talked to is the accepted authority in the field. sD.

mathamathick, This seems odd. Your stats are good enough for top universities. There must be a grave flaw with your letters, your university history or your SOP quotes Mein Kampf. Who're your letter writers? Have you attended community college? Also, there are a HUGE number of universities offering master's degrees in Pure Mathematics, in the States and abroad. (it might not be labelled Pure, but it's still Pure I'm absolutely sure that even with average SOP and average to good letters some you'd be accepted somewhere. Best of luck. I'm happy to proof-read to your SOP if you want some advice. sD.

Oxford and Cambridge are, when it comes to undergrad education, very British universities. Almost half of Oxbridge undergrads come from prestigious public schools, then another chunk from selective state schools, buy only very few from the Americas, Asia or Africa. What someone in this forum called "academic incest" is rife at Oxbridge, indeed successful completion of a master's degree is the most promising way to get a PhD place at Oxbridge. What this means is that far fewer students from Oxbridge apply to the top US institutions - this makes it difficult for admission tutor's to assess UK students, particularly the percentage-based grading system. (eg 75% is excellent in the UK, but as a raw mark in the US it is ****.) So, compared to Ivy league students, you're perhaps more of a dark horse than you'd wish. Excellent letters are more important than which uni you attended, but if you have good letters and a good uni, obviously that's better. A note on master's degrees at Oxbridge, or the UK in general. Due to funding issues these are not as competitive as one might think. The courses are challenging, for sure, but getting in is not that hard, given one has a sufficiently good degree and letters, and obviously the cash (particularly for non-european students). Admission is considerably less competitive than for master's degrees at Ivies, which are often at least partly funded or offer TA opportunities. sD.

I'm not sure Columbia and Michigan are done. Columbia does not waitlist people, so the lack of rejections seems to suggest they're not done yet and might make some more offers. Could be bullshit, but it gives me hope. In any case, I think anything before March is a tad too early. sD.

@Hermes: You got a job after your undergrad degree and then did a master's? At least British unis will not pay particularly much attention to your (lower?) second from 20 years ago... or so I was told by mature students. Did Cambridge not even invite you for an interview? sD.

Your visa allows you 10hrs of work (*) during term-time and full-time during vacation. Cambridge however, strongly discourages this (I believe you can get permission somehow though). Cambridge (uni regulations require you to live within 5 miles or so of the city's cathedral, so you can't live in London even if you could afford it and love commuting) is 1 hour by train to London.. but the courses are very demanding, so it's unlikely you'll have a lot of time to work or go sightseeing anyway. (*): You should expect an hourly wage of approximately £8 - £10. Much less than you could make in NYC.. Also note that health insurance is provided free of charge in the UK. If you work, a small proportion will go to fund social services. sD.

Are you sure they accepted you & have decided on financial support? sD.

somethingelse, what program are you applying to? You should bear in mind that research interests often change within the first years of starting a PhD and nothing in life is guaranteed. Even if you you really love your subject now you might discover in a few years' time that it's a niche subject and not that interesting after all. Also you should bear in mind that the first year of a PhD is spent doing coursework (even if you have a master's degree) and not on research, so even if you're hooked on a particular topic you'll have to take some other classes. I personally find it very risky to apply to only one school. If this is your absolute dream and it's a "either this or nothing" thing, then fine. But I really cannot imagine this to be the case. In particular since you do not seem to have any alternatives, applying to one school only seems an extraordinary thing to do - there're so many good schools out there. In any case, I really hope you do get in! sD.

Philosophically the argument "Pure maths is dislodged from the real world and thus the economy would not affect pure maths applications" is compelling, but reality tells a different story. Every DGS I have spoken to has confirmed that application numbers have gone up, in particular those from highly qualified students. At the same time funding has been cut, though UPenn (15 down to 4) is the exception rather than the norm. I think this is due to two reasons: - Students apply to more universities than they have in the past to not "lose out". - Banks (amongst others) used to hire a high number of extremely bright people who would've had no problems getting into top unis. These people are still lured by the promise of $$$ and unemotional sex in airport hotels in return for 80hrs/week, but instead now apply to PhD programs, although I guess perhaps more so in applied and stats. Personally I think this does not affect the tiny minority that is truly exceptional, have their IMO gold medals and really good publications. There're still at least 100 (or so) places at the top departments, more than enough for this group. The rest (which includes me, unfortunately) will have a very very hard time this year. sD.

Could it be the case that the department B is rather small, elite-ish and only admits a very small number of students? In this case you might have been booked into university accommodation, have meals as a group and the department planned various social events (truth or dare, the grad student version) to get to know each other and staff. Then again I might be mistaken this for kindergarden. sD.

@Katia: If you have outside funding there's a good chance they consider your application. sD.

I noticed some UCLA acceptances crop up in the results list. Which is weird, because I thought UCLA's maths department is just a bloody scam. They do not reply to emails and don't answer the phone. Does the department really exist? So, two months ago I applied, sent off the uni application and duly paid the application fee. To be fair, I only submitted the departmental application after the Christmas break, but according to their website this was fine. I asked them some questions via e-mail before I applied, but they never got back to me. They probably were busy buying expensive christmas presents with all the $ they got from applicants. However, I got the following email in the middle of January: It would have been too much of a hassle to tell me what exactly is missing so that I can resend it. It probably also would've been too much work to reply to enquiries what exactly is missing. Or answer the phone. Neither do they update the status page. To be fair, my TOEFL is indeed missing. Somehow I assumed they'd waive that for British applicants? I perfectly accept they're under financial strains and the department probably doesn't get any of the 90$ application fee, but I expect an minimum level of service and this does include telling me which supporting documents are missing. The cost of posting everything via registered mail is prohibitive for international applicants. Did someone get the same email and manage to trick them into replying? Or confirm that this is their "you're out!" email? My *hope* is that only the TOEFL was "missing" and they realised their mistake. thanks. sD.

I treat this as "what to give your crush on valentine's day". A music CD might be a bit odd (you don't know their taste and itunes giftcards really are not cool), but a bottle of wine or booze for a guy is absolutely fine, especially when you enjoy it together with your hosts. Other than that, bring something unique from your home state or country. (grad students yearn for caffeine, so if some uni pays me to fly over I'll get them some good loose tea.) Or perhaps you could them cook a nice meal? sD.