Tavanio

The area I'm interested in is mathematical finance/financial engineering. From what I understand, CMU is definitely tip-top there. They're the only school I've found so far that lists Mathematical Finance as an area of research for a PhD. I'm also working through a book by a professor there as an independent study. Thanks for the tip on early applications: I thought that rolling admissions was standard. I think I'll still try to apply as soon as I can, assuming my GRE score is decent. Yes, this is exactly what my thesis was: the original paper proved a result for general Rn, but was extremely complicated and my proof was a more understandable version for R2. I did have another decently sized research project for an econometrics course (I'm econ/math double major) that was completely original but was just statistical analysis. I don't think that financial math is applied math since it's very theoretical, but I could be mistaken.

Would research this year help? I'm planning on submitting my applications as soon as I can, so early October once I get my subject test score. That would only be a month or two into any research I'd have done, so I don't know if I could list it on my application.

I'm heading into my final year studying math, and am planning on going for a PhD. I'm hoping to get into top tier schools like CMU, UChicago, or MIT, but I'm not sure I have a real chance. I've kept a 3.97 GPA, but my school is a small midwestern university so I don't know if the lack of a reputation will make that mean less. On the general test I got 165 Q and 162 V, so only on the bottom edge of what they're looking for. I don't have any REUs or research experience outside of classes and thesis. On the practice subject tests I've taken I've gotten roughly 60th percentiles, so again not the greatest. However, on the positive side I'm likely going to have very strong letters of recommendation, and have been able to take grad level courses. I've been the TA for Real Analysis last year and this year, and have presented my thesis at a math conference. I don't know if that's enough, though, so I'm not sure if I should give up on the top tier and look towards slightly less ambitious schools. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.