Hash_HofM

Hi all, I'll be starting next year at a public R1 university with majors in Mathematics and Computer Science (and possibly a minor in Econ) with a number of math credits I earned through dual enrollment during high school (Calc 1, Calc 2, Calc 3, Diff Eq's, Intro to Analysis, and Modern Crypto). I've been reading through my university's course progression, prereq flowchart, etc and quickly realized that I am very much a fish out of water when it comes to selecting courses to take during my undergrad. Based on the little contact I've had with a departmental advisor, I'd be able to start on a Master's degree (albeit forced to) at my university for Math in my Junior/Senior years if I want to be able to continue to take graduate math classes beyond the 2 that my university allows for undergrads. My question is basically this, what Math/CS courses (undergraduate/graduate) do you all recommend I take in order to put myself in a good position for applying to top20 grad schools as a prospective math PhD? In terms of a future career, it'd be interesting to work as a research quant in a WSB.

Hello GradCafe, I'm currently a high school senior who's received some college admission decisions as of late, and I'm looking for some suggestions, courses of action, opinions, and whatever is felt necessary for my current situation. Out of the 6 schools I applied to (Duke, UChicago, Cornell, UMich, CWRU, and MSU), I've been accepted to MSU ( + Honors College), waitlisted at CWRU, haven't heard back from UMich yet, and rejected everywhere else. My family didn't have a lot of money to spend on applications, and I made the poor choice to apply to a number of reaches rather than a healthy amount of matches considering my stats (3.6 uwGPA, 34 ACT, 800 Math II, 730 Physics). I have been heavily discussing the prospect of going to MSU with my parents, given that UMich doesn't work out (as well as CWRU), as a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science with double minors in Physics and Philosophy. My essential concern with this is that my graduate school prospects may be hindered (I want to be competitive for places like Stanford, MIT, Caltech, CMU, Princeton, etc.) as I know that MSU is a great state school, but I'm unsure about how competitive I will be able to be with other students who are likely coming from far higher ranked undergraduate institutions even if my earned credentials are extremely good. I've been reading this forum pretty heavily for the past few weeks or so, taking in information about the GRE, GRE subject tests, cGPA, REU's, Internships, Publications, Fellowships, Scholarships, and etc., and I've come to the realization that I'm more than willing to put in the work, blood, sweat, and time to make the most of any institution I attend. I'm just worried, and uninformed, about what that might specifically mean with MSU. If anyone has any thoughts, advice, whatsoever they'd like to share, please don't hesitate. Also, if anyone has had prior experience at MSU which they can speak to, please let me know whether that be through this thread or PM. Thanks for all of the help Gradcafe! Best, Piperpanama