ComeBackZinc

I have to say: with the job market so soul-crushingly terrible, if you aren't sure, you should almost certainly drop out of your program. In the long run, if you aren't really happy or committed, you aren't doing anyone any favors by staying, most importantly yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_I_university

It really depends. Some schools only consider students who already have an MA in hand; some schools prefer students they can raise up from a BA. Seek advice from people at the school.

Two things to bear in mind. 1. Work the program. The schools are not looking to uniquely screw you; you don't need to do anything unique to get in. You need to have great grades, you need to have strong recommendation letters from faculty that are invested in you, you need to write an SOP that demonstrates that you know what an academic career really is and that you have what it takes to succeed in one, you need to include a writing sample that shows the quality of your work at its current highest level. Coming from an elite undergrad helps a lot, as does having highly-respected faculty writing your letters. Proving you have a pulse on the GRE doesn't hurt any. Nobody is looking to screw you. There are all kinds of perfectly conventional and straightforward reasons that they could reject you without having to look for a way to entrap you. 2. This process works to serve the department's needs, not your own. Always. Always always. That's the answer to a lot of the "why do they do it this way?" questions: because the process serves the department, not the applicant.

Personally, I find it very hard to assess this without knowing what exactly you said and what exactly the email back to you said. I don't doubt at all that a DGS could be rude, and I also think this could happen regardless of the prestige or quality of the department. That said, I happen to also know that emails from prospective grad students are often rude themselves. A DGS I know well (not at my own institution) told me she's amazed at the number of emails she gets that are aggressive or entitled-- emails of the type, "I'm going to have lots of great offers, so tell me, why should I come to your institution?" I'm not saying that's what you've done. I am saying that this is a very harried and frenzied time of the year for faculty and support staff. There's not just a flood of grad applications. There's the whole process of getting a department's worth of classes finished, including the assignment of grades, whatever assessment regimes might be in place, getting letters of rec out for undergrads who are applying to graduate school, getting letters out for grads who are applying to faculty positions, getting grant and fellowship information out, figuring out scheduling for next semester, figuring out funding.... It's a crazy time and a ton of work. And while you very well may not have been rude, your own email may have echoed other emails that were rude. Or, as you suggest, maybe it was just a bad day. In any event, I wouldn't spike a school I was interested in applying to simply because of one rude email. Especially considering that, in a lot of contexts, once you get in the DGS could very well have almost nothing to do with your career. That's certainly the case for me here. Think it over, and try to be forgiving if possible. You certainly have a right to expect minimally polite emails from a DGS, but you should also try and locate this behavior in the context of an almost-certainly overstressed, overworked, underpaid administrator's life.

In most fields, being published in such a text has no added prestige benefit over just presenting at the conference. Only spend the money if you want the thing. There's little or no career benefit.

This is one where I could see some adcomms having no problem with it and some thinking that you've failed to follow directions. I completely agree with proflorax: email the DGS or graduate admin assistant and ask directly.

What in the world is a cluster statement?

boooooo they took it down.

A little day brightener for you. http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/53947

Definitely.

Don't let it depress you! Just let it focus you. Like I said: people get into good programs from noncompetitive colleges and with letters from professors who don't have a national reputation. I'm not at all saying it doesn't happen. I am saying that let's remember that exceptions are rarer than the rule. I think that a really good idea in this process is to worry about changing the things that you can change. Get your SOP as good as you can possibly make it. Make sure your writing sample is indicative of the absolutely best of your abilities. Change what you can change. But also prepare yourself emotionally and practically for the fact that this process is very competitive, and there's a degree of arbitrariness that should keep you from being too emotionally invested in the results from a particular school. (Easier said than done, I know.) Cast your nets wide. I don't mean to say that there's no hope, because there is. I just mean to say that, for good or bad, the prestige of the institution that you're coming from and the people who are recommending you do matter in the process. Just worry about what you control.

Yeah, that's a very important caveat.

On the one hand, I think that "left-handed" letters of rec can be the kiss of death, and if you're thinking of asking someone who doesn't know you because of Oxford's reputation, I agree: don't do it. Letters have to be from people who can genuinely write about and your strengths or they aren't worth reading, and adcomms can generally sniff those out very easily. That said, as a general statement, "don't pay attention to the reputation of your letter writer" is just not helpful advice. The reputation of your letter writers is absolutely important. Just like the reputation of the school you're coming from. Just like your grades. It's nice to imagine that applying to grad school is an entirely egalitarian process, but it's just not. Reputation matters. Prestige matters. It's way easier to get into grad school if you're coming from an elite undergrad or MA program. That's just true. Yes, of course: there are always exceptions, just like there are exceptions about getting in with bad grades. People get in who aren't from elite schools. But the existence of exceptions doesn't disprove the rule. I understand that this is a forum for advice and people want to be supportive. But if advice is going to be useful, it has to be accurate. The danger of a forum like this is that people feel worried about whatever the weak part of their application is, so they go looking for people to tell them that their weakness isn't a big deal. But some things are a big deal, most certainly including the reputation of the people writing your letters. I say this not to be a jerk, but because inevitably some people aren't going to get into the programs that they want, given the percentages. And when that happens, it makes it worse if they've been told over and over again that their weaknesses aren't worth worrying about.

The reputation of the letter writer is very important, and the relationship he or she has with faculty at your target department is too, but I think being an alum in and of itself isn't a big deal.

Whatever you do, solicit the approval and help of your current faculty. Yes, that'll be awkward. But academia is just a brutally small world, and you really risk a lot if you don't. It will be very hard to get into a quality program without letters from your current program. Think about it from potential new programs' points of view: if you cut out on your old one without keeping them informed and being honest with them, new programs will have to worry about your commitment to them as well. This is particularly true because, under a lot of funding schemes, if departments don't reassign a funding line early enough, they can lose it. So tread lightly and get advice and help, even if that leads to awkward conversations.

I would apply, unless you are strapped for time or application fee money.

They're not required to, as far as I know, but they almost universally do. They want to see what you're capable of. That being said, I'm surprised you care about your math score.

Louisville has some awesome faculty for r/c.

Generally speaking, you'll find that people believe that however they did it/are doing it is the correct way, and that the other way is wrong. But the reality is that every case is unique, and that there are different strategies and decisions that work for different people. And there's a huge heaping amount of luck involved, no matter what.

... And that people have not contacted professors beforehand and been quite unsuccessful. I thought both were implied.

As for your first question, that's consistently the most controversial topic here. I have no answer for you, other than to say that people have contacted professors beforehand and been quite successful, and people have not contacted professors beforehand and been quite successful.

^ I agree.

And I think as is often the case, grad directors and grad secretaries can give you good advice about whether or not to send an app anyway.