R Deckard

Nah.

Started early -- having a blast. Research is fun, people are great, city is awesome. Can't beat that.

Going to disagree with you here.

It's relative, you know.

Maybe your standards are just low.

I don't understand how those could possibly be considered "excellent" letters.

Realistically, how is she going to get three "EXCELLENT" letters of recommendation with no research experience and mediocre grades?

The purpose of a decoration is to "look cool." How much "deep thought" do you put into other types of decorations? If your friend enjoys having a "cool" looking tattoo, then by all means he should take it with him everywhere he goes and enjoy it. Everybody likes to look cool, you know.

I found this hilarious.

Completely agree. It's been about eight months since applications starting going out, and the decisions is still based on almost completely arbitrary factors. I'm surprised the schools haven't pulled their offers yet.

The criteria you are using for making your decision are absolutely mind-blowing. Please stop asking random people what they think. Please forget what you read on ratemyprofessor (this is not site where doctoral students review advisers -- it is mainly for undergraduates to complain about professors that are poor classroom instructors). Which school gave you a better feeling when you visited?

There is no reason you can't do both.

It seems like you are not interested in either of these schools. At this point, I really don't know what you expect to get out of creating more threads and asking for more advice.

The surprising thing is that even professors that you don't know may know you.

You might want to find out exactly what scores you need to be competitive and try to achieve them on practice exams before retaking the actual exam a second time. You should probably start considering other options besides grad school as well.

It might be easier to get back in at UMD since they offered you a TA position and not a fellowship. They may still need more TA. Alternatively, you could go to UCSD and enroll in the CSME program. You could probably be co-advised by a math professor or possibly have a math professor as your main advisor (I'm not sure what they allow in the CS department).

I just read her old thread. It looks like UMD would be the best fit based on research interests. Their numerical analysis and scientific computing is all done in the CS department and includes well-known faculty that students and other professors speak extremely highly of. In fact, the entire department seems very math-oriented. She could essentially get a PhD in Math from the CS department at UMD. Ironically, UMD isn't even in the conversation anymore.

July. There should be more info on it in the next week or so. Personally, I went ahead and got a 13" MacBook air with all the setting maxed out, although the X1 Carbon would have been nice as well.

This comment is silly beyond words.

You can't really learn anything about a city from Wikipedia. I would go ahead and throw out any opinions about places you have based on that. Some additional applied math programs you might be interested in based on being in interesting cities: ICES or Math @ UT Austin Applied Math @ Washington (Seattle) ACO or CSE @ Georgia Tech (Atlanta) Math @ Minnesota (Minneapolis--Saint Paul) Math @ UChicago ESAM @ Northwestern (near Chicago) Math @ MIT (near Boston) Math, ACO, or PAL @ CMU (Pittsburgh) ALL of these programs are excellent (for the record, I'll be attending one of them).

Do research. Start now.

I am not attending Maryland, although I was admitted and visited the program. I was really impressed, but it just wasn't my top choice (although it was my favorite in the Mid-Atlantic region). It's close to DC, which is an awesome city, and also pretty close to Baltimore if you want to go there. UIUC technically offers a MS in Applied Math, but to say that applied math is not popular there would be an understatement. If you want to consider UIUC, I would also join the CSE program (an excellent program) and have a second adviser outside the math department. There are a lot of other good programs in interesting cities for applied math as well...

Just an FYI, that statistic on the Cornell website is not accurate -- they accept far fewer candidates than suggested. I'm not sure that applying to masters programs is a great idea. I suppose it depends on your goals, though. It might be better to just apply to PhD programs if you think you can get into one that you would enjoy being at. Again, Maryland is an excellent school (better than Columbia in applied math) and also has a great location, along with quite a few people doing work you would probably find interesting. NYU is also a great school, although admission is ultra-competitive (much like Brown). Of the master's programs you listed, JHU and Michigan would be good choices. UIUC does not even have an applied math program, so I wouldn't bother applying there. UMass a step down from the other programs you listed, but still be a solid back-up choice.

mindreader, realistically you are not going to get into those schools without the Math GRE. I know domestic students that have gotten in with scores in the 70's, but you will probably be held to higher standards being an international student. Also, expect to score quite a bit lower on the actual exam than you did on the practice exam(s). What other schools are you considering? Maryland and Stony Brook might be good fits. I know students that got into Maryland without the Math GRE, by the way.