CauchyFan Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 I haven't. And I haven't seen anything in the results section. Their deadline was January 15th though... so I guess that gives me some hope... ... though I didn't do so hot on the ole' Math GRE so maybe not.
ScreamingHairyArmadillo Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 fwiw, a friend of mine that goes to WashU got in the math program with a 50th percentile in the Math GRE (with an 800 on the regular math section). He also didn't hear back until I think mid-Feb that he was wait-listed, and an acceptance came in March.
CauchyFan Posted February 6, 2011 Author Posted February 6, 2011 fwiw, a friend of mine that goes to WashU got in the math program with a 50th percentile in the Math GRE (with an 800 on the regular math section). He also didn't hear back until I think mid-Feb that he was wait-listed, and an acceptance came in March. I would feel better if I had scored anywhere near that percentile. Unfortunately, it would appear that spending all of your time reading Rudin's books does not prepare you for the Math GRE. What a backward ass world academics is...
hubris Posted February 6, 2011 Posted February 6, 2011 I would feel better if I had scored anywhere near that percentile. Unfortunately, it would appear that spending all of your time reading Rudin's books does not prepare you for the Math GRE. What a backward ass world academics is... Ha! That is true to an extent.
CauchyFan Posted February 8, 2011 Author Posted February 8, 2011 (edited) Well... I see in the results someone got an email from them today... guess that means I'm probably out. I guess doing cryptography won't be such a bad job... I will certainly make more money than I would have as a professor... Edited February 8, 2011 by CauchyFan
hedgie Posted February 9, 2011 Posted February 9, 2011 Well... I see in the results someone got an email from them today... guess that means I'm probably out. I guess doing cryptography won't be such a bad job... I will certainly make more money than I would have as a professor... How easy is getting into the cryptography field? Do you need a Master's at least.....and what kind of course work? How far in CS etc...... Thanks if you have a chance to give more info there. Hope you still get your acceptance letter! Best of luck.
CauchyFan Posted February 9, 2011 Author Posted February 9, 2011 How easy is getting into the cryptography field? Do you need a Master's at least.....and what kind of course work? How far in CS etc...... Thanks if you have a chance to give more info there. Hope you still get your acceptance letter! Best of luck. Well, I'm turning to that as my backup because I have some connections that can get me a job there. Without that I might not be so confident in that career path. But to answer your question, from what I understand the fileds that are important for work in cryptography are Number Theory, Combinatorics, Probability/Statistics, Algebra/Group Theory, and Linear Algebra. My plan of approaching it is to continue on with grad school at my current institution (where I pretty much do what TAs do as an undergrad) and get a Masters focusing on Probability and Combinatorics (since we have very good applied programs in both). In so far as CS, I plan on taking courses in algorithm design. A good book that I read on it is "Introduction to Modern Cryptography" by Jonathan Katz. It made for some great summer reading! It also does a very good job of portraying what you would be doing in the field if you were to work there. Of course, there are many different fields of cryptography that could involve different specializations, like Quantum Cryptography and Elliptical Curve Cryptography. But I think the courses I listed above would build a solid foundation for it. As far as I can tell not many schools actually have a program in it (except maybe Brown). I know with the NSA if you sign on as a mathematician they put you through three more years of schooling to get you up-to-date on it.
CauchyFan Posted March 2, 2011 Author Posted March 2, 2011 Got my rejection letter on Monday. Sucks for them. Now I'm just going to get my Masters from my current institution, and once I have that 4.0 glow-in-the-dark transcript I can put my slow start as an undergrad behind me and aim higher than them. Because seriously, I just dominated a class full of grad students with cushy funding and what not on our first Metric Spaces exam (a course I am the only undergrad in, and I made a 98 on that exam). And I did that while taking 19 hours and working 40+ hours a week between two jobs. So there's no limit to the possibilities for me with some sort of support/funding.
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