any rejects from last year that are givin it another go?

[frankdux]

me! me!

bachelors in math from indiana university. gpa 3.67

masters in math education from university of illinois at chicago. gpa 3.64

gre general. 800q, 480v, 4.5aw

i want to do a ph.d. in applied math. last year i applied to two schools. university of colorado at boulder and the university of arizona. i applied fairly close to the deadline. i got an interview at arizona and was waitlisted, but eventually rejected. flat out rejected from colorado.

it was very pompous of me to apply to only 2 schools and dumb of me to apply within a few weeks of the deadlines. this year i think i'm gonna retake the general gre to do better on the verbal part, and i'll also take the math subject test. and i'll apply a good 2 months before the deadlines.

and i've put together a new list of schools for myself for applied math: (the ones in bold are the ones i feel have an absolute perfect match for my interests, the rest are close.)

safety:

UC santa cruz

middle of the road:

univ of florida, uc boulder (again), Notre Dame, michigan state, arizona (again), uc davis, univ of minnesota, univ of michigan.

reach:

penn state, univ of maryland, univ of texas at austin

comments, suggestions? maybe i could use some more safety schools.

[Minnesotan]

I went with 25% safety schools, although I realize now that my so-called safeties were all big-budget R1 institutions who I had no business calling safe. Luckily it all worked out for me, but I could have screwed myself over, had it not. There's no reason to take chances - make sure you like everywhere you apply, but also make sure you have a good variety of schools to choose from. If applying to more than ten schools, why not have three backups, in case you're either shooting too high, or the market gets even tighter?

As for retaking the GRE, do Math programs even care about the verbal?

[frankdux]

As for retaking the GRE, do Math programs even care about the verbal?

good question. it seems like most schools don't necessarily emphasize it. however, a low score can be a red flag. and my score is rather low.

[Minnesotan]

But you scored an 800 on the important part (for you), which you might not duplicate the second time around. I think it would be an even bigger red flag to see a decrease in the important category on a retest. Besides, I seriously doubt grad programs in math give a flying f___ about verbal. However, don't take my word for it -- the best way to figure this out is to ask the programs themselves. Most PDs and PAs are good about letting you know which things are most important to them.

[prats]

I was rejected by 13 places because of lack of research experience.currently i am doing research as a trainee in a government lab . I am determined to turn the tables around this time .

[walrus314]

If you want a good check on GRE scores, I'd check out link censored There you can see graphically how you might stack up. The site is rather new, so you may be the first data, but the site is pretty easy to navigate and sign up (took me less than a minute).

[frankdux]

^^^ thanks for that. you're right, it is a pretty new site. it's well layed out and i'll be sure to contribute my results when the time comes. but since its so new, there is very little data to give me any comparisons with my own scores.

[Minnesotan]

I censored the link because it has been posted 20+ times on this site today by the same user. This is not a free advertising site. Since someone responded, I left the post up, rather than deleting it. The original thread will also remain up, but further advertising on preexisting threads will be deleted.