I'll freak-out! The life is so cruel...

[logaritym]

Hello everybody and sorry for the stupid hype-up title! I'll try to make as concise as possible... Here's my story:

I'm interested in Mathematics and live in Eastern Europe. I was pretty good as a high-school student, even got a Gold at IMO. However, after high-school I didn't apply for abroad and began BSc in my home country. After the BSc I began working with a great professor in the university, so got also a MSc from there. I had very good GPA (5.9/6), some additional prizes from mathematical Olympiads and one joint article, so I decided that I should finally apply for some better universities in USA and UK. I took some big loans, studied English for several months, passed the GRE GENERAL and SUBJECT TESTS with very good results (V89%/Q94%/A26%/M94%) and tried my luck with:

USA - Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Chicago, Michigan, UCLA, CalTech, Illinois Urbana-Champaign;

UK - Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, Imperial, Bristol.

Finally, I got accepted at Illinois and Warwick, Oxford accepted me without funding (I have to look for scholarship/sponsors by myself) and Stanford waitlisted me, but now it seems unlikely to admit me, no respond from Cambridge yet. These are my options now:

1. Illinois Urbana-Champaign - there is great young mathematician with whom I can work there. However, I'll need 4-5 years until graduation and probably I won't like the city. Additionally, the financial offer is not very good.

2. Warwick - there is another great young mathematician there with whom I can work, but my field of study will be different from the one I studied during my MSc. I'll need only 3 years until graduation and it's closer to my home county.

3. Stay one more year in my home country and apply again next year - I'll have a chance to look for sponsors/scholarships for Oxford and wait for the response from Cambridge. If I don't succeed, I'll try to do some research and apply again next year for some other great universities + Oxford, Stanford and Michigan again - they all are very close to my interests (one of my professors forgot to send my LoR to Michigan, although I'm not sure that this was a reason for the rejection). However, it's very difficult to do research and study in my country (there aren't much resources here, I have to work in order to get money, etc.) and I feel that I'm wasting all my potential here. Also, I'll have to decline some great offers without any guarantee that the next year I'll have any better options.

It's really very tough to make the decision... Can you give me some advices, please? I have only few days left until the deadlines, so I must choose fast.

Thank you in advance!

Edited April 12, 2011 by logaritym

[TheCantervilleGhost]

I can only really comment on the UK application system, I have never had anything to do with US universities.

Warwick has a pretty good reputation for maths. Only you know if it's a good research match for you, however. If you're fully funded and interested in the research being done there, I say go for it! I considered applying to Warwick too, but didn't find a good research match for me there. Also, don't hold your breath for Cambridge, they very rarely admit anybody to the PhD in maths directly, they usually make you do Part III (the last year of their four-year masters' course) first and then admit PhD students according to their Part III results. That's why I didn't even bother to apply there. (Got a fully funded offer for Oxford now though, so no regrets. )

About waiting for another year - well, you'll be a year older, but will anything change to your application by then? It does seem weird to me though that only so few of your applications were successful, considering your excellent background. (I don't know what GRE scores mean though, not familiar with the system, but that 26% in there doesn't look great?) Anyway, if there is room for improvement in your application, it might be worth waiting a year, but really, Warwick is pretty good already and I'm not sure if the chance of going to a slightly more prestigious university is really worth wasting an entire year.

You seem to have applied to a lot of schools - did you really put any thought into your specific applications, or just applied to any school with a prestigious name? Because that might be part of the reason why you didn't get in / didn't get funding. For example, in one of your other posts (I think it was over at TSR, not at grad café) it became clear you didn't know how the college system in Oxford works, how you will be assigned a college, and you didn't find out about possible college funding opportunities before submitting your application, therefore potentially losing out on some important funding opportunities.

Familiarize yourself with the application process and system at every university you apply to. Only apply to universities you're genuinely interested in attending, not just any university with a big name. Your application materials, background, statement of purpose, research proposal etc should match the programme you apply to, and at your interviews you should be able to make clear why you chose to apply to this particular university / research group. That might be something to focus on some more if you decide to wait another year and apply again.

Edited April 12, 2011 by TheCantervilleGhost

[aber_leider]

You have invested a lot of money and effort in this process, do you really to put yourself to it all over again? Choose from your options and don't hesitate, the longer you wait the harder it will be for you to depart from your home (I mean you will be even more attached if you wait one more year). Besides, your options are great. It is true that all of us would like to studfy at Princeton, Stanford or Cambridge, (we all like the glamour) but seriously you've got excellent options. I would personally attend UI-UC, but you seem to have already decided not to go there. A friend of mine has been attending Warwick for a couple of years now and she is very very happy. She's into dynamical systems I believe (I'm more Applied analysis-oriented, so I prefer PDE's) and it seems that they do leading research in that area.

Go for it, you really got great options.

Edited April 14, 2011 by aber_leider

[logaritym]

Thank you for the answers!

Some of the universities matched my interests very well and were recommended to me by my tutor and my friends (I've studied mainly analytic number theory so far) - Stanford, Oxford, UCLA, Michigan, Illinois, Bristol... The others were recommended by US News and The Guardian Rankings. However, I'm pretty sure that there is Number Theory Research in every TOP university, even though not necessarily analytic.

I've always been thinking about doing a PhD in a top university and now feel crushed... Today is the deadline.

P.S.V=Verbal (words), Q=Quantitative (very stupid problems), A=Analytical (essay), M=Mathematics (subject test)

[tibbles]

Warwick is a prestigious University in the UK, and has a particularly excellent reputation for Mathematics (I don't know about graduate-wise, but for undergraduate entry it is considered on a par with Oxford and Cambridge for Mathematics). If you have funding, and the research is something that you will enjoy, then take the opportunity. Prestige is just a gloss that will not satisfy for very long.

[Seeking]

Are you the person who posted a series of Maths PhD rejects from top-ranking universities and a good GRE score around 7th of Apr in the results section?

I felt bad for you and am glad to know you got a good offer from Warwick. I do hope you joined it, as some posters above say it's a good option.

[TheCantervilleGhost]

So anyway, have you made your decision yet? Update!

[logaritym]

Hi everybody!

I chose UIUC. It was a very tough decision, because Warwick really is a top UK university and I could work with a very good professor there. However, the research in UIUC fits my current interests better, so I'm heading to USA this autumn.

Thanks for the interest and the suggestions. I hope you have been admitted to some of your favorite programs:)

[TheCantervilleGhost]

Congratulations on your choice! I know how though these decisions are... I wish you all the best at UIUC!