ll235 Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 I am applying for a master in math at McGill, Waterloo University, UBC, UofT and McMaster. I was rejected from Waterloo and accepted by McMaster and didn’t receive any answers from the rest. My first choice is by far McGill and they already accepted and rejected some people. I am really worried because I feel that if Waterloo rejected me, McGill will definitely reject me and waiting is just killing me, do you think I have a chance at McGill? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatPhD2014 Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Do you really expect us to have any idea StatPhD2014 and Igotnothin 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ll235 Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 well, some schools have a reputation to be more selectives that others but now you are making me feel that my question was absurd... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatPhD2014 Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 It's not absurd, but it's hard for people on an anonymous forum to provide real advice on the internal deliberations of an admissions committee. But a possible answer to your question if these schools are all within the same tier it happens plenty of times that one gets into a higher ranked program and gets rejected from a slightly lower ranked one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidAndroid Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 (edited) No point in speculating now. Best to just wait and see what happens. Why is your first choice by far McGill? Edited March 7, 2014 by ParanoidAndroid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stat Assistant Professor Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 (edited) You never know. There is a lot that goes on in the admissions process that you can't control for. My dad is a prof and one of the Masters students he advised was rejected from every PhD program EXCEPT Stanford. As for myself, I have been rejected from nearly every "top" school I applied to, but I made it to a final 'short list' for Berkeley (not accepted yet but my app was ranked somewhere just below the very top-rated applicants that have already received acceptances... hopefully I will get one soon too!). Edited March 7, 2014 by Applied Math to Stat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ll235 Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 thank you for all your answers... I guess I just need to wait (I feel that my whole life is on hold now) to paranoidandroid, my first choice is McGill because I really want to go to Montreal (for several reasons) and I was also interested by category theory and McGill has strong links with the center of category theory in Montreal but most other schools don't have any category theory professors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stat Assistant Professor Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 In math and stats, there always seem to be a few "shoe-ins" (e.g. if someone has been taking graduate level classes since their frehsman year and has a very high GPA from Princeton or MIT, then yeah, they will most likely get in everywhere they apply to). These students comprise a fraction of the admits (maybe 20-40%), but a lot of other strong applicants are also "in the discussion." The "good-but-not-perfect' applicants compete for the remaining spots, and admission depends on a lot of things (e.g. who sits on the graduate admissions committee and what parts of the application they weigh the most -- some think LORs can somewhat compensate for lower grades, others weigh a lot of upper divisision and graduate-level coursework heavily, etc.). Very few applicants are strong across all these different factors (grades, LORs, wide breadth of math classes taken, etc.), but if you are strong in at least a few, you'll likely be in the discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatPhD2014 Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 In math and stats, there always seem to be a few "shoe-ins" (e.g. if someone has been taking graduate level classes since their frehsman year and has a very high GPA from Princeton or MIT, then yeah, they will most likely get in everywhere they apply to). These students comprise a fraction of the admits (maybe 20-40%), but a lot of other strong applicants are also "in the discussion." The "good-but-not-perfect' applicants compete for the remaining spots, and admission depends on a lot of things (e.g. who sits on the graduate admissions committee and what parts of the application they weigh the most -- some think LORs can somewhat compensate for lower grades, others weigh a lot of upper divisision and graduate-level coursework heavily, etc.). Very few applicants are strong across all these different factors (grades, LORs, wide breadth of math classes taken, etc.), but if you are strong in at least a few, you'll likely be in the discussion. lol you should add a citation to CW's post where this info came from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stat Assistant Professor Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 lol you should add a citation to CW's post where this info came from Haha yes, to the OP: my post definitely was partly inspired by one of the posts made by CyberWulf (a biostatistics professor). It was somewhere in the Admissions Results thread, IIRC. But I have also been through grad school before in applied math and had discussions with the graduate program coordinator so I am a bit familiar with how the process works (he said my letters of recommendation were really strong and those compensated for my [at the time] considerably weaker math background than other applicants who were rejected). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ll235 Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 the main drawback of my application is that I come from an unknown school so I definitely can't compete with the princeton and MIT guys but thanks for your answer... anyone else applying for a master in math in canadian schools? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatPhD2014 Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 the main drawback of my application is that I come from an unknown school so I definitely can't compete with the princeton and MIT guys but thanks for your answer... anyone else applying for a master in math in canadian schools? The princeton and MIT guys with high GPAs are probably not applying for masters programs in math Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ll235 Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatPhD2014 Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 why not? Becuase they can probably get into top PhD programs here in the US Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stat Assistant Professor Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 StatPhD2014 is right. They are most likely applying to PhD programs in math directly (and finishing in 4 years or less to boot). There are some folks who are just *too* outstanding in all respects in math that they are shoe-ins to any math graduate program. However, these applicants are also in the minority, so you shouldn't count yourself out either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ll235 Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 well that's good to hear, it means that "normal" people wil have less competition for masters... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stat Assistant Professor Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Well, you were admitted to one program, so I imagine your application was not weak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyh Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 the main drawback of my application is that I come from an unknown school so I definitely can't compete with the princeton and MIT guys but thanks for your answer... anyone else applying for a master in math in canadian schools? As far as I'm concerned Canadian schools usually encourage undergraduate applicants to apply for MS, however I know some applicants who applied for MS but were admitted as PhD ..(Math Program). While in US, many math students apply for PhD program directly. Good luck. Wish you success in application and future studies:-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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