Importance of pure math course grades for applied math masters

[despoxcam]

I'm a double major economics and math student studying in the US and I have a 3.74 GPA.  It was a 3.8+ earlier but I screwed up on a final for Ring/Group Theory and got a C in the class and with Analysis 1 final two hours later I emerged with a B+.  Point is, this was my worst finals day ever and besides being disappointed in myself I am also concerned that, due to the importance of these two courses, my admissions chances have been severely damaged.  Additionally these are the last set of grades that the admissions committee will see and its a very abrupt drop from how I performed before.  

 

I talked to a few professors about this and they told me that since I'm going for applied math and a masters I may be okay but they are not sure themselves.  Another said that because 3.75 is pretty high, in their view, some admissions committees may look at the other stuff like research.  Based on your guys' experience with admissions in the past how would you assess my situation?  

 

I have done research at NASA for two years, worked in a school lab on fluid dynamics and will defend my thesis in this field, did development economics research abroad, and am currently working on a paper regarding fuel derivatives for airlines.  I also studied math abroad at a top university. The masters programs I am considering are:

 

Columbia Applied Physics/concentration Applied Math

Stanford Mathematical Engineering

Northwestern Engineering Sciences and Applied Math

Johns Hopkins Applied Math

EPFL (Switzerland) Computational Science and Engineering

Purdue Computational Science/Engineering

Georgia Tech Computational Science/Engineering

UPenn Computer and Info Tech 

 

My recommendation letters should be very strong.  

 

The problem I had with the group/ring theory class was that I could not come up with proofs fast enough on an exam so I will probably focus my energy in the next and last term of senior year on computational courses like Stochastic Calculus, Calculus of Variations, and Deterministic Math Models.  Anyways, I'd like to know the following so I can plan next steps:

 

-assessment of my situation

-any advice or changes in schools I should be applying to?

-Is having a C in this pure class going to affect me if I go onto do a PhD later on or is there some way to make it up?

 

Thank you all in advance for your help.  

 

 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

I don't think the algebra class will negatively affect your chances. Better just not to draw attention to it, if the rest of your application is very strong and clearly demonstrates ability to do applied (rather than pure) math. The letters of recommendation should help a lot. Best of luck.