Logic

[grizg]

I've applied to Berkeley's Logic and the Methodology of Science program as well as a number of other universities that specialize in logic (UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, UC Irvine). Is anyone else studying logic? What schools have you applied to and have you heard back? What area of logic are you interested in? I'm thinking bout computability theory, but not sure yet.

[grendel]

I'm interested in logic, particularly model theory and set theory, and perhaps universal algebra or category theory. I applied to Berkeley's math program (seemed a better fit than the program you named), and haven't heard anything yet. I also applied to CMU, Penn State, Cornell, UPenn, UIC, UChicago and MIT (the latter two I applied to mostly because of some of my other interests, and I've already been rejected from those two).

I was starting to despair last week when I received an acceptance e-mail from Carnegie Mellon! I also applied to some schools in England and was planning on applying to at least two in France, but now that I've heard from CMU, I might not.

[someDay]

A PhD in set theory must be quite a challenge - I fondly remember Mahlo/Ramsey/... cardinals and how to use the Mostowski collapse to prove that if there exists a model for the (...). Model theory seems a bit more "useful" to the still-pure-but-not-virgin-mary part of Pure Maths. Good luck to you guys!

On a note though - doesn't category theory count as a branch of algebra, not logic? At least I see it that way; and the current development still seems to be driven by topologists and algebraists?

sD.

[grendel]

You definitely have a point about category theory. It's not really logic, but it's a part of the "foundations of mathematics" and for example it is the domain of Peter Freyd, director of the logic and computation group at Penn.

As for set theory being difficult: I hope it is!

[Reynolds]

Though I'm not sure what I definitely want to do my research in, I wanted to have logic or set theory available to me wherever I end up. So, I mostly applies to bigger departments that have lots available (as opposed to Carnegie Mellon, &c.) That said, I applied to - Cornell, Wisconsin-Madison, Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, CUNY Grad Center, WUSTL, Dartmouth, Kansas and U of Buffalo. Like I said, most of those are bigger departments, so I'll have options.

I've only had one class in set theory, one in logic and one independent study in Forcing; of the 2 standard classes I enjoyed the set theory course more, but I'm sure logic is really cool too - model theory sounds especially interesting.