Currently, I’m working on the third year of my math undergraduate degree. Unless I really screw up, I’ll be graduating in a little over a year. Several of my professors have encouraged me to go to grad school, but none of them have been much help when it comes to helping me pick which ones to apply to. When I was applying for undergrad, I got wait-listed at my first and only choice and then proceeded to apply to the one school that didn’t require an essay for their application. Needless to say, there wasn’t a lot of thought process that went into picking my school and I’m probably damn lucky that I like it here so much. I’d like to put a bit more thought into where I’ll be working on my masters.
I’m an A student in math classes, with A’s, B’s and very few C’s in my non-math classes. The only exception is Physics, which I’m struggling to get a D in. I’ve looked over some practice subject-GRE’s for math and I don’t anticipate that being a problem, nor do I anticipate the regular GRE’s being to much of an issue. The classes I’ve really enjoyed so far have been the theory based ones, like Number Theory and Adv. Calc (all we do is proofs…it’s suprisingly fun!). I’ve done some statistics and I think it’s neat, but I don’t want to make a career out of it, nor am I interested in teaching.
I’m looking for a school where I can get a MS, preferably in Pure Mathematics if they have that option. I also would like a school without a really cold winter season. Right now, I’m in the mountains and I hate the winters with a passion. A small town enviroment is also preferable. Also, I live in Virginia and my mom is terrified of airplanes. If I ever want to see her, west coast schools are out.
Any hints on where to start looking? If you went to grad school, how did you pick it out?
I know very little about math, other than having a few friends who majored in it but did not continue their studies.
I am a chemist. I had absolutely no clue about how to even start looking for schools. I had an idea of the sort of chemistry that interested me, but that was it. Fortunately one of the chem profs at my college worked on similar chemistry to what I was interested in, so I went to him to talk about schools. He asked me if I had any location preferences. I did. He then went through each state and listed the really good programs.
For chemistry grad school, where you go isn’t really as important as who your advisor is, so I took that list of schools and looked at the faculty websites to see who interested me. Some people and schools have better websites than others. I also looked at publications, but I honestly had trouble understanding them well at that point.
I narrowed my list to 10 schools and applied to them all. The applications are mostly similar, so applying to 10 wasn’t much more work than applying to 5.
Upon rereading your post, I see that you’re looking for a MS degree. Most of the better chemistry programs don’t offer an MS, so people generally don’t get one unless they quit or get kicked out. You might want to check if this is the case with math.
Do you know what you want to do after grad school? That might help a bit with the decision.
Another suggestion is to look in some math journals. If you see any interesting papers, you might be interested in the institutions where the authors are from.
If the faculty at your college is useless for suggestions, try to find a list of previously graduated math majors and what they ended up doing. That way you can try to contact them or at least see where they went. Someone in the department administrative office might have this. There may also be a career planning/placement office at the college that could have this or other useful information.
Having served on a grad school admission committee, I can tell you we cared about: 1) where you went undergrad and did we know the people who wrote your letters of recommendation and your undergrad transcript (grades, variety of courses, risk-taking) and 2) specialized GRE score.
A person going to grad school should go to the best grad program s/he can get into, IMO. Aim high.
I’ve known a fair number of people with MS degrees in mathematics, but they’ve all been in some kind of applied field and/or dual degrees with something like Engineering Physics or Computer Science. If you like “pure” mathematics research like number theory or abstract topology, then you probably want to think in terms of a PhD, even if you don’t have any interest in teaching. It sounds as if you haven’t put a lot of thought into what you want to do after school; it’s probably time to put some cognitive effort into what you can do with your degrees once you’ve meandered your way through graduate school, lest you end up doing your research in a field in which you can’t find employment and are forced to earn your paycheck letting a cash register do basic arithmatic for you.
Since you report that your aptitude at physics is underwhelming, I’m going to assumed that applied math isn’t really your bag. Just off the top of my head, you might look into cryptography, information theory, or possibility theory as areas in which you can find engaging, progressive research in private industry or government contractors (as opposed to academia, which you seem uninterested in). Talk to your profs about getting some people you can talk to who are doing work that might interest you, and talk with some graduate students in your department to see what they like and don’t like. (There are always some hanging around the lounge, no doubt, and if they’re like typical grad students they’ll be more than willing to pontificate at length as a diversion from grading homework and working on their thesis.)
As for schools–you want an Eastern school with no cold season? That’s a toughie. Tulane used to be known for having a good mathematics program, but I don’t know about the state of things today, and that’s hardly qualifies as an Eastern school or within driving distance of Virgina anyway. Maybe UVA, Duke, or Georgia Tech? (I see that you live in Virginia, so perhaps you’re attending UVA now?)
Anyway, good luck to you. I envy you; you make me want to return to grad school.
I went to a little state school and people from there getting into Duke, Columbia, etc was a common occurance. I had talked to Cornell. I agree with Helen in that you should aim high. But aiming high also means you risk getting rejected. Have one school that may not be top, Ivy league stuff but you know you would be happy with. And don’t just assume that because a school is ranked at whatever point, it is a good match for you. Check to see what the professors research.
Also, if you can, try to find a professor at your school who is researching a subject you are interested in and see if you could help out. (That also makes a wonderful reference and addition to your app-research experience!) You might have enough time to do something on your own (with professors help). If you get published in your undergradute you.will.get.in. It is rare, but it happens. At least as 2nd or 3rd author.
The seminary that I got into is extremely strong in my two interests which is why I applied.
When I applied, sweated and got into graduate school, it was 3 essays, 3 references, graduate test scores, and the application. I had to have at least a C in every individual class. (I had two Cs–one in Biopsychology, the other in French and the nightmare in that class still haunts me) But my experience was also different in the app process, etc.
Most of all: Relax! You are obviously a strong student and will get in.
This issue of the magazine is on the news stands at the moment. Get a copy of it. In the magazine (and not on the webpage), it lists the top 50 mathematics departments overall and the top 10 for each of the specialties. Unfortuately, there’s no way for us to be able to tell from your description just how good a department you can get into. Really, there’s no way to tell. Unless you’ve had some chance to compare yourself against top undergraduates at top universities, there’s no way for us (or for you) to know whether you’re someone who can do well at one of the top five graduate departments or whether you’ll just barely scrape through at one of the departments that are just barely within the top 50. What do your professors think of you? Do they think that you are one of the best mathematics students they ever had, or do they think that you are just pretty good and may perhaps make it to a Ph.D. (and are really more M.S. material)? In that case, you probably should try for places that aren’t in the top 20 or 30 departments in the country. Talk to math professors at your university about places that aren’t quite in the top 50 but which fit your requirements as to the location of the university. Talk to math professors at other local universities about the same issue. Really, just go into their offices and ask them. Even if you only want to get an M.S. at the moment, try to get into the best department you can. If you leave with just a master’s, that’s O.K., and if you’re inspired to get a Ph.D., that’s even better.
Some department websites put the stats (GRE, GPA, etc) of the incoming grad students on their websites. Try to find those or call and ask even though they probably won’t tell you. They will tell you, “That is not a very good indicator as we take many factors into account.” sigh