Grad School

[nc-1701]

I thought I remembered their being an old thread on this but I couldn't find it.

How hard is it to get into a good grad school when coming out of a mediocre university? And what things are most important for doing that? For example are GREs or GPA more important? How useful is a minor?
I want a somewhat general discussion but in my specific case I'm at a mediocre public Liberal Arts school working on my B.S. in mathematics, but I'de like to go to a top notch grad school like UC Berkley or MIT.

I have a decent GPA (3.8) B's are mostly from core crap classes like art appreciation. And I'm currently doing an Undergraduate research project and plan to fit in 1-3 more before I graduate. Also I'm thinking about minoring in CS, but idk if it will be worth the amount of work it will take, also how would a physics minor compare to CS?
How much work should I put into Math subject GREs? I downloaded nd old test and I plan to print/staple it and leave it my bathroom so I'll something to do while I poop

What else should I be doing? And in general what are the most important things I should make sure I do?

Thanks in advance, and anyone else who has any questions please ask them, I really didn't want to make a completely user-specific thread, but I couldn't find any old threads on the subject.

 

[Birdjaguar]

What do you want to do as a job? What graduate degree do you want to get, Masters or PhD?

 

[nc-1701]

PhD in math not sure about the sub field but probably Number Theory or Algebra. Not sure what I want as a job afterwards, really I just want to be able to work on difficult/interesting problems so perhaps a professor, though teaching really doesn't appeal to me. Rumor has it the NSA hires a lot of math PhDs, which could certainly be interesting. I'm sure there are also some avenues that follow that I'm unaware of, but generally I want to be able to get as far as possible in the field. I've also read Abstract Algebra is being used in some of the new theoretical physics models, working with that could be really cool.

Bottom line I guess is I want to do new things, that haven't been done before.

 

[Orange Seeds]

Most schools are very subjective when it comes to Grad (particularly PhD) programs applications. Just do everything you can do that can be used as evidence of how much better you are than your peers.

Unless there is a very specific school you are looking to tailor your application to, there is no real rubric for success.

At the end of it you want to be able to say that there was never a time where you could have done better than you did that mattered.

 

[GoodGame]

Having applied to a PhD program, been invited to the "first round tour visit", but ultimately rejected, I'd say:

1. GRE's hold some weight, so practice on them as much as possible (months even), especially if you have been out of school for a while. Plan to take it once or twice. Note: they can see the results of all of your test attempts, so take it seriously.

2. Have a very focused idea of what you want to do and who you want to do it with. After you've picked the schools you consider to have the right stuff, intimately learn who teaches what you are interested in. Try to contact them in advance, after having read some of the work that they've published. Demonstrate a strong understanding and passion for their field when you contact them to get tips on how to be admitted.

3. Always use proper written English when communicating to anyone at the school. Always use a professional etiquette when communicating in person or on the phone. Always dress professionally and act confident for any in-person events with admission/tour people, including when they wine & dine you.

4. Don't be discouraged if you don't get into your first choices, or if they won't even tell you what they feel needs improvement. Generally they won't offer tips, just a rejection. Take an honest look at your application and see if there are areas you could improve for another round of applications.

5. Get real life experience. Intern etc.. You say you want to work for the NSA? Then ask them how someone of your current experience could get in to intern.

Basically Grad school is extremely selective. The number of people who apply compared to the number of people who are admitted is like 99:1, or at best 90:10. One stat I recall was like 125 people apply for every 1 person admitted. If you absolutely have to get in a PhD program or your life is ruined, then play the statistical relative frequency and apply to at least a 100 programs (just kidding, but don't stop at even 10 programs).

So you have to figure that a laid back, conservative attempt will fail, while a bold, dedicated, professional, over-the-top attempt will actually succeed. A well-rounded 3 page statement of purpose might seem reasonable, but who knows, maybe a 12 page publication quality research effort (cited) on what topic you want to study might actually win you admission.



For Masters degrees, I'd say you really just need the tuition money and do the research to choose a school that is great value for the money. Masters programs are more up-front and clear about the admissions criteria than PhD programs.

BTW, your GPA sounds excellent. I wouldn't worry too much about the prestige of your university, or how you did in minor courses.

 

[plarq]

As an international graduate school applicant, I might add:

1) TOEFL. You need it if your home country is not English-speaking. If your graduate school will give you TA (Most of them do), a decent TOEFL score ( with good speaking score ) is definitely a plus.
2) Major. Most of science majors (physics -- my major, chemistry, biology, etc.) are more or less dominated by third world country scholars, namely India, China, and South Korea.