Pure Mathematics PhD admission results

[fuwing2007]

If you go to the webpage of Berekely, they said according to their experiences, students whose score below 80% are hard to succeed in their program. Of course, this figure is much lower than their expected score.

Even UPenn has an average of 860 this year, you can guess the averages of other better universities. (I am not saying UPenn is not a good university.)

If you go to the webpage of Minnesota, they show a statistics of the GRE score of the admitted students some years ago. There was a guy who had only 450 (!) on GRE subject test, but still admitted. However, in that year, other admitted students had quite high scores, at least 780 or above.

So, what I am going to say is graduate schools do not have a clear cut boundaries to define low or high. It all depends on your overall stuff. (the reputation of the universities you did your undergraduate and/or graduate, your GPA, your recommendation letters).

Although I also hate GRE, I still have to say that, if you are playing a game with them, you have to know and obey their rules.

buckyball, are you an American applicant? Just curious.

[buckyball]

No, I'm from Thailand. Thanks for your information. I wouldn't expect Berkeley and other top five schools anyway. I got rejected from Cornell and I am thinking of a clear reason. Well, it might be because of my not-so-good TOEFL and the overall quality of this year's applicants is significantly high (probably?). ..sigh..

[fuwing2007]

What other schools you have also applied for?

Well, I dont think this year's applicants quality are particularly high (reflected by the score?) Perhaps we are more able to deal with exams. Or perhaps we applied the wrong schools (just kidding).

Anyway, good luck

[buckyball]

I've also applied to U of Washington, UCSD, and Penn State. No news so far. Is it possible to tell me your score, GRE and TOEFL? Maybe via PM if you don't want to post here? And where have you applied to?

[rrw8]

As for GRE scores: I did really poorly but that is because I don't do well "quicky," and I know my recommendations speak to this. While I haven't gotten in to any of the top schools, I've been told I still have a decent chance at others. Do you think this is fair?

[rrw8]

And by fair, I meant a fair assessment of how schools might consider me.

[fuwing2007]

well, I think I am not going to tell my score, since it doesn't help.

For fair assessement, picking applicants is never fair. My supervisor said it is more like a lottery.

GRE does not have so much time for students. I also didn't finish all the problems.

Well, but I still have to say I really HATE GRE. If you have read some posts, I mentioned I also applied schools in UK. Actually, I applied three and got two offers, the other one is unknown. Although among two of the offers, one doesn't provide funding (= rejected), and the funding of another one is pending. But at least the way they judge is far better. (Of course these are not the top universities of UK. However, the unknown one is very good. I am also not going to say I should be admitted by schools in US because of this.)

They interview you, chat to you and ask some questions, both on mathematical and non mathematical issues. Then they decide.

Of course this can possibly be done if you are currently in that country. So, for international students, what they can do is just look at your figures. We understand it, because they can't request all the applicants come to US for interviews. But "scores = research ability" doesn't make any sense to me.

I know you may have tons of reasons to convince me why they do it this way. It's the best way they can possibly do. So, it is quite ironic that graduate schools (particularly science subjects) select people by non-scientific method. By the way, who says selecting people is an exact-science?

[math85]

I saw in the grad cafe that results from UPenn are out. Do you know if everyone has been notified? Because I saw posts of acceptance, rejection and waiting list, but I haven´t received any decision yet. Is anyone else waiting, or have you all been notified already?

[rrw8]

I'm still waiting on UPenn. I've come up with a host of reasons why this might be, but it's comforting to know I'm not alone.

[zw849]

Hey rrw8, to know the outcome just email the grad chair. They apparently don't want to tell yet to people they have been rejected.