wind up bird

Not only do I think UCSD is the stronger department, my understanding is that UCSD is much better in terms of environment. Overall it seems like the better place to be.

As a current student there, I agree thesparky about Caltech. The faculty are extremely open and responsive and the attitude among students is collegial and non-competitive. After visiting, I had very positive impressions of, and continue to hear good things about, the departments at Boston College and UCSD.

They have paid internships for both PhDs and undergrads (deadline is April 1st) as well as some unpaid internships throughout the year.

Just adding, many months later, that I was wrong in this post. Ultimately, a few people were admitted from the waitlist!

10-15 hours per problem set was pretty standard for my first year. Having a problem set that took less than 4 hours was fairly unusual.

I'd hate to be in your study group for comps. I'll just say this. Focus on your own work and your own achievements. You'll meet a lot of bright folks in this field, and it will become pretty tiring to regard them all as competition.

Usually just Lay-tek. And I pronounce SAS "sass".

A good number of people I meet think Caltech is one of the Cal State schools, heh.

Re. the GRE, there are common types of problems that are very likely to show up every time. For me the key was to learn how to do those problems not just easily but extremely quickly. This mostly just takes lots and lots of practice. Then when you encounter a problem that's a little more tricky, you have needed time to think about it carefully.

Ditto asquare re: Caltech. One of our admits this past cycle had a PhD in physics, so it's certainly possible to get in.

I wouldn't retake if I were you. What percentile was your 660? It should be reasonably high.

I transferred to a UC, but satisfied this requirement by taking it online through Santa Barbara City College in my last year of undergrad. It was pretty convenient.

I don't think real analysis is strictly necessary if you are not going to do a PhD in economics or finance. The value of that course has to do with learning how to do proofs which I am not sure is a big part of masters programs in finance (though feel free to correct me if I am wrong).

I have always wondered who wrote Larry Summers' LORS.

I had a B- in Calc II and B+'s in Calc III, probability, and basic linear algebra and I got into decent schools.