WRusin

Thank Goodness!!! I just thought I attend a really freaky Univ :D

The admits and all of my lists are on the forum... I've posted them here last year :). But that with the photocopy is just wierd... really wierd...:hmm: Well... maybe people on the othe bank of Missisipy have different attitudes to many things... :D

Last year I've applied to 50 universities and they all wanted the official ETS copy (ETS shall send the results...). That a school is pleased with an unofficial photocopy sent by a candidate is highly unusuall...:hmm:

In fact we have a couple of people in our department of whose appearence I can inferr they are much older then 30... :) and they are studying for their PhD.

Honestly? I've seen a couple of people who I recall from last year so I think it's possible...:)

I think It'd be nice to open a Thread where TMians from previous years would share their experiences regarding expectations on the graduate studies in the US and the reality :) Well... I've never supposed that I'll have so much homework to do :D which was a bit hard at the beginning... So how about you? I mean it would give people the feeling what are they running into :hmm:

If you'd give the hint of the field you're applying in I'd probably give you some clues :)

Well... rejected... I wouldn't put this into my application... but submitted surely yes. :D Good luck with the apps...

I can only say same as greaper... I've filled out my apps by hand. The main point is they should be readable for everyone, therfore you should use printed letters = large, spearated, cpital letters...

Usually it's about 40F/4C in the morning (which for me was rather cold as I didn't expect such temperatures at this time of the year...). People who are here for longer than I keep on telling me that in January - March the temperatures are far below 0F (like -30F) which gives something around -30C ! If you add the windshield you end up with -60F=-45C !!! :eek: And the winds in winter are usually cold and fast... But, to cheer you up we have a student from southern Caribbean and she said that 'everything is doable'... A good Northface jacket will do :)

Well yeah... ok :D The Campus is just great !!! It's placed near the Missisipi river with departments on both sides of it. Part of the campus is located in Saint Paul - like the Vets and Fisheries... (I actually go there every week to spread the word of mathematical wisedom among my 'sheepheard'...:) ) . The atmosphere hah? Great! With 45000 students you find all kind of variety you look for. We have the so called Coiffmann Union Building which is meant to serve as a center of on campus entertainment. Well, if you'd like to do some sport there is the Rec-center with many activity possibilities - price included in the students fee :D . In other words... U of M rocks :tup: If you have specific questions, feel free...

Do you want to go there? If really yes I'd express some gratitude and joy of being admitted. If the professor is your future advisor I'd also write that I'm looking forword to meet him at the campus and am happy to do reaserch with him... Congratulations of being in :tup:

Hi, I've read your profile... I think it looks nice and decent. Unfortunatelly I cannot tell you if you're quaified or not, I'm not the admission commetee. As far as I know, sometimes it depends on the GRE Subject test result and/or on the overall profile of the candidate - his experience so far. It would be also nice if you'd write a mail to the professor you'd like to do reaserch with or even better if someone from your present school writes a recommendation mail to someone whom he knows in the school you're applying for. This helps a lot! I think admissions are more a matter of luck then a fair competition. It's like the applications are placed in one big room on piles according to the dergee of how well the cadidate fits in to the programm (which is important for the commetee). Now, every faculty member has the key to the room and can reshufle them. My point is... if there is someone whom you may make to want you in the programm he may pull some strings and maybe make you be there... I've applied to over 50(sic!) schools last year and really, belive me, there is no rule for judgin on the profile... I was admitted to Wisconsin-Madison and U of M (which rules!) but got a reject from the University of Connecticut (ranked 97 by NRC)... :D . Gool luck!

Hi All, some of you may remember me from last year... I ended up in the School of Mathematics at U of M. Well, what can I say... I have some experience with applying to varoius schools so if I can be of any help to you, feel free to ask :)

Walter goes to UMN :) :) :)

I bet Ann Arbor is a decent place to go :) or you can narrow your choice pool to two offers and toss a coin :D

Well, maybe... at lest not in math :) 97 place following the NRC ranking...

I myself considered using such service but finally came to the conclusion that it's worth nothing. I mean they can only polish your essay and put some nice looking phrases but the fact that they even don't know you is really against you. I've found on the website: We ensure that you present yourself as an accomplished, forthright, and thoughtful applicant by clearly articulating your dedication to research, your passion for your field, and your potential to contribute to your chosen specialty. We improve the coherency of your essay by relying on personal details, not abstract generalizations, to convince the admissions committee of your favorable characteristics and of your motivation to pursue graduate-level study. We focus the essay to directly address the question, and we make certain that the logic and organization of the essay flow naturally from the topic. Is that a good SoP or are we witnessing a situation where a company offering avoiding generalizations as one of the services indeed makes a generalization? :D O.K. so here is one of my many SoP adressed to University of Pittsburgh where I've been offered an admission with Mellon Fellowship: (for privacy reasons link available after mailing me :))

What if those variables are not uniformly distributed? (simple) :) And even better ... what if they're not independent? :D

Hi, I've read recently some profile threads. It seems to me that each post placed there more or less contains sth like that: "A good SoP". Not that I'm particularly picky but what does it mean to have a good SoP? I think nobody encloses a "bad" SoP along with his application credentials... So what constitutes a good SoP? :) Any comments?

That's good :) The tests are very simple but alone the prospective of spending three hours sitting in a classroom solving some silly problems simply makes me sick :doh: :D

:2cents: Let me disagree with that statement... I'm deeply convinced a wide research experience is far more important than both GREs. I think decisions are not only made upon GRE scores because people can sometimes have a 'bad day'... The point is: there is a little difference between 790 and 800 if you have a decent math background :)

Hi, I've accepted the offer for math PhD study at the University of Minnesota. On their website I've found a couple of "Placement tests" - very simple bacuse covering basics in mathematics (like: give the definition of continuity of function at x_0). Did anybody of you hear something about this test? What's the purpose of a placement test. I mean after this lots of GRE, GRE Subjects I'm a bit fed up with being tested... :crazy: ...

Hi, your subject score is not bad at all. Check out the "Official profile Thread" at the Success!!! forum :) and compare it with others. I've applied to 40 Univs in the States. I'm convinced what really matters is how coherent your application is and what your overall profile is. It's also a matter of SoP and LoR's what plays a huge role I think. Please share some details.. what's your main field of interest and so on. :)

Yuuuupp... money for the flight... :D Well, have to work a bit for that...:D ... Seriously... that's not a problem. Prof. Sverak... one of the best people dealing with Navier-Stokes equations. Besides I heard from a good source he is a fantastic supervisor... Well we'll see :) . @Peter137... Afraid of the turtle? :D I recently thaught what's the secret of my admits and rejects. The conclusions is: My SoP and LoR were written in the style: "PDE PDE PDE... Navier-Stokes PDE PDE PDE... Navier-Stokes... take him!". I'm doing PDE in a theoretical way. People familair with that will know what I'm talking about if I mention Sobolev spaces, Besov Spaces, regularity and things like BMO, Hardy Spaces and Riesz transform. It might be a coincidence that in the Ivy Ligue there are only few people and much less Universities doing that kind of stuff. Mathematics is full of various directions and fields (and rings and groups :D and modules and...) which are not necessary present at all Univs. And even if there is a PDE group they still don't have to do Navier-Stokes. My point is... Considering the fact that my SoP and LoR's were strongly focused on that very sepcific field of PDE I'm glad I've been admitted to all Univs with a group dealing with N-S or at least having a nonlinear functional analysis group. Now I know... 54 applications is overkill like hell... especially when the strategy is based upon showing that you're skillfull in one particular field and want pursue your research in that sepcial matter.