<p>I'm interested in applying for graduate school in applied math, but am not sure of my chances and the best path for me to take.</p>
<p>My info:
Graduated 2010 from a top ten university (usnews)
Degree: B.S. in Physics w/ minor in math
GPA: 3.96 (3.97 in physics, 4.0 in math)
GRE: (took in 2009) 710V, 800Q, 5.0W
Math subject test: not taken yet, but I took the ETS practice test yesterday with no prep/practice and got a 730. Am confident I could bring that up to at least the 80th percentile with some practice.</p>
<p>I guess the big problem with my background is a lack of research experience. Is this going to completely ruin my chances of getting into a top program? I'm ultimately interested in working for industry or government and am not terribly interested in research, so I was thinking that a Masters would be a better option than a PhD. The problem, of course, is that a masters costs money, which I don't have, and I'm very wary of taking out $100,000 in loans for two years of grad school.</p>
<p>Any recommendations for programs that might suit my background? Anybody in a similar situation to my own?</p>
<p>Research experience isn’t as important for math graduate degrees, but it helps to have taken graduate-level math courses as an undergrad. The math subject test is going to be important as well.</p>
<p>A master’s isn’t going to cost $100,000, and if you don’t want to pursue in-depth research and academic work, you probably shouldn’t go for a Ph.D. A doctoral degree will take many more years than a master’s, and the opportunity cost of those “lost” years is much higher than the money cost of an MS. That is, if you go for a Ph.D you’ll spend several more years as an underpaid graduate student, while if you pursue an MS, you’ll go into the workforce more quickly.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I guess $100,000 is a bit of an exaggeration–but at any rate, it <em>will</em> be expensive: two years of tuition + living expenses. But I was thinking the same thing as you about opportunity cost–assuming I was able to get a decent job coming out of the master’s program, it <em>would</em> be better than slogging out an extra few years (beyond the 2 years of a master’s program) just to get a “free” PhD.</p>
<p>I did take a couple of math graduate courses: Applied PDEs and General Relativity (basically applied differential geometry). Beyond that, I have some grad-level classes in physics (Quantum Mechanics I & II). Other than that, all my math coursework is at the undergrad level: vector calc, linear algebra, ODEs. Of course my physics courses involved lots of math, but mainly calc, diff eq, and linear algebra. I wonder if that will be perceived as too weak or not.</p>
<p>A couple of schools that I was looking at and liked are Johns Hopkins and Brown. I assume that it’s pretty hard to get in to either. Any ideas for masters programs that would be within my reach?</p>
<p>What kind of applied math are you interested in? If you like numerical math, I could highly recommend the CME (computational and mathematical engineering) program at Stanford! </p>
<p>If you are applying for a Master’s degree, I’d encourage you to be bold and apply to a few of the top programs even if you aren’t sure that you have a chance there. Master’s programs usually accept a wider range of students than the PhD programs in the same department.</p>
<p>My main concern is whether your math background is strong enough to benefit from a top applied math program. At Stanford, graduate-level “applied math” courses assume that you are perfectly comfortable writing a proof. In fact, the graduate-level applied math courses are taught with the same level of rigor and sophistication as the pure math courses. (It was entertaining to watch the engineers panic in Applied PDEs when the professor started talking about topological dual spaces and weak-star topologies…) </p>
<p>If you don’t actually care about math theory, you might be better off in an engineering department than in an (applied) math department.</p>
<p>If you are more interested in getting a Masters and then a job, then you might also wish to look into Mathematical Finance programs as well. These are more directed toward professional outcomes.</p>
<p>You might also consider looking for a job first and then working on a Masters with the support of your employer. With a Math and Physics combination, you should be able to work in the applied mathematics field already.</p>
<p>Finally, a typical Masters degree is about 32 credits at my university and costs more or less $1,100 per credit so the overall cost with living expenses is likely less than your $100,000 figure. Sometimes, universities may give a bit of tuition discount for strong domestic students but that is about all the financial aid you would get for a Masters.</p>
<p>b@rium: I’m interested in stochastic modeling and probability stuff. I’d like to go into industry or government work in simulations and modeling, like DoD stuff. I can write proofs–my Lin. Alg. class was very proof based, and I also took a class on mathematical logic that involved a lot of proofs–though maybe not at the graduate level, and maybe I’d also lack some of the necessary background in analysis and abstract algebra. (I don’t know anything about “weak-star topologies” at this point ). I do find the theory side of things very interesting (that’s why I in undergrad I majored in physics instead of engineering, for example), but I think I am more interested in the actual applications–i.e., using mathematics to solve problems.</p>
<p>xraymancs: I haven’t really looked much into mathematical finance programs. Although I probably would enjoy working in finance, I don’t have a huge interest in it. It’s something to consider though. I wish I <em>could</em> find a job right now and go on to a masters later, but I haven’t been able to. I guess the problem is that I’ve been out of school for a couple of years and have been working as a teacher–so, I lack the necessary work experience for the field I’m interested in, and I lack access to the college recruiting system. Right now I’m looking at entry level programming jobs (like web-app development) which don’t interest me at all, but seem to be all that I’m (barely) qualified for. I thought if I could get a Masters, maybe that would give me something of a leg up.</p>
<p>I think that mathematical finance is pretty much what you are describing as your interests. I understand the situation of not being in the field and finding it hard to break in. I think a Masters will help you in this but if it is Computer Science, it is not going to include much modeling. An Applied Mathematics program might be more suitable.</p>
<p>A master’s degree certainly can cost $100,000 - it does here. Tuition is $40,000 a year, so that x 2 = $80,000. If you factor in living expenses and health insurance that easily tops $100,000.</p>
<p>My university (Columbia) has a mathematics in finance MS that may suit your needs. You also may want to look into operations research programs, or even statistics programs that have a focus on preparing people for optimization or business applications.</p>
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). I do find the theory side of things very interesting (that’s why I in undergrad I majored in physics instead of engineering, for example), but I think I am more interested in the actual applications–i.e., using mathematics to solve problems.</p>