<p>Anyone here apply to graduate programs for math? How competitive are they to get into? Schools like MIT, Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Cornell, Yale, and Princeton.</p>
<p>Math is considered one of the most (if not THE most) competitive graduate fields. It is very very hard to get into the top mathematics programs.</p>
<p>Why is Maths so competitive?</p>
<p>Oh great! That just makes me more stressed than I already am.</p>
<p>Most of those smaller private schools only take a handful of people each year. I think MIT aims to have about 18 new math grad student enrolled each year (12 pure, 6 applied). Add in the fact that there are lots of people who are just naturally really smart at math, and you have a pretty competitive field. If you think about it, math, moreso than any other subject, is seen as the kind of thing you either get or don't get. You never hear about somebody being a child prodigy at history, or chemistry, or most other fields.</p>
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Add in the fact that there are lots of people who are just naturally really smart at math, and you have a pretty competitive field. If you think about it, math, moreso than any other subject, is seen as the kind of thing you either get or don't get. You never hear about somebody being a child prodigy at history, or chemistry, or most other fields.
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<p>Would that make it more or less competitive, though? I get the impression that humanities are more competitive because it's an area which seems to require less specialized innate aptitude; if you're applying to Harvard, MIT, or Princeton for Mathematics then presumably you have that talent. Additionally my intuitive impression is that aimless students are less likely to pursue graduate studies in the sciences. Of course competitiveness depends on the supply side of graduate education as well, and I don't know much about that.</p>
<p>It's something I'm ignorant about, and I'm quite willing to defer to more knowledgeable posters. It would be interesting, though, to see some numbers.</p>
<p>cc runner, the programs you mentioned enroll about 65 americans in pure or applied mathematics each year... combined.</p>
<p>that said, the problem in earning a spot in a top ten math department does not come from the pure number of applicants. rather, it comes from who those other applicants are... namely, many of the most brilliant and talented undergraduates in the country. thats simply not a problem one has in trying to gain admission to a top engineering or economics or phychology graduate program.</p>
<p>anyway, before considering any of the above schools, talk to a professor who knows your abilities well. he should have a good idea about the kinds of programs you should consider... and would consider you.</p>
<p>i think with math, physics, and cs admissions, your undergrad school (and thus, the quality of your advisor recommendations) really matters. the applicants that i have seen gain admission into the top programs are usually brilliant international students or undergraduates from the top universities in the US.</p>
<p>Gracias to all who replied! </p>
<p>Which schools would you say are not "crazy competitive" like the ones I mentioned, but still highly regarded?</p>
<p>Also, NYU is just as competitive as the others listed?</p>
<p>I think NYU is a little less competitive than those other schools, but they don't tend to make very good financial offers compared to most other schools. They offer acceptance to a decent amount of students without funding (most other top grad schools won't accept you if they can't fund you), and those who do get funding don't get enough money relative to the very high cost of living in New York City.</p>
<p>So NYU funds only 12 people a year through the McCracken program, and admits pretty much everyone else who applies as masters students without aid- the latter being a rejection for all intents and purposes, as no faculty will work with you, and youre chances of being admitted to the Ph.D program aren't really improved. From what I remember the McCracken offer at NYU was pretty good (it was more than Columbia offered me...for an NYC comparison alone).
Admission to NYU with funding is more competitive than Cornell and probably more than Columbia and Yale.</p>
<p>The top dozen or so grad schools roughly reordered w/respect to difficulty to get into (not necessarily any other measure of quality of a department) are generally considered to be:</p>
<p>Harvard
Princeton</p>
<p>MIT
Chicago
Stanford
NYU w/funding</p>
<p>Columbia
Yale
Berkeley
Caltech</p>
<p>Michigan
UCLA</p>
<p>Berkeley, Michigan, and UCLA have entering class sizes of sometimes as much as ~50 a year, so admission is less competitive than at a place like Harvard which sometimes only ACCEPTS less than 15 people- at the same time there is a lot more internal competition, advisers will expect you to prove to them that you're smart before working with them, and many people drop out.
Of course, your decision of where to go should depend more on your research interests than any comprehensive rankings.</p>
<p>Math, Schmath...</p>
<p>Would you say physics programs are just as hard, harder, or easier to get into than math?</p>
<p>I'd guess a little easier, but probably not by a considerable amount.</p>
<p>That might be a slightly misleading question, since there's so many extremely different topics in math, and certain fields are certainly much more difficult to get into (say, particle physics vs. rheology).</p>
<p>On average, what are the difficulties of entries into math, physics and engineering(not CS) PhD programs? I know there are many fields of math, physics and engineering.. but just roughly..</p>
<p>cs admissions are a lot tougher than engineering admissions.</p>
<p>Hi, I would like to throw in some of my own opinions on this matter. I would like to qualify whatever I am about to say by acknowledging that these are just my opinions and my experiences.</p>
<p>In general, public universities take bigger entering freshman classes. Berkeley takes on average 20-30 students a year while Yale took 6 in 2007. Columbia takes in 10-12, roughly half are international. Harvard takes 10-15 students out of 500 applicants usually. Most of the top 10-20 schools claim to get 500 applicants, and roughly have spots for 10-30 students. </p>
<p>I don't know if math admissions is tougher than physics or engineering or compsci. I think engineering programs are more forthcoming with their admissions stats while math programs tend to be more secretive. Usually for a top notch program, there is going to be a very small acceptance rate. When I called Harvard's math dept and asked them some questions, they said they get anywhere from 300-500 applications a year, and they take 10-15. This translates roughly to a max 5% admissions rate (taking 15 out of 300 being the most optimistic situation). I would be shocked if a top 20 program had anything higher than a 15% admissions rate. </p>
<p>It is very competitive. The head of Columbia's phd program said there are every year a 100 legitimately qualified applicants, but they can only offer admissions to 30 (and usually 10-12 enroll).</p>
<p>While many grad programs do not explicitly require research experience or grad courses, this is complete BS. If you want a real shot at getting into these schools, you need all that and some more. I know a Harvard math phd, he took 6 grad courses in his Fall semester of his senior year at a well known UG math program and got A's in all of them. </p>
<p>I think to be a safe bet at a top 20 program you need a good GPA (they say usually a 3.5 is good), 3 good to great letters of recommendation, research experience if not some publications and done well in some grad courses. Oh and do well on those pesky GRE's.</p>
<p>I got waitlisted at UCSD, Rutgers and Cornell. I can tell you what my profile was like in a PM if you are interested.</p>
<p>i hear physics phd admissions for students with research exp. from top programs are relativey straightforward, as in, it's pretty easy to get in.</p>
<p>I'll only be a freshman in the fall, but like alot of people I'm already eying graduate admissions. I hope you won't hold that against me. My question is about research, mainly in Physics admissions. What is considered meaningful research? I've already found two research positions in condensed matter labs for the coming school year, one of which will also include paid work during the next summer if I take it. I'll be attending a top 5 program in both UG and Graduate Physics rankings. Is this the type of research you're referring to, or does it need to be personal research?</p>