<p>As it seems currently, I will be entering graduate school in the fall of 2015 at 19 years old. I will be going into an applied mathematics/scientific computing program (hopefully...). I was wondering if there were any people here that have gone through this or have any helpful advice. I am currently in an undergraduate research program, so it's not like I will be graduating without any sort of research experience. I am also expecting to have an overall GPA of around 3.85 or 3.90, with a major GPA of 4.00. I haven't taken my GRE's yet, but I expect to do well (or at the very worst, average) on the quantitative portion on the general and the GRE math.</p>
<p>By the time spring of 2015 has come to an end, I would have taken most, if not all, of the mathematics courses offered at my school (it's not a very large department; not so many regular upper level math classes offered). I will have taken the following upper level courses by my predicted graduation date: Numerical Analysis I, Numerical Analysis II, Applications of Linear Algebra, Complex Analysis, Real Analysis I, Real Analysis II, Applied Statistics, Introduction to Differential Equations, Intermediate Differential Equations, Partial Differential Equations (maybe), Operations Research, Mathematical Modeling, Data-Oriented Computing, and I think that is it.</p>
<p>Do you guys (and gals) think I will be okay? Will it be worth it to stay an "extra" semester or year?</p>
<p>I personally think age is of no relevance. No one asks me how old I am anymore and no one associates intelligence/readiness for grad school with age.
I’m also technically in the applied math field (my potential research area is using numerical methods to find solutions to turbulent flow - CFD) and those courses should prepare you sufficiently for more advanced graduate level work. I’m not sure what you want to do, but I don’t think one can take enough numerical analysis courses. </p>
<p>Eric Demaine became an MIT professor at age 20 after he got his PhD.</p>
<p>Age is not a big deal in math, to the best of my knowledge - some may hold it against you, but most will not, and a year either way is probably not much of a difference.</p>
<p>You may, however, want to delay an extra year if you can parlay it into a better research experience. You spoke of research very little but it can be very important in grad admissions, usually more important than any other factor. If you can spend that year doing research (ideally towards publication) for a well-regarded researcher, then that will help you more than anything else.</p>
<p>DoubleD - Thanks for your input! I’m very exciting for my first numerical analysis course this upcoming semester</p>
<p>nakoruru - Wow! That’s really cool!</p>
<p>cosmicfish - My school isn’t really a research type university, unfortunately. My faculty advisor and I are currently working on a research paper for publication involving bioinformatics and we expected to be finished by mid-late summer. I also am trying to find a faculty member to work on a small research assignment during my next two semesters, as well.</p>
<p>I was only a bit older when I started my PhD program at 22, and intellectually, I think I would’ve been ready at 19. I don’t think age is a problem so much in the academic world. No one is really going to know that you are 19; your birthdate has to be listed on the application but I think people will probably give it a glance without really thinking about it. It may become more apparent when you show up. I was the youngest person in my cohort (and in the department, for a time) when I started, and people didn’t know for a little while. What’s going to matter is really your research experience and acumen. Certainly don’t waste another semester or year in school; if you are going to delay, get some kind of job where you can do some applied math/computing research.</p>
<p>You can’t do average on the GRE Q section if you want to go into applied math. You need to do above-average, as your competitors will all have very high Q grades.</p>
<p>I think the hardest thing about starting graduate school younger is your lack of experience and how that affects your research outlook. I was less aware of the potential possibilities for areas of research to go into; my colleagues had all done extensive post-college work that helped them narrow down exactly what they wanted to do. I was pretty sure what kind of research I wanted to do myself, but it was mostly theoretical at the time - it’s not like I had done significant post-college outreach work with the population (I’m a social scientist). I could see that being a beginning issue in applied math, too, since it’s so applicable to outside of academia. It goes away very quickly as you become more familiar with the literature and talk to professors in the field. I suffer now from too many directions, lol.</p>
<p>The only other issue is others have sort of discovered their personal identities and are a little more settled in their lives and personalities than you. Even at 22, you haven’t totally solidified who you are; that’s even more true at 19. So you have to juggle doing research work with trying to discover yourself, your passions, what’s really important to you about home and life and career and family. That’s jarring, to be quite honest. It’s hard work and can lead to some depression, especially in the middle part of the program where you are without structure for the first time and you have to figure out how to manage your time and your life. I was about 24 or 25 when I was struggling through that part of the program (can you say quarter-life crisis?! I definitely had one); you’ll be around 21 or 22. Rough. If you finish in 5-6 years, you’ll be 24-25 when you graduate with the PhD, when the work is almost complete.</p>
<p>If you’re a relatively stable, self-efficacious person - as I am - you’ll get through it ;)</p>