<p>Hello,
I am currently in my last semester finishing up my undergraduate degree in pure math. I am attempting to go to graduate school but I think my options are a bit slim. I have about a 3.6 overall GPA from my current Unviersity and a 3.95 overall GPA from a state college I transfered from. A lot of other math undergraduates seem to have been able to take a lot more math classes than I have, but I started college in Intermediate Algebra. I have taken Cal I - III, ODE's, Linear Alg., Complex Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Advanced Calc. I (with Rudin), Number Theory and Cryptography, Math Stats, and Topology. I don't have any research experience but I have worked for my university tutoring college level math for about 2 years as well as participated in an undergraduate math seminar and had a little involvement with the schools math club. Anyways more to point, since I have not taken any of the GRE test yet (I know, I know, terrible mistake. I am taking the general test in March though), I had kinda made up my mind that it would be best to attend a near by small, not well known, state University and get a Masters and hopefully award myself a stronger application when I do apply for Ph.d programs. But, I would love to jump into a Ph.d program now, and I have tried to look for programs that didn't require any GRE tests but none of the departments I found fit my interest (I would like to deal more with algebra/graph theory/combinatorics and computer science) until recently when I found Wesleyan University. Their math department seems to have a close tie to there CS department and a lot of their faculty research in areas that really interest me. So, I have decided to apply there and am in the process of doing so now. But, I never got to know many of my professors all that well and I think I will get one good letter of recommendation, one pretty good to good one, and the last most like very average. Wesleyan's math department is ranked #104 on the USnews rankings but the school overall seems very hard to get into. I have small hopes of getting in but would literarily cut of all my toes to do so. My question is do you think I am wasting my time? Do you know anything about the caliber of students who apply to this program or the one's who have been accepted? I am going to apply regardless, because it's one of the only Ph.d programs I have a chance of attending in Fall '13 and I really like this school, reallllly like it, the more I read about the school and faculty the more I feel its would make a perfect fit for me. Is this school's program actually too prestigious and good for me and just has a lower math ranking because its a liberal arts college (though I know they do well in the sciences)? Whoa, sorry for the jumbled ranting mess, my head is everywhere today. Thanks for any help you can provide.</p>
<p>Graduate admissions is separate from undergraduate admissions. I know several “very selective” universities at the undergraduate level with non-selective PhD programs in math. </p>
<p>Have you contacted their math department yet? Smaller departments often prefer to communicate with potential applicants ahead of time. (My undergraduate college had a graduate math program with 8 professors, that enrolled 1-2 new students each year. They didn’t normally admit students who hadn’t visited.)</p>