<p>Hey all,
I'm looking at attending grad school in mathematics, but am coming to realize that I really have no clue what institutions have strong programs (but not necessarily top tier... I don't care about a big name) with a respectable amount of funding available (in particular, funding for master's candidates... I don't think I'll be going the Ph.D. route.) I currently have somewhere around a 3.6 (both overall and in the major), and am hoping to identify a few "good match" schools where I'd have a decent chance of getting funding (either through a fellowship or teaching assistantship) but that aren't impossible to get into. Also, I was hoping to identify some "safety schools" that still have respectable programs (and funding available). I'm from a small, top-ten liberal arts college, haven't taken the GRE yet, could probably get pretty good recs, and my only research experience is a summer REU I attended. Any help anyone could provide with identifying/reccommending possible math programs would be MUCH appreciated! Thanks so much!</p>
<p>PS. I'm also a little concerned about the fact that, due to double majoring in a very unrelated field (but one I am very interested in), I probably will only have the minimum number of math requirements for my undergraduate major. How much will this hurt me, and is there anything I can do about it (besides dropping the double major, since I am really interested in the other field as well.)? Also, is being female a plus for graduate admissions, or does it not make much difference?</p>
<p>Here are some schools that aren't in, say, the top five, that I can think of off the top of my head:</p>
<ul>
<li>NYU (Great program in applied math, by the way)</li>
<li>University of Michigan (This could be considered top tier, really)</li>
<li>University of Illinois</li>
<li>University of Washington (Maybe personal bias... as trivia, we do have a Putnam fellow in our faculty. Lots of funding, especially with the VIGRE grant)</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>University of Colorado, Boulder (Really good applied math program; you see Colorado all over the place, in applied math circles)</li>
<li>Rutgers</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>University of Waterloo (Maybe top tier, I'm not sure)</li>
</ul>
<p>And, gender plays very little or no role in admissions, I'm fairly sure. As for courses, I think that the only thing that you can do to help your chances is simply to try to take more higher-level math courses. Also, if you haven't taken any graduate-level courses yet, you should try to start, now; I've heard that some programs will not even consider an applicant that hasn't taken any grad-level courses. Oh, and PM me if you want to talk more about math grad school admission/math.</p>
<p>Thanks so much!! That is very helpful - I'll definitely check out the websites for all those schools to find out more information. University of Illinois is one that I have been looking at a bit, and seems to have a lot of what I'm looking for in a grad school. As far as the VIGRE grant is considered, how exactly does that work? Does that just mean there is more funding overall for the program? And as far as grad-level courses are concerned, how should an undergrad go about taking these courses? My school doesn't offer graduate degrees, and I'm pretty sure there arent any math grad programs at all within an hour of my school.</p>
<p>VIGRE grants are big grants, on the order of $4,000,000, administered by the NSF; VIGRE stands for Vertical Integrate of Graduate Research and Education. The grants are of 5 years' duration, and some schools currently having a VIGRE grant that I can think of are the UW, NYU, Brown, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Carnegie Mellon. With the VIGRE grant, schools usually allow for a lot of both graduate and undergraduate research funding - for instance, at the UW, you can easily get $500-$2000 to fund any sort of undergraduate research project, if it's sensible. So, if a school has a VIGRE grant, there's a bit more incentive to apply to that school, for grad school</p>
<p>Too bad that your school doesn't offer graduate-level math courses. It's not essential, though, so don't worry too much. It's definitely good that you've attended an REU - of course, you can better your chances further by trying to get involved in math research as an undergrad. Also, there's a good program at Princeton, intended for upper-level undergrads or beginning grads, in algebraic geometry, for six weeks in the summer - this might appeal to you. And, also, there's a program called Math in Moscow, at the Independent University of Moscow, which allows people to take hard math courses for three months in Moscow; there's an AMS fellowship designed for this program, too.</p>
<p>be warned that many schools do not offer master's degrees in fields like math, physics, etc where most people aim toward the PhD.</p>
<p>Even if the master's in math is listed on their website, don't take this as a guarantee that they actually admit anyone to it. Nearly all math PhD programs list a master's in math as an option, because it's the sort of "consolation prize" given to PhD students who drop out due to personal reasons, lack of funding, or if they just plain aren't good enough to continue in the PhD program.</p>
<p>Speaking of lack of funding, money is fairly short in math for even PhD students (most of whom are either lucky enough to get a very rare graduate fellowship, or end up working as a teaching assistant)</p>
<p>Hmm, yeah, I had heard that about the Masters vs. PhD thing... I'll definitely keep an eye out for that. In terms of lack of funding, I had heard that math was better funded than most PhD/Masters programs, and that students who got admitted had a good shot at getting teaching assistantships... but maybe I was misinformed. Hmmmmmmm...</p>
<p>I think opportunities for funding will vary somewhat/greatly university to university and department to department.</p>
<p>There is a trend, recently, to not accept students to PhD programs unless funding is guaranteed, because there are often too many people admitted who have to leave after a semester or two due to lack of funding and are somewhat of a drain on the department. I know at least one guy who was turned down to a PhD program solely because they could not guarantee funding (he later won a highly-coveted graduate fellowship to pursue his PhD)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm also a little concerned about the fact that, due to double majoring in a very unrelated field (but one I am very interested in), I probably will only have the minimum number of math requirements for my undergraduate major. How much will this hurt me, and is there anything I can do about it (besides dropping the double major, since I am really interested in the other field as well.)?
[/quote]
Since most curricula only require a handful of advanced math courses, this will likely hurt you quite a bit, especially for the top programs, since almost all successful applicants will have taken far more than the minimum required curriculum, and most will have taken graduate classes as well. Substantial research experience might mitigate this somewhat.</p>
<p>You might take a glance at the math rankings to identify potential programs, but it also depends on your intended math specialty:
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5.0
2. Harvard University (MA) 4.9
Princeton University (NJ) 4.9
Stanford University (CA) 4.9
University of CaliforniaBerkeley 4.9
6. University of Chicago 4.8
7. California Institute of Technology 4.6
New York University 4.6
University of MichiganAnn Arbor 4.6
Yale University (CT) 4.6
11. Columbia University (NY) 4.5
12. Cornell University (NY) 4.4
University of CaliforniaLos Angeles 4.4
14. University of WisconsinMadison 4.3
15. Brown University (RI) 4.2
University of TexasAustin 4.2
17. University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign 4.1
University of MinnesotaTwin Cities 4.1
University of Pennsylvania 4.1
20. University of MarylandCollege Park 4.0
21. Duke University (NC) 3.9
Johns Hopkins University (MD) 3.9
Northwestern University (IL) 3.9
Rutgers State UniversityNew Brunswick (NJ) 3.9
University of CaliforniaSan Diego 3.9
26. Purdue UniversityWest Lafayette (IN) 3.8
Rice University (TX) 3.8
SUNYStony Brook 3.8
29. Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 3.7
Indiana UniversityBloomington 3.7
Ohio State University 3.7
Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity Park 3.7
University of North CarolinaChapel Hill 3.7
University of Washington 3.7
35. CUNY Graduate School and University Center 3.6
Georgia Institute of Technology 3.6
University of Utah 3.6
38. University of CaliforniaDavis 3.5
University of IllinoisChicago 3.5
University of Virginia 3.5
Washington University in St. Louis 3.5
42. Brandeis University (MA) 3.4
Michigan State University 3.4
University of Arizona 3.4
University of CaliforniaIrvine 3.4
University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara 3.4
47. Texas A&M UniversityCollege Station 3.3
University of ColoradoBoulder 3.3
University of Georgia 3.3
University of Notre Dame (IN) 3.3
University of Southern California 3.3</p>
<p>I don't know how great a program it is, but I know that Tufts' math grad program, while it offers a PhD, actually has mostly Masters students who don't intend to pursue PhDs, and that it allows students who weren't math majors as undergrads if they have a solid quantitative background.</p>
<p>(I know this because the head of their department specializes in mathematical neuroscience and I've been looking for ways to increase my chances of getting into a good computational neuroscience PhD program eventually, which includes relevant Masters programs, so I've been emailing him back and forth)</p>
<p>In the United States, nearly all schools will offer funding for PhD students and barely any schools will offer funding for masters students. This happens for many reasons, possibly the largest being that PhDs are more likely to become professors and contribute to the future of math academia, and the NSF and similar organizations are the largest sources of funding for math programs. Also, it's hard for a school to hand $100,000 in funding to a student who is going to leave in two years and pursue something in the industry. Because of this trend, most students apply directly to PhD programs and simply get their masters on the way (and then possibly drop out).</p>
<p>You're probably going to have an extremely difficult time finding funding for a masters degree unless you're looking at outside sources. I don't know of any schools that will offer full or near-full funding to masters students in math. Maybe if there's a particular thing you want to do with your masters degree, you can find someone in that industry from whom you can get funding (i.e. if there's some sort of engineering thing you want to do, find an engineering fellowship). You really should talk to some professors at your school and at otehrs because it's likely going to be hard to find funding, and you need to know what you're up against.</p>
<p>This is great feedback, everyone - thanks. I had definitely heard that it was much harder to get funding for Master's programs than PhDs, which is why I've been concerned. A professor in my REU gave me the impression that there was lots of funding available for math students in either Master's or PhD programs, but my own investigating has shown this to not really be the case (at least for Master's programs, as you have said).</p>
<p>jessie- Thanks for bringing up the Tuft's program - I had heard a little about the program and it is one I am definitely going to be looking into further. </p>
<p>imblue - Yeah, the double major thing is really going to be a problem I think. I might be able to squeeze a few more math courses in, but I just am not willing to give up my other major, which I am really interested in, and I think that this is indeed going to hurt me. I hate having to pick between the two fields for grad school, since they are both something I would like to study in my future years and possibly combine in some way (the other field is psych, which seems very unrelated, but I think there are lots of ways the two fields are connected). And also, thanks very much for the list of schools - that is extremely helpful!</p>
<p>A quick Google search shows that Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Indiana University, for starters, all have programs in mathematical or quantitative psychology, if you're interested.</p>
<p>jbusc - It would certainly be risky, but I was just stating the facts. I've heard that it is done, as some people would probably want to take that risk and receive funding instead of paying for their masters degree.</p>