<p>I'm currently a junior at a top 5 public university, and I plan on applying for math grad school next semester. Ideally, I'd like to go to Princeton to study number theory, and I'd like your opinions as to whether I have a chance.</p>
<p>My overall GPA is about 3.6, with my math GPA slightly over 3.7. The reason they're slightly low is that I didn't do very well my first few semesters. However, I've improved tremendously since then: I've already taken 10 graduate math courses, have received A's in all but one of them (where I got a B+), and have received A+ in two of them.</p>
<p>I'm also participating in the REU at Williams College this summer, which (I think) is one of the most prestigious ones. I imagine I'll do well on the GRE, and I think I'll have excellent letters of recommendation. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>The math program at Princeton is very difficult to get into but you are certainly on the right track. Considering the fact that you are a junior and has already completed ten grad courses I would say your priority should now be research. Most of the applicants would be like you; would have taken a considerable amount of grad classes, published papers and presented at conferences. The REU at williams and the one at duluth are very prestigious ones so you are on the right track. you should be able to publish something within the time you have left and you’ll probably get good recs. Try going through profiles of the grad students at princeton to see what kind of qualifications they have, also email professors you are interested in working with so that you can establish some kind of relationship with them. My advice, dont focus on princeton alone, try to include some other schools in there too.</p>
<p>Princeton has an awesome number theory program. Do you know what type of number theory you want to study yet? You should try to find professors at various universities who have related research interests to your own and contact them before you apply. So if you were looking to go into, say, analytic number theory, Terence Tao (UCLA) or Bruce Berndt (UIUC) might be some good contacts, while you’d want to contact people like Ralph Greenberg (Washington) and others for algebraic number theory.</p>
<p>hey topgun70009 and other people reading my post,</p>
<p>it’s interesting you mentioned about contacting the professors from the grad program of your interest, since I think Terrence Tao for instance, said specifically on his website that he would ignore any email from prospective applicant unless he or she is accepted. </p>
<p>So, my point is, generally, how would you initiate a email communication with a professor who you would like to work with in grad school?</p>
<p>Terence Tao was a bit of a stretch, just trying to mention a recognizable name. I’m sure he doesn’t respond to those emails for obvious reasons. But there are still many well-cited, less-famous, non-fields-medalist professors who would be great advisors and would probably respond to emails.</p>
<p>My main advice would be to find someone in your own department who is involved in number theory and ask them who to contact. The math community is pretty close-knit, and if you’re at a top 5 university, then I bet someone at your school could find a way to get you in contact with a number theorist at Princeton, Harvard, or wherever else you might want to go.</p>
<p>As for an opening email to initiate communication with them, once again you’d be best off to ask your advisor, another professor (particularly in number theory) or your research advisor if you’re doing a senior thesis. My general advice would be to read some of their relevant publications, find questions to ask about them, maybe research further on part of one of their papers…basically get an excuse to show them you’re interested in number theory and might want to work with them. But ask your professors first.</p>
<p>topgun70009. I don’t understand. Maybe I misinterpret what you said, but, why would it help initiating communication with professors at grad programs of interest by asking professors at my own school and reading their papers?</p>
<p>Which school do you go to and how big is number theory there?
Pocket, topgun is saying that because the math community is so tight, if you know one, that one can introduce you to the other ones you want to work with.</p>
<p>I meant you should read the papers of your <em>prospective graduate advisors.</em> Sorry if there was some confusion. You should ask the questions you’re asking on here, i.e. “how would you initiate a email communication with a professor who you would like to work with in grad school?” to your current professors, because they will most likely have better advice than we will on this message board.</p>
<p>And on the same note, if you are at a top 5 university, it is very likely that your professors at your school know other professors at top universities very well. So in addition to asking a question like “how would you initiate a email communication with a professor who you would like to work with in grad school?” you might also want to tell your professors what your research interests are, and ask them a question like “who would be some good professors for me to try to contact?”</p>
<p>Your professors should be able to give you good advice as to whom you should contact, and how you should go about contacting them.</p>
<p>I agree to ask your professors before you contact anyone, maybe your prof will have an introduction for you, maybe not. My daughter was advised not to contact professors because they are flooded with inquiries from overseas applicants who don’t know better, and they generally do not appreciate it. They will see your application in committee. I’d think you don’t want to risk alienating someone, especially if they say on the website they will ignore you.</p>
<p>Ironically, though, she did contact one and that is the person she is working with now. She had a good reason. She had seen him speak at her school so was interested in his work, and she particularly wanted to know if he was accepting grad students (none were listed currently) because that was a part dependency for applying to that school. He sent an inviting response, some of his papers for her to read and she sent one follow up email to bring him up to date on accomplishments since the application. So that seemed to go well and at that school, each professor gets one stand alone admit apart from committee, so I’d guess a personal contact may have helped a bit.</p>