<p>Does anyone know hard it is to get into good math PhD programs? I have undergrad BS in math (3.2 GPA, 3.3 major) and got 1520 on GRE (800Q, 720V). Do I have a shot at a top ten school?</p>
<p>Any sort of research? A 3.5 is considered the minimum for most top 10 PhD programs I've seen - with a 3.7 needed to be competetive - but these can be compensated with great research/recs. Also, don't math people have their own GRE to take? That's a lot more important than your general GRE.</p>
<p>3.2 GPA? First, take the math GRE; second, you better have research experience and very good recommendations. But you don't need to go for the top 10 either. Talk to your profs (you'll need to anyway), see what they would recommend for you.</p>
<p>Zhentil - your GPA and GRE general test scores are some of the least important factors in admission to PhD programs in math, and so you're going to have to give everyone much more to go on if you want any sort of evaluation of your chances.</p>
<p>I can tell you this, though. If you don't have some research experience, a couple of really great letters of recommendation, and a GRE Subject Test score above the 70th %ile or so, your chances at a <b>top ten</b> school are slim to none. But seriously, the drop in selectivity between the top 10 programs and the programs ranked between 11 and 50 is much more significant than the drop in academic excellence. If you only focus on top 10 schools, you're setting yourself up for failure.</p>
<p>It's not entirely accurate to say that GPA isn't an important factor in math admissions. I know that at the University of Washington, while a 3.9+ GPA wouldn't guarantee admission, a 3.7 GPA in upper-level math courses (algebra, analysis, topology) would likely eliminate an applicant. I'd guess that top-10 schools would have GPA requirements at least as rigorous.</p>
<p>GPA is not everything either. Sometimes someone with a 3.8 will have more potential than someone with a 4.0. That's what the recommendations are for. They tell can much more than the raw numbers.</p>
<p>Yes --- as I said, GPA won't make you, but it can break you.</p>
<p>There are some schools where a 3.2 is considered a terrible GPA. At Harvard, for example, a majority of the class graduates with honors, so a 3.2 GPA would be nearly shameful. However, there are also schools with grade deflation - where a 3.2 GPA is a very good GPA. I've had math professors who would only give out one A each semester, and I went to NYU (where grade inflation runs rampant).</p>
<p>I didn't want to say "your GPA is too low for a top 10 school" because in the event that zhentil goes to a school where a 3.3 GPA in math is okay, has published a paper on their original research and has some stellar letters of recommendation from well known professors, then I do not know for a fact that they would be rejected from all of the top 10 schools.</p>
<p>I was just stating that the data given wasn't enough to give an accurate prediction.</p>