/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11511198
>does the name of school affect my future?
Yes.

>>11511198
Depends on the major. In biology or chemistry, if you got to a shit school, if you get a high GPA and get so much research experience that you get published or go work at a big company or famous lab after and then apply to grad school, you can still get into a prestigious PhD program. It's not really over until you're like 50.

>>11511198
I would choose Columbia for pure math. >>11511269
any UMich anons here? I was just accepted, and wondering if it's worth the price of OOS tuition.

>>11511324
>worth the price of tuition
oh anon, so innocent. University is never worth the price of tuition
t. pure math prof.

>>11511327
im into math teachers.are you a male professor?

>>11511314
How about pure mathematics?

>>11511324
It is not a Columbia college, and I don’t like NYC shit

>>11511324
I did pure math at umich. I really enjoyed their program. I'd love to answer questions if you have any.

>>11511346
No idea. I don't really know why a math professor would preferably accept a PhD candidate with work experience and/or lab experience over one who just has a high GPA considering pure math is completely hypothetical by definition. I'd say the more you want to apply your major to a field that's in demand, the more leeway you have with regards to school. If more people want your skillset, then there will be more opportunities and thus more ways to prove yourself. I don't know jack shit about how to "make it" in pure math though for the same reason I would know how to make it in philosophy.

>>11511357
How about University of Minnesota’s undergraduate math program??

>>11511361
Can't really answer questions about that program lol. I only went to Michigan.

>>11511198
I haven't got any acceptance or rejection letters yet.... how fucked am I?

>>11511360
In fact, I wanna finish math undergraduate program fast and study in the grad school. I do not focus on name value of school, but if I did not go the graduate school, it would be a big problem

>>11511357
did you do the honors sequence? I am wondering how rigorous it is relative to the regular sequence and if the regular sequence would be as rewarding. also, are you familiar with the physics department?

Not math but have some smart friends at Cornell. There's a two semester freshman honors linear algebra and calculus track that's really tough but also fun. It's taught by a professor Hubbard who's some wacky genius, apparently he dressed up as a dragon for Halloween. It's one of those honors math classes where the median is like a fiddy but last semester he liked the kids so much he gave everyone an A...
http://pi.math.cornell.edu/~hubbard/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Hubbard

>>11511410
Hubbard and Hubbard is one of my favorite textbooks ever. It's absolutely wild, would recommend a read immediately.

>>11511396
I didn't do the honors sequence. The honors sequence is mostly a track for 1st and 2nd years and I was originally a chem major before switching to math my junior year. I've had friends who took it and basically the first year is Spivak (which is kind of like real analysis lite) and the second year I think is based on Munkres' Calculus on Manifolds (same thing as Spivak but in multiple variables). Normie math majors just do the calc sequence and a special lin alg class which is supposed to be very difficult (it is).
Honors is a much more difficult track than the normal route, but I think I would have preferred it retrospectively because the calc sequence is grueling and a waste of time imo.
3rd and 4th year you kind of just take electives and the honors/normie distinction fades. A lot of people from both cohorts take grad classes, get involved in research etc. A lot of people from both tracks also just take easy 300-400 courses to finish up their degree, or "drop out" into the finance and mathematical sciences track, too.
>Are you familiar with the physics department
No. I only took physics 1. Math majors need to take a course outside of the department which requires calc 3 (I dated an econ grad student for most of college so I took intermediate econ to "impress" her). The department encourages students to take physics, though. A ton of students take quite a bit of physics coursework, so if you're interested in physics UMich is definitely a good school.

>>11511198
I've been rejected by Cambridge twice, MIT, and Stanford, I think that's a sign I'm smoothbrain, what do you think anon?

>>11512318
where did you end up instead?

>>11512623
Edinburgh

>>11512318
>>11512649
Yo! Edinburgh is a good school, but I think COWI is the best for math major. If you are a different major, then I have no idea

>>11512318
>>11512649
I was accepted by Cambridge for pure maths but rejected from Edinburgh.

>>11511331
How do you feel ab PhD students? Are you a cute twink?

>>11514708
How about Cambridge mathematics tripos?

>>11512649
I'm trying to get into Edinburgh for Cognitive Science, any tips
I'm EU btw

>>11514908
Depends on your country, same as getting into any uni
>>11514568
It's alright, I'm third year and man the first year they make you do sucks ass, but past that's it's great
>>11514708
Grades?

>>11514708
For a masters? Otherwise pure maths isn't a course at undergrad level, all maths is lumped together and then you decide if you want to be a puremo or appliedmo as you go.

>>11514925
In fact now that I think about it I don't think you have to decide at masters level either, pretty sure you can answer whatever questions you want in the exam and you can book whatever supervisions you want too.

>>11514915
>Depends on your country, same as getting into any uni
Not really though, I'm in Denmark.
I have an IB diploma as the danish system is for retards. Our universities also don't really recognize the IB diplomas value and the grade conversion is laughable and you'll be putting yourself at a disadvantage if you apply here.
I meant if you had any tips regarding the personal letter which I heard is mandatory for UK unis and the interview if there is one

>>11514932
Oh right yeah, we call it a "personal statement", I've written a lot and they all sucked ass (two for UK unis, additional two for Cambridge, metric fuckload for American), honestly the best tip I can give is write a lot and edit ruthlessly, and have other people read it as much as possible.

>>11514940
How many words roughly, I have a habit of trying to be as concise as possible whenever I write so hearing this really worries me

>>11514948
I was always told ~one side A4 at 11pt

>>11514951
Thanks, anon. See you next year

>>11514967
Good luck fren, if my dumbass can get in you sure as fuck can

>>11511198
Try ICL

>>11515071
I think he probably wants some resemblance of a social life, so no

>>11511198
Cambridgeanon here, the university is abysmal for teaching quality. Beyond once every week or 2 week supervisions 95% of your learning has to be independent

>tfw got accepted to oxford for undergrad, but it was too expensive and I stayed in Germany and saved money to do my MSc there
>got rejected
Hold me, bros.

>>11515394
OP here, I got rejected all of British universities except for Bristol. Fuck you UK.
Frankly speaking, I'm a burger who are between A- and B+ student(for fucking GPA). I think they don't like ordinary American student. Once again, fuck you UK. I will stay in America. ICL? I don't want to go there because they are fucking expensive. I will take my state university rather than go to ICL.

>>11515457
Sorry I'm angry now, so I use many inproper words

>>11515394
>>11515071
OP here, I got rejected all of British universities except for Bristol. Fuck you UK.
Frankly speaking, I'm a burger and between A- and B+ student(for fucking GPA). I think they don't like ordinary American student. Once again, fuck you UK. I will stay in America. ICL? I don't want to go there because they are fucking expensive. I will take my state university rather than go to ICL.

>>11515466
Found the actual smoothbrain

You will NEVER EVER dine at Balliol College, Oxford before quietly sneaking off with your privately educated (£36,000 per year plus expenses and netball tour fees) English rose girlfriend. Every night for 8 weeks per term, 3 terms an academic year, for 3 to 4 years of your intensive, 3 essay a week, tutorial (maximum of 3 people, including you and a world leading expert who probably wrote the textbook ("Ignore that part Anon, just padding for the slower students at inferior universities! Now lets enjoy the weather and spend the hour outside, discussing my conception of Neoplatonism through the lens of Rawls."), 3 of them a week) filled life changing, world class experience.

No need for job interviews. The finest employers in the Western hemisphere come from London to advertise. Though that doesn't adequately convey the personalised nature of it. No presentations to halls filled with 300+ people followed by awkward business card shuffling. Personalised dinners with your college's alumni. Dinner with Amal Clooney, where she discusses her international human rights work in the Hague on Monday, prosecuting the last of the Eastern European holdouts, and then her work in the backwaters of Mugazumbabwete where she represented a blind, deaf, and disabled, 88 year old in a meeting with a tribal chief. Extremely rewarding, I trust you guys not to publicise it.

Brunch with Tony Blair and other members of the Lacrosse team, including your rival for your English rose, Uppingham-Mannheim III, who you have come to a frosty respect. Tony was dreadfully gauche but he did raise some chuckles when he talked about the calibre of the current Labour leadership. To this we day we still discuss whether Birckbeck and Brunel on a resume are more embarrassing than 2 failed A levels. Aah.. The high-minded discussions of the men of Oxford...

>>11515611
Nono, UK universities are fucking retard. Oxbridge is undeniable, but other UK universities are just UCs level. No one thinks that ICL is better than USC or UCLA

>>11511410
It's not taught by Hubbard anymore, and it's a mixed bag. When I took it my first semester it was a dude that couldn't speak english and had no communication skills whatsoever, so people missed out. Next semester of the course was taught by a pedophile who refused to write notes on the board. Those two are no longer allowed to teach the sequence.

Cornell math is not good for learning, and it is solely for a brand name. Dont fall for the ivy league meme

>>11515718
OP Anon here. I want to apply to Oxford grad school. H...how can I get Oxford grad school??

>>11511198
i wanted a control systems MSc in the uk which narrows it down to manchester or imperial. i dont really wanna spend £33k+londonlivingcost for a program that looks less cohesive than manchester's so i'm happily going with the lesser uni here, even tho imperial hasnt responded yet.

for pure maths i think name matters a little more than for engineering after a certain point but don't go somewhere you literally dont want to be at.

>>11515466
>OP here, I got rejected all of British universities except for Bristol.
How tho? I'm an American and I got into 5/7 unis i applied to so far (the other two haven't responded yet) in the UK. Was your personal statement that bad? UK unis care a lot more about personal statements than US ones do.

>>11511198
Undergrad means nothing these days, it’s like going to public school. Graduate school has even lost most of its clout. Academia is turning into a joke.

>>11515848
>No one thinks that ICL is better than USC or UCLA
Huge retard cope. ICL has transfer programs with MIT, and it arguably the best research uni in the world. Everyone and I mean everyone but your retarded self would put them even close to each other. QS world rankings put fucking Berkeley (way better than ucla/usc) under unis like Manchester, which most bongs think is shit, funnily enough

>>11515848
t. coper mccopington

>>11515880
HAHA, funny. Do you think that MIT and ICL are equal? Most of the math students at MIT are IMO medalists. I know ICL requirement is fucking AP tests 4-6. How many IMO medalists in ICL? In order to get into Ivy leagues, most people take 10 APs and get 5 from all of them. that is just minimal requirement for Ivies

>>11515871
I think my PS is just fine, but I think my Calculus classes are problems. I took them at local community college and got B,B+s. Now, I wanna go to the state university. There is no reason to spend £22000+living cost for UK universities.

>>11515848
Imperial is British MIT.

>>11515907
>Do you think that MIT and ICL are equal?
I never said they were equal dumbfucking retard, learn to read. The point I'm arguing with, your point, is that "ICL is worse than USC/UCLA". Nobody agrees with you here. They aren't even remotely close either.

>Judging a uni by its AP test entry undergrad reqs
Please leave this board you dumbfuck highschooler

>>11515944
just for British. all math geeks(mostly asians and indians) or smart ass nerds apply to Ivies and Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Caltech. Look at Putnam fellows. I'm not gonna say that ICL is shitty school. In fact, they are good enough to get the job or top grad school, but it is a just quality matters

>>11515924
>There is no reason to spend £22000+living cost for UK universities.
True altho London is the only place that is egregiously expensive for living. Also unis in Wales have less tuition tho Cardiff is the only one worth going to.
>but I think my Calculus classes are problems. I took them at local community college and got B,B+s.
I mean that's possible but a B (80%) avg in uni in the US is way more impressive than a 2:1 (65%) avg imo. Brits don't always realize this tho

>>11515962
>just for British
ask me how I know you're ESL. ICL is better than most ivys on any ranking system you can pull out of your ass, let alone USC/UCLA.

>durr putnam durr IMO durr AP requirements
the cope here is unreal.

>>11515966
I am totally fine with their evaluation. I will go to state university and study hard for university of Bonn(I want to study with Gerd Faltings and it is the way more cheaper than British universities).

>>11515962
>math geeks
what kind of indian teenager calls mathematicians "math geeks"

>>11515962
Cope moar

>>11514948
dw you have 4000 character limit and trying to include everything you want is more than difficult, so being concise is a good trait
t. UK medicine student

>>11515718
I almost threw up reading this bourgeois wet dream. How could any normal human being desire this?

>>11515944
It's really not, it's very shit

>>11515466
Bristol is a good uni and a nice city mate

LMAO MIT has surpassed harvard, stanford and princeton now

>>11515962
>Look at Putnam fellows
Being a Putnam fellow just means there's like a 90% chance you were at MIT or Harvard. Most competitiontards with any potential get specifically recruited to those schools because they're the only two universities that actually think the Putnam is more than a vehicle for free pizza.

Guys, is there a way to study at an english uni (not ivy) without havung to pay 20k a year? My budget would be max 2-3 K a year.
only way is with a scholarship, right?
Do i stand a chance having middle class income and a 2:1 from a not very renowed uni in my country and some research experience?

>>11518289
1. Be British

>>11518305
i mean they pay as much as everyone else

>>11515880
>Manchester
lel I only went there cuz local and not massively shit
didn't realize it was worldly respected

>>11514948
No, no, don't listen to the other anons. You are in luck: be as concise as possible. I got into my first choice MSc program with a <300 word personal statement. All you need to do is PROVE without a shadow of a doubt to the reader that you have a genuine, sustained interest in that which you are applying for.
I didn't need more than 300 words to do that. You may need more, especially depending on the topic you're applying for and your genuine life experiences.

>>11518308
British pay £9.25k not £20k+

>>11518154
>award of 2,5k$
Imagine doing all that work for not even a months worth of wages.

>>11518314
>didn't realize it was worldly respected
league tables are the dumbest fucking thing about the uk. how they exist is beyond me. many unis that rank well internationally do shit on them because they take student satisfaction heavily into account, which shitty unis exploit

>>11518334
>work
it's literally a quiz

>>11511198
I got rejected by Cambridge and Imperial, went to Durham instead. You can't change the past nor can you charge into Cambridge offices and demand they reverse their decision. I did the physics course but had many friends who enrolled on the MMath course.
My advice to you would be, if you choose a UK uni (not too sure with how it is in the US) do the first 2 years as if your life depended on it, ignore the people who say 1st year doesn't count. Apply for placements and schemes every holiday/break you can, apply at least 6 months in advance as for Maths they go really quickly. If by the end of the second year you feel as though you are at a disadvantage regarding your future plans, i.e PhD (or getting a real job, ugh) then you can switch from the MMath to the BSc program by emailing your course supervisor, the entire process is painless, you literally send an email, then confirm when they email back and that's that, you're switched from the 4 year to the 3 year course.
Then apply for a masters at somewhere else more prestigious, Cambridge, UCL, Imperial etc. Generally speaking a masters at a different more difficult institution than your bachelors speaks volumes to admissions staff when applying for PhDs or when searching for employment as it shows you took the initiative to up and go somewhere else rather than doing the easy thing of just taking your acceptance out of secondary/high school and cruising the whole 4 years at the same place and that you were able to adapt to a more challenging atmosphere. I ended up doing just this and don't regret it.
In all likelihood, by the time second year ends you'll have gotten over the name/prestige obsession and all the places you've got offers from are really good in their own right so as long as you have a solid academic record, good references and experience (from those placements) then your future won't be impacted. Be proactive and be resourceful

>>11518431
it's a quiz that the top 10 scorers spent literal thousands of hours practicing for

>University of Houston
>BSc in Mathematics
>Specializing in Linear Algebra
>Minor in Computer Science
>Switched majors after burning out of Chemical Engineering
>Took me 6 years to graduate because of this
>GPA: 3.207
How does this affect my prospects for grad school?

Oxford or Cambridge for Maths?
On the one hand Cambridge has a stronger Mathematics faculty, but on the other hand Oxford has Maths with Philosophy.

>>11515880
Planning to apply to ICL next year for a master's degree in computer science. Any advice or tips?
t. Third worlder

>>11515394
Cool. You at St. John's?

>>11521938
>Planning to apply to ICL next year for a master's degree in computer science.
do some projects over the summer to show passion, and focus on writing a good personal statement where you can use those to prove your passion in the subject

>>11515394
undergrad teaching or 4th year?

>>11518935
are you lierally ME? this was EXACTLY what i did in every way, and i even ended up at a similarly ranked uni to you (i got an offer from durham too tho). the only difference is that i was doing engineering rather than physics/math so went from MEng to BEng so that i could apply to MSc courses elsewhere. also i didnt apply to oxbridge, etc, because they didnt have the course i wanted.

i agree completely. take all the opportunities you can, make some out of thin air if you have to, and there will 100% be some (there were many at my shit undergrad uni). take the first year seriously. etc. solid advice man

>>11515718
You're not that far off the mark, friend. I'm in a PhD for physics, but went through the Tripos, and it literally is like that as an undergrad, except rubbing shoulders with Nobel laureates instead of politicians

>>11515848
Wow. Actual cope. Very sad to read.

>>11515394
Honestly fuck my entire life. I got great scores for my subject's entrance exam, well above average even at Oxford, had an interview and let it slip through my fingers because I was seriously depressed at the time.

opened up a pic from an infected post

>>11511198
That is a complicated answer. You never want to go to a totally shit school, but it can be an advantage to go to a medium tier school and shine vs being average at a great school. That's for undergrad. For graduate school, the name of the school is irrelevant. Only your specific mentor and his publication circle and contacts matters. You can, and many do, go to medium tier undergrad and grad school, post-doc somewhere with a fancy name, and land as an assistant professor on tenure track in a good program, which for pure math is what you want to aim for. As an undergrad, try to be taken under the wing of an old timer prof. They want to pass on knowledge and you want that knowledge--that is, if he deems you worthy. I know what I'm talk h a outo my post will be either shit on or ignored.

>>11523421

I went bugchasing last night and got full-blown but I noticed my symptoms were reduced significantly this afternoon. Test.

>>11518314
>worldly
t. Manchester sperg

>>11524466
You're the npc if you just believe what your professors say without thinking critically about it

>>11522769
Life goes on bro, can’t change the past. I’m sure if you got interview at oxford you’re probably going to a very similarly ranked uni

Any one hear studying medicine in London? Got offer from St George’s but wish I applied UCL or Kings as they seem cooler but prestige doesn’t matter for medicine so idk

>>11522151
Archaeology at Sidney
>>11522202
Undergrad

>>11516806
It's downright S M A R M Y