I asked one of my professors this question, and he basically laughed in my face. Apparently, unless you manage to publish an interesting result, self-study is about as impressive as staring at the wall all summer.
Having been rejected from every single REU I applied to, my options look very...
Well, it looks like my hopes for doing an REU this summer are nearly gone. 5 out of 7 programs have rejected me, and I feel like crap :(
I don't know if I want to put myself through this again next year - it's really demoralizing. The REUs are so competitive that only one or two students from...
Probably...it seems like the people who get into the most prestigious REUs and grad schools are always the most unlikely ones. He's just very, very quiet, and doesn't seem particularly smart at all...but I guess appearances are deceiving!
It looks like I'm in the same boat as the folks who...
A buddy of mine got into Williams a few weeks ago. I'm so jealous! I thought I had pretty good chances, but apparently you need to have taken a thousand graduate courses, get great letters of rec, etc. to get in. It's slightly annoying, because my GPA's significantly higher than his...but I...