So as V50 stated there is essentially no purpose to the statement of purpose...somethings to fix this...
You really need to be more specific. Cutting out a lot of these buzzwords and backgrounds will help give you the space. Remember that they are paying for you to come here so this is a big...
I don't know nearly enough about the situation to pass a judgement on that, but either way you're only a sophomore, you shouldn't get hyper focused on doing research with this one professor. There are tons of opportunities if you're ambitious!
I would suggest talking to your professor, but plan out what you want to say. Don't just go and tell him "I don't know why I'm struggling so much" but rather attempt to show him. Bring him a couple questions you missed on homework/exams and have specific questions about why your work/line of...
Burgers Equation Question -- cannot satisfy initial conditions
Homework Statement
Use characteristics to solve u_t+uu_x=0 on half line x≥0 with u(x,0)=x^2
Homework Equations
NA
The Attempt at a Solution
I think I have an issue with the initial condition. So solving via...
Why would it be laughable? We all had to start somewhere! Make sure you really learn this stuff well though -- algebra is the foundation for all the advanced courses and you don't want to miss out on some of the really cool stuff if you have to stop to brush up on your trig!
Sorry you're feeling that. I can relate to a lot of those things though and am going through some of them now. Its tough. I'm not at Berkeley but feel free to PM me to talk if you want.
I agree that you'll have to have significantly above the minimum requirements for most of these, or something that will make you different/unique/useful.
I don't agree that age discrimination will be that big of a problem though. When I applied I don't think I put my birthdate or age anywhere...
The best way to handle problems like that are to truly master the material. Those questions are on the test to see if you've mastered the material, not to just trip you up or get points off.
Theres a big difference between doing something and having goals and doing something to get those goals. Its nice to think about winning a Fields medal and solving RH, but at the end of the day, only a few people will get a Fields medal and only one (or a couple) will solve RH. You need to be...
In terms of "smooth-ness" you could probably start the proof just from the Triangle Inequality. The first bit seems a little unnecessary. As for LaTeX, I like this site: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:About [Broken] for quick stuff. The best way to learn LaTeX though is...
As others have said, I wouldn't want a calculator. You probably won't be able to use it, and wolframalpha will be sufficient usually. As for programming, if you have the $100 to spare, MatLab is nice. If money is tighter, you can go with Python (free!), which is nice to learn and can do a lot...