Age as negative factor in top math grad school admission?

[LIFTNAlice]

Hi, I am a math major in South Korea. Recently, one of my friends came to me with a rumor that age of the applicant is a critical factor in admission to top math grad school like princeton, harvard, etc...

What worries me is that due to the country's "mandatory military service law ", I cannot apply to any foreign grad schools until I am 26 (27 when I start grad school) , and my friend said that this is too old to be admitted.

I was wondering if any kind person could help me by telling me wheter or not what my friend said is true, and is 26 too old to be counted as a negative factor when applying to these "top" schools.(most important question :) )

Thanks in advance

 

[Crake2]

What's with the empty lines?

 

[LIFTNAlice]

Crake2// I put them so that people could read better...

 

[ZapperZ]

Crake2// I put them so that people could read better...

It doesn't. It makes it look weird and annoying.

Edit: the unnecessary line spacing was removed. If you wish to make your post easier to read, pay closer attention to paragraph breaks and sentence structure, not line spacing.

Zz.

 

[TomServo]

I know for a fact that older (late 20s to middle aged) people enroll in graduate studies in math and physics. Robin Hanson got a PhD in his thirties from CalTech (physics).

Somewhere on another site is a long thread about mathematicians who succeeded later in life, many of whom didn't begin studies until later.

 

[ParticleGrl]

I know for a fact that older (late 20s to middle aged) people enroll in graduate studies in math and physics. Robin Hanson got a PhD in his thirties from CalTech (physics).

After googling, I think you are referring to Robin Hanson at GMU, who has a phd in social science. This is a very different field/market then physics (most poli-sci/economics phds land a faculty position immediately post-phd. Most physics phds never land a faculty position, and those that do go through at least one postdoc, often more). I imagine you'll see many more older students in social science phd programs, because the path to a career is much safer and shorter.

 

[TomServo]

Gah, you're right, his undergrad degree was in physics. He wrote in a blog post somewhere about going back to CalTech for a PhD and I assumed. I assumed! :(