Applying to Math REUs Summer 2009: Results & Discussion

[RCA_0]

JCVD what kind of mathematical background did you have when you were accepted into the Cornell REU and what do you believe made your application considerably stronger than the rest of the applicants? I know Cornell's REU is difficult to get accepted into.

 

[JCVD]

i think the main reason i got into the cornell reu was that my background was very well suited for the project i applied for, which was in logic. i had done the penn state reu/mass program the year before, and one of the courses i took in the mass program was in computability theory, which was taught by one of the more famous logicians; i did well in that class and had that professor write me a recommendation letter. otherwise my stats were good but not necessarily phenomenal: i come from a very good small liberal arts school, my math gpa at the time was probably about 3.8, and beyond the introductory math classes i had taken 2 terms of combinatorics, 2 terms of abstract algebra, and 1 term each of number theory, odes, complex analysis, computability theory, geometric topology, and analytic probability theory, in addition to 3 terms of cs. my only real research experience at the time was the penn state reu i had done the year before, and i did not have anything published. i think i wrote a pretty good personal statement more geared toward why i was qualified to participate in the reu rather than why i really wanted to participate in the reu, though i did at least mention the latter.

 

[owlpride]

Thanks for the comments, JCVD!

I accepted Cornell's offer yesterday. Can I contact you later this spring if I have some burning questions that are best answered by a former REU participant?

 

[RCA_0]

Thanks for your response JCVD, what logician did you work with at Penn State?

 

[lurkre]

Does anyone know which REUs have made their first round of offers?

 

[lurkre]

I have applied only to two REU programs, mainly due to the fact that i am an international student, and since most of these programs are funded by NSF they don't accept international students.

As an international student myself, i was wondering how far our international status would affect our application.

 

[JCVD]

steve simpson was the penn state logician i was talking about

 

[sutupidmath]

As an international student myself, i was wondering how far our international status would affect our application.

Well, as far as i know, if you are simply in a F-1 visa (student visa), which i am myself, that is if you don't have permanent residentship, then you have to look only for those REU's that explicitly state that they accept international students. Most of them, however, state in their webpages that they do not accept international students, because, as you might be aware of, most of these programs are funded by NSF(National Science Foundation) and as a requirement is to be a U.S citizen or permanent resident, which sucsk a lot. I personally could come across only three REU's that accept international students, and they don't even aid you financialy, that is they don't award you stipends or anything like that.
Williams COlleges, BYU, and Caltech where the only ones i found that grant admission to international students. BYU accepts only 1 international student for this summer, which almost kills my chances for getting in.

 

[sutupidmath]

Does anyone know which REUs have made their first round of offers?

I know for sure that Williams COllege has done.

 

[sutupidmath]

i think the main reason i got into the cornell reu was that my background was very well suited for the project i applied for, which was in logic. i had done the penn state reu/mass program the year before, and one of the courses i took in the mass program was in computability theory, which was taught by one of the more famous logicians; i did well in that class and had that professor write me a recommendation letter. otherwise my stats were good but not necessarily phenomenal: i come from a very good small liberal arts school, my math gpa at the time was probably about 3.8, and beyond the introductory math classes i had taken 2 terms of combinatorics, 2 terms of abstract algebra, and 1 term each of number theory, odes, complex analysis, computability theory, geometric topology, and analytic probability theory, in addition to 3 terms of cs. my only real research experience at the time was the penn state reu i had done the year before, and i did not have anything published. i think i wrote a pretty good personal statement more geared toward why i was qualified to participate in the reu rather than why i really wanted to participate in the reu, though i did at least mention the latter.

Hmm. well your math background is really strong. How do you classify now:are u sophomore, junior, senior?

 

[sciboinkhobbes]

Just a quick REU question in general... If you haven't heard from a prospective REU a week after the first acceptance offers, do you still have any chance of getting in? Or, if you're not in the first "draft", are your chances rather slim?

 

[Sulphagne]

Does anyone here know anything about the REU-like program the NSA is running? The director's summer program? I was wondering if anyone heard of it or maybe knows someone who was in it. What is your opinion of it?

 

[Proggle]

Just a quick REU question in general... If you haven't heard from a prospective REU a week after the first acceptance offers, do you still have any chance of getting in? Or, if you're not in the first "draft", are your chances rather slim?

I think you still have a decent chance if you are waitlisted. Since REU applications are free, people often send many of them. I will be turning down five out of six offers next week, and I suppose many people that have been successful with their applications are in a similar situation.

 

[RCA_0]

Proggle, which REUs have you already been accepted to?

 

[owlpride]

Just in case someone's interested, I can add Mount Holyoke and the Claremont Colleges to my earlier list of acceptances. 7/10 offers, 3 applications withdrawn. *Patting myself on the shoulder*

I hope some of these spots are passed on to you!

 

[lurkre]

I think you still have a decent chance if you are waitlisted. Since REU applications are free, people often send many of them. I will be turning down five out of six offers next week, and I suppose many people that have been successful with their applications are in a similar situation.

How do you know if you're waitlisted?

 

[mathhhh]

I got rejected from GVSU and was informed today. Over 100 applicants.

 

[blerg]

Just got accepted to grand valley state :)

Anyone have any experience with the university?

 

[Jacobpm64]

congrats Blerg. You were here since the beginning of the thread! lol

 

[GreenWolf]

hi all!:)

I got accepted into the inverse problems group at Rose-Hulman, and the Computational Statistics group at James Madison Univeristy. (I also got accepted into one of the projects at Rutgers but it didn't get funding, and wait listed for another).

I've accepted the one at James Madison Univeristy, and am wondering if anyone has been there before and has anything they'd like to share about it?:D

 

[GreenWolf]

RCA, I was waitlisted for the Rutgers REU program, sort of. They had a shortage of funding, so they weren't able to actually fund all of the projects that they wanted to do. I was selected to do one of the projects that didn't get funding, and then I was also as the back up for one of the projects that did get funding.

I got accepted into Rose-Hulman last Monday, and they gave me a week to decide yes or no. Since Rose-Hulman wasn't my first choice, I e-mailed my top 3 programs (of which Rutgers was one) describing my situation and asking about the status of my application, and that's what they told me.

 

[Sheneron]

Got a letter in the mail from Duke/TUNL today. I was rejected. It was kind of nice though to actually hear back from one of these places finally. Starting to get a little bit nervous...

 

[Jacobpm64]

I know how that is man. I've applied to 8 schools, and I only heard back from 2 so far. I hope that they are still in the reviewing process.

 

[RCA_0]

I've applied to quite a few schools as well. I wonder how much longer we will have to wait to hear a decision? Maybe this waiting process is a good sign that our applications are being carefully considered. I am starting to become nervous since early decisions have been sent out to those already accepted into REU programs. I'm sure many programs are still in the process of evaluating our applications though.

 

[sciboinkhobbes]

So... Just got rejected from Montana State - Bozeman (solar physics) :( That was my safety application, so... while it was good to hear back from someone at least, I'm really afraid that I didn't get in anywhere :(

What kind of back up plans have people been considering if REU applications don't work out?

 

[Jacobpm64]

If I don't get accepted to any of them, I will be studying for the math subject GRE test. So, I hope to have a productive summer either way the coin lands.

 

[Ai52487963]

So... Just got rejected from Montana State - Bozeman (solar physics) :( That was my safety application, so... while it was good to hear back from someone at least, I'm really afraid that I didn't get in anywhere :(

What kind of back up plans have people been considering if REU applications don't work out?

I just got the MSU rejection e-mail today too. Now I'm down to two internship programs out of 13. I get more depressed every week it seems.

I think studying for the GREs is a good idea, actually. My summer will probably consist of that, work and whatever research I can do with my adviser over the break.

 

[anaximanderma]

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 guess they don't care too much about that :(

 

[Sheneron]

Yeah, I don't know what to do if I don't get into an REU. I need to make some money but I can't go back to a menial job... I really can't. But its looking like I am going to have to think of something

 

[sharon_stoned]

A buddy of mine got into Williams a few weeks ago. I'm so jealous!

wow. i thought nobody ever gets accepted to williams...what did he do to get in? sell his soul to satan?