Applying to Math REUs Summer 2009: Results & Discussion

[Jacobpm64]

I'm starting this up to find out who else is applying to math REUs for the summer of 2009. That way, we can talk about when we got acceptances/rejections and what not.

I've applied to:
Williams College
LSU
Indiana University
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
College of William & Mary
University of Minnesota-Duluth
Cornell


So far, I have been rejected to University of Minnesota-Duluth, and I haven't heard back from anyone else (but the deadlines are not up yet on most of these).

Anyone apply to any math REUs? How is it going? Hear anything back?

 

[blerg]

Applied to:
University of Nebraska-Linclon
College of William and Mary
BYU
Central Michigan
Grand Valley State

Haven't heard back from anyone yet. I think all of the deadlines were either last week or this coming week.

 

[sutupidmath]

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. So the two programs i applied for are:

1.Williams College-SMALL REU
2.BYU

So far, i have not yet been officialy rejected from the first one, but when i sent them an email they told me that i had not made to the short list, but nothing is for sure yet, since thay said that my application was pretty close to get into that list.

Haven't heard form the second one yet.

 

[Jacobpm64]

Blerg:

Which projects did you apply for at UNL? I chose the Differential/Difference equation one first because I've done research with difference equations previously, and I have ODE and PDE classes under my belt.

Sutupidmath:

Which projects at WIlliams college are you hoping for? I chose commutative algebra. Maybe I should contact these guys since it seems that they will give me an idea of how my application is doing if I e-mail them.

 

[blerg]

I also chose the differential/difference equation one first and chose the graph theory one second.
I haven't done any research related to either, but I've taken ODE and PDE classes as well as discrete math and graph theory classes

 

[Jacobpm64]

I also chose the differential/difference equation one first and chose the graph theory one second.
I haven't done any research related to either, but I've taken ODE and PDE classes as well as discrete math and graph theory classes

Neat. The deadlines for most of these places are this week. I would guess that we should start hearing back from them sometime soon. I would prefer doing math research this summer over working at a video store again.

 

[sutupidmath]

Blerg:



Sutupidmath:

Which projects at WIlliams college are you hoping for? I chose commutative algebra. Maybe I should contact these guys since it seems that they will give me an idea of how my application is doing if I e-mail them.

Well, i applied for commutative algebra as well, but the problem with my application, i would guess, is that so far i have only one course in Abstract Algebra under my belt, since this is my third semester. So i think next summer, when i would have taken at least one or two other courses in abstract alg. my chanches will increase consequently.

Well, the reason that they gave me some hints with regard to my application, i would assume, is because i am planning to fly home this summer, so i told them that i needed to make flight arrangements as soon as possible, so that's why they got back to mee soon after i applied.

 

[Sheneron]

I applied to mostly physics/astronomy but I just wanted to join the party. I hope that's alright.

1. National Radio Astronomy Observatory
2. Brookhaven National Lab
3. Argonne National lab
4. Kennedy Space Center ?(not sure if my application went through)
5. SETI
6. Duke University
7. Michigan State
8. Notre Dame
9. PARI
10. Purdue
11. Baylor
12. NC State for math

So far I have heard back from Brookhaven and I was rejected. Crossing my fingers for one of them; should be hearing back from a several this week. Good luck everyone.

 

[Bourbaki1123]

Applied to:
susquehanna: quantum info theory
Mount Holyoak: Algebraic Geometry
NKU: Cryptology
Hope College

Won't know for a bit since the deadlines are later than average on these. I have a pretty narrow interest range and I aimed low and narrow since this is my first REU and I feel that working in an area I'm very familiar with gives me the best chance of getting some good work done(something published).

 

[Jacobpm64]

Sheneron: Definitely, we can all talk about the whole REU process. Join the party.

Bourbaki1123: Yeah, I wish I was more narrowed down on what I wanted to do. I just applied to many different programs in general, and I hope that the program itself can help me to narrow things down a bit for me. Also, I'm into these things because I'm hoping for a publication as well!

 

[Sheneron]

My goal was just to apply to as many as possible. Seeing as this will be my first REU I couldn't really care about publication (of course itd be nice), I just don't want to work at a restaurant or an amusement park this summer... I will worry about publication next go around when I have more experience and classes under my belt.
Thats why my plan was to apply to as many as I possibly could, which really was how many I could apply to without feeling bad for the people writing recommendations for me.

 

[Jacobpm64]

Well, I'm a junior now, so this is my only chance to do an REU. Therefore, I want to get everything I can out of the experience :). Basically just good research practice for grad school though. Plus, at my university, senior math majors are required to do a final semester-long research project.. So I'm hoping I can just continue with the research that I do at the REU during my senior year for my final project because so many seniors have trouble deciding on a project. It'd be nice to already have something figured out to work on.

I'm at a smaller university, where my upper level math classes have 5-7 people. So, I know my professors really well. Therefore, I wasn't worried about feeling bad about letters of recommendation. The professors are good friends of mine.

 

[Ai52487963]

Time to toss my $0.02 on the whole REU season...

I went full-out on trying to get into 1 astronomy/physics REU this year. My confidence is exponentially decaying, though.

1. American Museum of Natural History
2. University of Hawaii
3. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (not *officially* rejected yet, but a friend who applied to the same heard back first day. I haven't heard from them yet)
4. SETI
5. Cornell
6. Univeristy of Florida
7. Indiana University, Bloomington
8. MSU, Bozeman
9. University of Michigan (rejected)
10. Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington
11. DOE: Summer Undergrad Lab Internship
12. University College, London (not technically an NSF REU, but they were offering international student fellowships, so I sent a cv over)
13. Kitt Peak National Observatory

I'm in the same boat as Jacob, kind of. My university is pretty small and all of us juniors are pretty well accustomed to the faculty and their personalities. I've done research since the summer, performed a lecture series and done extensive volunteer work at our planetarium, but I still have a lot of butterflies in my stomach that I won't get accepted to any of them.

Anyone know if my fears have any factual basis behind them? My research advisor told me that the REU process for selection is fairly random, but my feeling is that they just toss your name into a computer, rank by best [anomolous factor] and pick the top 10 like so.

And what about reply times? UM rejected me prior to their deadline, SAO has accepted a friend of mine, but I haven't heard from them and UCL hasn't updated their page in a year+. Should I begin to cross some off my list when I don't hear back from them, say, a week or two after the deadline?

As an aside, I was actually, pretty suprised that only ~180 people applied for the UM physics REU for their partnership with CERN. Obviously I didn't make the cut since I don't speak French and haven't built a tabletop particle accelerator, but I'm somewhat hopeful that the numbers are low for the others. Obviously the SETI and University of Hawaii ones are going to have probably over a thousand applicants each, so that's to be expected, but lesser-known ones like AMNH or IUB, maybe those have lower applicant counts like UM? Anyone know?

UW is probably #1 or close to it on my list as far as want goes. It's close to home here in Seattle, I know the area, etc. Plus I hope to work on hunting for axions, which would satisfy my urge to study dark matter / particle physics immensely. AMNH is also a big one on my wish list.

edit: I just checked my DOE status. It seems I passed the first round selection wave! I'm pretty tingly with excitement, but at the same time, I have to pass the 2nd round selection before I get selected for the internship. I'm very excited, though. This REU business means a lot to me for this summer. If I can get into 1, I'd be so happy for so long, oh man.

 

[RCA_0]

I wanted to inform those that applied to Williams College that they are in final stages of making offers for SMALL 2009. I believe they should have a finalized list of accepted applicants by the end of this week.

 

[Sheneron]

Well, you have a better shot than me in getting accepted to SETI haha. Which DOE labs did you apply for? Did your status say you were selected for internship or are you being reviewed for round 2? From what I understand is that you go to round 2 if you didn't get accepted in the first round. Thats what my status is and I thought it was a bad thing...

 

[Ai52487963]

Well, you have a better shot than me in getting accepted to SETI haha. Which DOE labs did you apply for? Did your status say you were selected for internship or are you being reviewed for round 2? From what I understand is that you go to round 2 if you didn't get accepted in the first round. Thats what my status is and I thought it was a bad thing...

Here's what the DOE faq says about their selection process regarding the SULIs:

How does the selection process work?

For summer interns, selection will consist of two rounds. Each round will have a defined beginning and end. In Round One, your first choice laboratory will view your application. In Round Two, both your first and second choice laboratories will view your application. Check the "Key Dates" page for when the rounds open and close.

Throughout the process, you can receive only one offer. If you are selected in the first round, your application will not appear in the second round.

Fall and spring semesters have an open process with no rounds.

Hmmm...I guess you're right that the 2nd round is like a 2nd round draft pick. That puts a damper on my mood a bit, but oh well. At least we're still in the running. My first pick was SLAC and my second was NASA-AMES.

SETI sounds like a dream job REU. Best of luck to you if you get in, I know I'm going to envy those that do!

 

[Sheneron]

yes, SETI would be amazing. I was also really hoping for one of the national labs and they probably would be one of my top picks. I thought there would be a fair shot because I thought I read somewhere that they accept a lot of students. Best of luck to you too.

 

[Jacobpm64]

Just got rejected to Williams College via e-mail. Confidence is dwindling.

 

[RCA_0]

For Williams College there were over 275 applicants for 15 spots, it was quite competitive. I could imagine that out of those 15 accepted students there are a few that go to Williams College. This would increase their likely hood of being accepted into that program.

 

[Jacobpm64]

That's what I received in my e-mail.

I'm waiting to hear from the other 5 places.

 

[Ai52487963]

I hadn't heard back from a lot of mine, so I straight up e-mailed the REU contacts.

SETI - still under review (though I wasn't in the first round of picks)
CFA - rejected. 10 accepted out of 200 applicants
IFA - rejected. 10 accepted out of 250
AMNH - still under review. They'll post their offers on March 10 or later.
UW - rejected.
Kitt Peak - rejected. 2 out of the 6 offered have accepted and the rest have until 3/9 to do so.

To me, the UW rejection was a huge disappointment. At this point, I'm clinging on for dear life at:

IUB
AMNH
DOE (SLAC, NASA Ames)
Cornell
UCL
SARA program
MSU Bozeman

Though, given I didn't make it into so many of my list, I'm starting to think I won't get into any. UCL has only 1 spot and only 7 people have applied for it, which probably gives me the best odds for any of the internships I've applied to, but won't get an update from them until late March / early April.

 

[sciboinkhobbes]

Yikes... I'm nervous too. All of my REU apps were physics and/or astronomy, but I'm pursuing degrees in both physics/astronomy and math... I applied to:

1. University of Hawaii (as did many, many others )
2. Harvard SAO
3. University of Chicago
4. DOE - 1st choice: Lawrence Berkeley Labs
5. DOE - 2nd choice: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
6. Montana State University - Bozeman

So far I haven't heard back from any of them yet, so I'm assuming they're waiting for successful applicants to make their decisions. From reading everyone's posts, I bet I probably should've applied more places, but... I'm just really really hoping I get in somewhere! Best of luck to everyone :)

 

[owlpride]

So far I have been accepted to:

Cornell
Indiana
Lafayette
Central Michigan
SUNY PotsdamDoes anyone have an opinion on Cornell vs Indiana? Indiana has the added benefit of housing students together and allowing me to attend the Princeton Program for Women in Math at the beginning of the summer, but all the professors I have talked to were like... You got into Cornell and don't want to go? What's wrong with you?

 

[RCA_0]

Owlpride, I was curious what kind of mathematical background do you have? Do you have any publications or previous research experiences? What do you feel like made your application strong? When did CMU notify you of your acceptance and do you have a deadline when you need to notify them of your decision? CMU is one of the places I have applied and I haven't heard a word from them. I know those were a lot of questions but I think it'd be generally helpful for me to know when I apply for summer research in the future. Thanks!

 

[owlpride]

To be honest, I was rather surprised when I was accepted to all of these places so early in the process. I am a Sophomore at a good but not outstanding liberal arts college, and I don't have any outstanding accomplishments whatsoever. I believe what got me into these programs were two amazing letters of recommendation - one program practically accepted me just based on my recommendations, before I even submitted an application!

Concerning CMU, I was accepted last Saturday and I already declined the offer. They pay extremely well ($4,500 plus housing, transportation and money to go to a conference) but I met someone who went there last year and had a very bad experience. He said his advisor practically ignored him (he had to find his own project, background reading material etc) and the housing situation was less than ideal as well. All but one projects at CMU this summer are graph theory: there's geometric graph theory, algebraic graph theory, combinatorial graph theory and one project in analysis. It might be great if you are really into graph theory, but I was hoping for a different flavor of topics when I applied to their "geometry" group.

 

[Sheneron]

Wow owlpride, congratulations! Its great you got into all those, they seem like really good programs. Unfortunately I have absolutely no advice for you since I have no experience myself.

I have an idea, since you are going to decline all but 1 why don't you just pass one on to me, I don't even care which one ;)

 

[mathhhh]

I applied to the following math REUs:

BYU
Canisius
Grand Valley State
Penn State (MASS/REU)
Oregon State
Willamette
San Diego State

Has anyone heard from these REUs? Because I haven't.

 

[sutupidmath]

I applied to the following math REUs:

BYU
Canisius
Grand Valley State
Penn State (MASS/REU)
Oregon State
Willamette
San Diego State

Has anyone heard from these REUs? Because I haven't.

I have applied to BYU, but they said that they won't let the students know until late next week. I am not keeping my hopes up at all, since i am an international student, and they sent me an email saying that this year they are accepting only 1 international student, which sucks, but what can i do. But, like they say, one never knows!

 

[EbolaPox]

I applied to the following math REUs:

Texas A&M (Matrix Analysis and Wavelets Program)
Grand Valley State
Central Michigan
U Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Northern Kentucky University

I've only heard back from Texas A&M and got accepted, but I haven't heard a thing from anyone else. Congrats to everyone that got accepted and good luck to everyone.

 

[JCVD]

owlpride, i did the cornell math reu last year and it was a good experience. everything is completely research-focused as opposed to some reus where you spend most of your time taking classes. you work on a team of about five undergrads, one grad student helper, and one adviser, and you meet everyday during the week. also, if you live in prospect of whitby a fully stocked fridge (except for meat) is included, and the rent is very cheap as well so you shouldn't worry too much about having to find your own room and board. i don't know much about the indiana reu, but you should find out what project you would be doing there and decide based on whether you like the indiana topic or cornell topic better.

 

[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?