Welcome to Graduate School Research in Mathematics

[EternusVia]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently researching graduate schools in mathematics. I would like to go for a PhD. My question is, do I apply directly to the PhD program? Or do I apply to the Master's program and apply for the PhD afterwards? What do people normally do?

 

[WWGD]

Different schools have different policies, you may want to read through the application page of the places you're applying to, to figure it out.

 

[Almeisan]

Usually you do an MSc first, but some places like in the US you don't do a masters but you do something inbetween called graduate school. You are basically paying to follow courses that won't give you a degree but that do give you the oppertunity to apply for an unpaid job leading to a PhD. It's rather strange, if you ask me. Glad that where I live I do get a degree after paying tuition and working hard and I do get paid/build pension durign my PhD.

 

[WWGD]

Usually you do an MSc first, but some places like in the US you don't do a masters but you do something inbetween called graduate school. You are basically paying to follow courses that won't give you a degree but that do give you the oppertunity to apply for an unpaid job leading to a PhD. It's rather strange, if you ask me. Glad that where I live I do get a degree after paying tuition and working hard and I do get paid/build pension durign my PhD.

Where do you get that from? There are many options in the US where you do a masters and then apply to a PHD program from the same or different school.

 

[Almeisan]

If you want to quit your PhD track, you sometimes get an MSc, true.

Or you mean engineering?

 

[WWGD]

But you can also do a masters first and then apply for a PHD, or in some cases you can apply directly to the PHD. There are at least 500 schools offering graduate programs but there are no uniform rules governing all, nor even most of them. Are you, OP, applying in the US?

 

[clope023]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently researching graduate schools in mathematics. I would like to go for a PhD. My question is, do I apply directly to the PhD program? Or do I apply to the Master's program and apply for the PhD afterwards? What do people normally do?

In the US, people normally go straight from undergrad to PhD. In Europe, as an example, usually undergrads do a Masters followed by the PhD.