NationStates Jolt Archive

So I'm definitely running out of things to do up in Boone. Meaning I'm going to wind up with a Master's degree in mathematics in another handful of months, so after seven years of school and a few degrees...

... it'll be definitely time to close in on a final 3-6 years of more school. Meaning a Ph. D. program. However, given the rejection rates to Ph. D. programs, statistics suggest I should add at least a half dozen more schools to my application list. Irony would suggest that I pretend research specialties or school quality have nothing to do with anything. There are either far too few or far too many schools to decide on that basis.

So, if you were going to go live somewhere for 3-6 years (and then probably move somewhere else entirely, such is to be expected), where would you move, and why? General region is not a concern, the fact that I speak English well, German not so well, and other languages at best extraordinarily poorly might be.

Cookies for anyone who happens to suggest a city that happens to house a Ph. D. program that I might be interested, but really, I realize I've been lucky in the two towns I've really lived in for any length of time. What should I be critically examining before I make a decision that leaves me stuck in location X for a number of years?

Get a job you lazy bum.

(in year eight at Uni, looking at another two btw)

Get a job you lazy bum.

(in year seven at Uni, looking at another two btw)
This is a job. Not a great paying one, but it does put money in my bank account. ^,^ I love being in a field that actually gets funding. :-P

You speak the language of mathematics, surely the rest should be manageable. I would say look at the quality of the school, staff that you might enjoy working with in particular, living costs in the cities you're looking at and so on. As for the emotional part of picking a place you want to spend years of your life in, we can't really help you.

Florianopolis - Brazil

The base from which Newton da Costa worked, and has great surfing too.

This is a job. Not a great paying one, but it does put money in my bank account. ^,^ I love being in a field that actually gets funding. :-P

Yeah, I here ya.

Come to Canada! We have all sorts of kooky PhD programs and we just love you foreigners.

Yeah, I here ya.

Come to Canada! We have all sorts of kooky PhD programs and we just love you foreigners.
I've heard different parts of Canada vary wildly. Where are the kooks and furriner-lovers? I need directions...

I've heard different parts of Canada vary wildly. Where are the kooks and furriner-lovers? I need directions...

Vancouver and Victoria are nice, but I'm ridiculously biased towards Montreal now. Some people like Toronto...I'm not one of them. There are some nice schools in the Marintimes, Dalhousie is good.

California - either SF or LA - pretty easy to get into virtually any PhD program here. But yeah, you need research stuff, you just gotta find out what the professor does, and research it on your own a tad, and then tell the professor you're really interested, and he'll take you and you'll get in :D

California - either SF or LA - pretty easy to get into virtually any PhD program here. But yeah, you need research stuff, you just gotta find out what the professor does, and research it on your own a tad, and then tell the professor you're really interested, and he'll take you and you'll get in :D
Ironically, applying in theoretical physics two years ago, I was rejected from UCLA, Berkeley, and Caltech.

Where in California can one avoid the "Thou shalt have a car!" demand, by the way? Or is that just a business-person problem?

oh are you going to get a phd in physics?

what state is boone in? where else have you lived?

Ironically, applying in theoretical physics two years ago, I was rejected from UCLA, Berkeley, and Caltech.

Where in California can one avoid the "Thou shalt have a car!" demand, by the way? Or is that just a business-person problem?

Ahh, yeah you need a car here. You also needed to contact the professors there, and Berkeley is highly competitive. Only way you can get into UCLA and Caltech is to meet with the professors and do a pre-appliacation interview.

Baghdad

oh are you going to get a phd in physics?

what state is boone in? where else have you lived?
That was the plan a couple years ago. Now the plan looks more like getting a Ph. D. in mathematics.

Boone is in the mountains of North Carolina. I've also lived in Chapel Hill, which is in central NC, and briefly visited a number of other states for periods not exceeding two months.

So I'm definitely running out of things to do up in Boone. Meaning I'm going to wind up with a Master's degree in mathematics in another handful of months, so after seven years of school and a few degrees...

... it'll be definitely time to close in on a final 3-6 years of more school. Meaning a Ph. D. program. However, given the rejection rates to Ph. D. programs, statistics suggest I should add at least a half dozen more schools to my application list. Irony would suggest that I pretend research specialties or school quality have nothing to do with anything. There are either far too few or far too many schools to decide on that basis.

So, if you were going to go live somewhere for 3-6 years (and then probably move somewhere else entirely, such is to be expected), where would you move, and why? General region is not a concern, the fact that I speak English well, German not so well, and other languages at best extraordinarily poorly might be.

Cookies for anyone who happens to suggest a city that happens to house a Ph. D. program that I might be interested, but really, I realize I've been lucky in the two towns I've really lived in for any length of time. What should I be critically examining before I make a decision that leaves me stuck in location X for a number of years?
Professional student huh?

Canada:

Mathematics and Mathematical Science University Master's and PHD Programs in Canada (http://www.canadian-universities.net/Universities/Programs/Graduate-Studies-Mathematics_and_Mathematical_Science.html)

Good luck!!

That was the plan a couple years ago. Now the plan looks more like getting a Ph. D. in mathematics.

Boone is in the mountains of North Carolina. I've also lived in Chapel Hill, which is in central NC, and briefly visited a number of other states for periods not exceeding two months.
oh well then there are so many excellent areas of the country to move to.

are there excellent choices for you that are in areas that you wouldnt want to live in?

id go with california all things being equal.

its so expensive to live in the parts of california that people long to live in that if you can manage on what they offer you its a good time to try it out.

Philadelphia, duh.

Pittsburgh - CMU specifically.

Philadelphia, duh.

I hear they make you go to substance abuse counselling there.

So I'm definitely running out of things to do up in Boone. Meaning I'm going to wind up with a Master's degree in mathematics in another handful of months, so after seven years of school and a few degrees...

... it'll be definitely time to close in on a final 3-6 years of more school. Meaning a Ph. D. program. However, given the rejection rates to Ph. D. programs, statistics suggest I should add at least a half dozen more schools to my application list. Irony would suggest that I pretend research specialties or school quality have nothing to do with anything. There are either far too few or far too many schools to decide on that basis.

So, if you were going to go live somewhere for 3-6 years (and then probably move somewhere else entirely, such is to be expected), where would you move, and why? General region is not a concern, the fact that I speak English well, German not so well, and other languages at best extraordinarily poorly might be.

Cookies for anyone who happens to suggest a city that happens to house a Ph. D. program that I might be interested, but really, I realize I've been lucky in the two towns I've really lived in for any length of time. What should I be critically examining before I make a decision that leaves me stuck in location X for a number of years?

Switch to physics. Go to Johns Hopkins. Get a job at their Applied Physics Laboratory.

You'll come out with a great degree, a top secret clearance, and have a career making all sorts of fun things you can never talk about.

I hear they make you go to substance abuse counselling there.

It's tradition.

Switch to physics. Go to Johns Hopkins. Get a job at their Applied Physics Laboratory.

You'll come out with a great degree, a top secret clearance, and have a career making all sorts of fun things you can never talk about.
I have a reputation with the physics people here for being a bit of a lab klutz, IIRC...

Not to say it couldn't be fun. My father suggests that the klutz part will go away by the time I'm 30 years old.

That was the plan a couple years ago. Now the plan looks more like getting a Ph. D. in mathematics.

Boone is in the mountains of North Carolina. I've also lived in Chapel Hill, which is in central NC, and briefly visited a number of other states for periods not exceeding two months.

Are you at Duke?

People from well-known universities always seem to do this, on being asked where they went to university they'll vaguely refer to a location,

'Oh, in New Jersey...', when they mean Princeton

It may be you're doing this purely as an Internet anonymity thing but it's certainly something that's done, same for companies, people will often just say the industry rather than the name of the company when it's overly famous.

I understand why it's done, it's annoying to get the reaction, 'oh really!?', and then discussion on what they've heard about that, or how they'd always like to work there/study there.

Still...

Are you at Duke?

People from well-known universities always seem to do this, on being asked where they went to university they'll vaguely refer to a location,

'Oh, in New Jersey...', when they mean Princeton

It may be you're doing this purely as an Internet anonymity thing but it's certainly something that's done, same for companies, people will often just say the industry rather than the name of the company when it's overly famous.

I understand why it's done, it's annoying to get the reaction, 'oh really!?', and then discussion on what they've heard about that, or how they'd always like to work there/study there.

Still...
No, no... see, there's exactly one thing in Boone, NC. Appalachian State University. ^.^ And I grew up in Chapel Hill before I went off to school here.

Charlotte, NC. the capital of the banking industry. :)

Boston, MA, USA.

Which school? Major ones would be MIT, Harvard, BU, BC, Northeastern, Tufts, UMASS, depending on what you want to go in to.

Decent, if not full, list of colleges and universities in metro Boston
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_metropolitan_Boston

Well depending on funding, have you considered the UK? We have some very good mathmatics departments (not just oxbridge, Russel Group and 1994 group unis also have very good reputations). It will be a very different PhD experience however. Firstly then tend to only last 3 or maximum 4 years (certainly if it's science based).

Secondly, and prehaps more significantly, it's entierly based around research. You may do a few courses in the first year, but that really does depend on the department and will often just be to plug research-relevant gaps in your knowledge. You essentially spend three years just doing one big research project (as a result our Thesis are about twice the size of those in the US).

Well depending on funding, have you considered the UK? We have some very good mathmatics departments (not just oxbridge, Russel Group and 1994 group unis also have very good reputations). It will be a very different PhD experience however. Firstly then tend to only last 3 or maximum 4 years (certainly if it's science based).

Secondly, and prehaps more significantly, it's entierly based around research. You may do a few courses in the first year, but that really does depend on the department and will often just be to plug research-relevant gaps in your knowledge. You essentially spend three years just doing one big research project (as a result our Thesis are about twice the size of those in the US).

If we are talking about UK universities, people from the US seem to love St Andrews. I don't know what its reputation is like for maths though.

If we are talking about UK universities, people from the US seem to love St Andrews. I don't know what its reputation is like for maths though.

http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php?AC_sub=Mathematics&x=32&y=19&sub=42

Pretty damn good apparently. The subject tables are generally a good bet, especially since we don't have 'liberal arts' unis, so if they're high on the league table in terms of entry requirements and (to a lesser extent) teaching, they're probably high on research too. You really want to be looking at the RAE column though. 5* and 6 (you may see some of these but they're very new) are amazing top level departments - 5 is really good but not quite world-class, 4 is decent and anything below that probably not all that research orientated.

And you really do want to look at it for different subjects. For example my university York is top 5*/6 rated in my subject, 3rd/4th in League tables (with Oxbridge generally above us) but 20th on Maths (albeit still a 5 rated department), so it can vary from department to department within a single institution. Generally though if the University is Oxbridge, Russell Group (for large research intensive universities) or 1994 Group (for small research intensive universities) they're going to have good reputations.

Edit: just noticed that usefully for maths it devides it up - so you want to be looking at the ratings under either Pure, Applied or Statistics, depending on what you want to do.

Time to enter the real world, dude. :p

Just join the army there you will become a man, travel all around the world and you won't have to worry where you will be living next the government pays someone to do that for you.

Time to enter the real world, dude. :p

Just join the army there you will become a man, travel all around the world and you won't have to worry where you will be living next the government pays someone to do that for you.
Strangely, I recently got an e-mail from a Marine recruiter.

The Navy was making a much better offer a few years ago, though. I think they want me more than the Army, which hasn't bugged me since high school and certainly hasn't offered me $80K a year.

Not my bag, though.